Robert Wearing’s “The Essential Woodworker” is back in stock in the Lost Art Press online store. We went out of stock last year after a surprising rush of sales on the title.
“The Essential Woodworker” was the second book we published, and it is still one of the first books I recommend to people who want to learn to work with hand tools.
While there are lots of good books that show how to buy the tools and set them up, “The Essential Woodworker” is fantastic because it shows you how the whole system works. Using handsaws, planes and chisels in your work is not just swapping things out for your table saw and sander.
The processes and the order of operations are fundamentally different – especially layout. Once you know when to plane, when to cut joints and when to assemble, then handwork becomes much more efficient. The book is a quick read – mostly hand-drawn illustrations – but it will change the way you think about hand work.
If you haven’t checked out this book, it’s just $29 and available now in our store.
— Christopher Schwarz
P.S. Read this great profile of Robert Wearing by Kara Gebhart Uhl.