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by: Tage Frid
Topics include: parallel spline, hole boring machine, offset dovetail, scrap plate, spline miter, blind tongue, cut shellac, scrub plane, lock miter, tenoning jig, faceplate turning, haunched mortise, veneer hammer, set the miter gauge, raker teeth, veneer press, router plane, outfeed table, blind dovetails, spline slots, stick shellac, gum tape, dado head, infeed table, dovetail saw
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From Book News, Inc.
An excellent step-by-step guidebook to woodworking technique for the earnest woodworker. The first part covers joinery: how to make a wide variety of joints with hand tools and machines, and how to select the right joinery for each application. The second part provides detailed instruction on bending, shaping, carving, turning, veneering, and finishing wood. Well illustrated with photos and drawings. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.
Great Book - just don't read it cover to cover -- The book is written with the novice woodworker in mind, however, as more advanced topics are uncovered I think this book speaks to all audiences. Tage Frid, the author, assumes that you have at least a basic understanding of woodworking. That being said, the author still spends time discussing the advantages of hand tools over power tools and vice versa. After the discussion of tools is over, basic joinery is introduced and with each successive chapter, a more advanced approach is taken.
The author, who mastered his craft in Europe, explains in the prologue that there are many ways to make the same joint. He states he will show you how to make the joint using all methods and leave the final decision up to you. While he accomplishes his task of showing you how to make the same joint using several methods, his objectivity wanes. My opinion on his objectivity is that the author prefers woodworking be continued in the same manner he was taught: by hand. Throughout the book, hand saws, especially the bow saw is the preferred instrument to rip or cross-cut wood. Power tools may be praised for their speed and duplication capabilities, but make no mistake, the author prefers hand tools. This should not detract you from buying this book, however, I felt it important to convey the author's style in this review.
If you try and read this book cover to cover, you may become frustrated. The author is biased toward hand tools and the interpreter (or ghost writer) was not very articulate in the flow.
So why did I give this five stars?
1) The book is an excellent manual of woodworking and I constantly refer to it when trying a new joint.
2) Tips and tricks prove invaluable.
3) The author is extremely knowledgeable and very detailed in his explanations.
4) The illustrations and photos leave very little to the mind.
Treat this as a manual or encyclopedia that is referred to when needed and this will soon become the first book you reach for.
A "must have" book. But watch out for safety issues --
I recently starte re-reading this book and I was surprised at how much I picked up from a 2nd reading. The book is full of practical advice on the use of both power tool and hand tools. There's a lot of gems of information in there. And it's a joy to find them.
Of course, a book can only describe how to do something. You'll need to put in the practice required to actually learn the technique. For example, this book has excellent descriptions of how to make full dovetails, half blind dovetails, and full blind dovetails all by hand. But you'll need to put in quite a few hours of practice time before your dovetails look as good as his (I'm still working on mine). I once heard Frank Klaus lecture that we should all take 4 boards 4 feet long and dovetail them together. They'll look terrible on our first try so saw off the ends and dovetail them again, and again, and again. By the time you really know how to make dovetails you'll have a nice little box to hold your shoe polish.
Overall this is an excellent overview of woodworking. My only warning would be to think twice about his power tool advice. There are several pictures which show him doing what I consider to be potentially dangerous things on his table saw. In the chapter about sharpening a hand saw he demonstrates how to build a jig for that purpose. This picture of him "squaring up a seam" on his table saw while holding the piece with his hand scares the hell out of me.
But even with that caveat, I still think that every woodworker should own this book.
Reviews:
Best Book for Beginner to Intermediate Woodworkers!, -- Tage Frid presents a book that is well organized and insightful. I thought I had a good working knowledge of wood movement and joinery, but Frid offers some points that will help you make furniture that will last generations. The text does contain black and white pictures that can be hard to see, however, if you follow along in the text it will be clear what is being depicted. To address an earlier comment, this is an instruction manual for people interested in the finer points of woodworking and IS NOT a book for "crafty" people who think it would be chic to have a book about woodworking. Frid has been working wood for more than 50 years and his experience and expertise show through in this well written text. If you are interested in making fine pieces of furniture, then this book is a must read!
A fantastic book for beginners and experts alike -- I recently found myself getting interested in woodworking with the purchase of a new table saw and bought a couple of books, including this title. It's impressive and an extremely good book for a beginner to purchase.
The first section (3/4 of the book) shows you not only every way to join two pieces of wood, but shows you how to do each joint with different tools. So if you have a table saw but not a router, you can still make each of the joints. This book also has some great (and very simple) jigs to help get started. The second part is a combination of information about bending wood, finishing, etc. Although not as comprehensive as the first section, it still has some valuable information.
Highly recommended to anyone.
Tage Frid Teaches Woodworking: Books 1 & 2 -- Tage Frid
A step-by-step guidebook to joinery, shaping, veneering and finishing
Tage Frid is the dean of American woodworking teachers. In these two classic volumes, now combined into one convenient paperback, Frid has packed more than 50 years of practical woodworking experience.
Frid demonstrates his techniques step by step, with instructions keyed to sharp black-and-white photographs. In the first part, Frid shows you how to make a wide variety of joints with hand tools and machines, and how to select the right joinery for each application. In the second part, Frid continues the documentation of essential woodworking techniques: bending, shaping, carving, turning, veneering, inlaying, and finishing.
Exactly what the title says -- This book delivers on the title's promise. The descriptions of various techniques are just long enough to give all the necessary details and short enough to keep the focus. All the basic techniques are covered with just enough added theory to let a novice build on them and discover his own. An added bonus is Frid's bone-dry humour, which will have you giggling over a botched dovetail.
As a reviewer noted, there is an emphasis on tablesaw techniques, which are useless to me, but overall it's still a very usefull book. Wish I had it two cupboards ago.
Outstanding Resource -- This is one great book. I only recently purchased it bot sure why I waited and wish I hadn't. Tage explains it all - in the absolutely best way. Clear, concise, step by example and pictures. He explains how to perform almost all operations on more then one tool (when possible) which is great. Highly recommend this for anyone serious or getting serious about woodworking...
From a Beginner -- I am a sort of begginner ive been in shop class, but i never really knew anything about real woodworking and fine joinery... this book taught me all that and more.... it is seriously the best ... i have ever spent, the book might be aged, but it doesnt matter, everything is explained very clearly, the diagrams are real nice, and as for the pictures, even though they are in black and white, it really oesnt matter, there is not too many or too few of them and they serve their purpouse perfectly, i can not stress how much i recomend this book to any novice wood worker, its really a tool for learning, and is enjoyable to read through, although it can very easily be used as a reference manual. all the jigs he shows are easy to make and the directions for how to make them are really good, he really coveres everything you need to know, from choosing and preparing stock, to finishing it, it is all in there.
Tage..if you are alive...thanks.. -- I bought this book, when recommended for reading for a wood furniture class at Edinboro University. I'm glad I did. It is very well written, and the easy to follow text and pictures allow even amateur woodworkers (me), to accomplish some very nice projects. Tage Frid is from the old school, and in this book shows several different ways to do the same operation, based on the tools that are handy to the reader. Buy this book, add it to your workshop library, and enjoy sage advice from one of the worlds best and most respected artisans.