Working with Wood: 32 Essential Skills for Building Cabinets and Furniture and 7 Practice Projects

For woodworkers, the most fun way to accumulate the information needed to construct projects is by doing. All a woodworker really needs is dexterity and patience, a set of readily acquired tools and easily learned skills. This book focuses on building cabinets and furniture. The projects are presented in order of difficulty from easy to more complicated. New techniques and information are introduced in each successive project. Woodworkers will learn about: types of woods available; which types are easy to cut and shape; which types require more patience and skill to plane and smooth; which woods accept which stains and finishes best; how to make a variety of joints; and, when is it appropriate to use which joint. The project chapters include: Pine Bookcase teaching dadoes and rabbets, dado-rabbet joints, templates, dowel joints and painting furniture; Walnut Coffee Table teaching edge-gluing and inlaying veneer; Cherry Hope Chest teaching hand-cut dovetails, finger joints and lid battens; And much much more - such as technical illustrations and photos for step-by-step assembly. The fundamentals are here. Woodworkers need only bring the desire to learn to be well on the way to a life-long hobby of designing and building dream projects.