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Our corporate web site experts encourage us to write
as briefly as possible when speaking to an Internet
audience. So with that in mind, here is my review of
David Charlesworth’s new book, “A Guide to Hand
Tools and Methods” (Guild of Master Craftsman).
It’s a fantastic book. Really worth buying. And it
ties up all the loose ends from his first two books
on furniture making.
So with that out of the way, here is the giant
footnote to the above review.
I first met David Charlesworth during his first
visit to the United States about four years ago. He
touched down in the cornfields of central Indiana to
teach a class at the Marc Adams School of
Woodworking and then shoot his first video on
sharpening with
Lie-Nielsen Toolworks. It was a hot spring, and
David was still tired from traveling but was happy
to go to dinner with Tom Lie-Nielsen, Mario
Rodriguez and me.
After some searching, we ended up at
Texas Roadhouse, a Western-themed chain
restaurant where they eat peanuts and throw the
shells on the floor. I ordered a beer. Thomas
ordered a gin and tonic, I believe. David asked for
the wine list.
Somehow we didn’t get hassled that night, and David
plunged into the menu with surprising gusto,
ordering the “rattlesnake bites,” which are
deep-fried jalapeno peppers and cheese with a Cajun
horseradish sauce for dipping. That is not your
typical Devon, England, fare.
David’s willingness to fearlessly try new things is
one of the traits of his work as a woodworker,
teacher and writer during the last 30 years. He
mixes a deep drive for precision woodworking with a
self-confessed laziness (which I think is a bit of a
stretch). The most famous example of the result of
this approach was “the ruler trick,” a way of
preparing the unbeveled face of a plane iron with
the help of a ruler. It removes hours of tedious
labor and produces a spectacular edge.
I purchased David’s first two books (“David
Charlesworth's Furniture-Making Techniques” volume
one and two), before I met him. I’d pored over them
because they were so different than every other book
on hand work. He went into far more detail on
preparing and using tools than any other source I
could find. His techniques were simple, but they
required great discipline and attention to detail.
They didn’t rely on years of training your hand and
eye, just a willingness to pay close attention.
David’s third book continues in this same vein. Like
the first two books,
“A Guide to Hand Tools and Methods” is a
collection of his columns from Furniture and
Cabinetmaking magazine. So the book hops around
from topic to topic a bit. There are four chapters
on tuning planes, three on spokeshaves but one on
chisels. However, when read with the other three
books, “A Guide to Hand Tools and Methods” feels
much more like a cohesive whole.
It fills in many small details that are important to
accurate work, such as the chapter on how to true
waterstones. His chapters on marking and paring
dovetails will help many woodworkers who have been
bewildered by the varying approaches available. And
there are chapters on little bits of cleverness that
Charlesworth has developed, such as an ingenious
adjuster for a spokeshave designed by Brian Boggs,
and how to alter a marking gauge to use a pencil in
place of a pin.
With all three books now in print, I wish that they
could be combined and re-organized into one
consistent volume so you could get all of the
sharpening techniques in one place, all the plane
tuning articles in one place, all the sawing advice
in one place. Perhaps some day.
Until then, “A Guide to Hand Tools and Methods” is
really worth buying. And it is a worthy successor to
his first two books on furniture making.
And as I read the last chapter in the book last
month, I started wondering where David would go next
with his teaching and writing. Would he apply his
same insight to preparing other tools that vex
woodworkers, such as profiles of moulding planes or
carving tools. Would he delve more into the vast
unexplored area of design? Or the equally vast
forgotten realm of traditional casework?
I don’t know, but I would be willing to take him
along to a square dance in a barn to chat with him
and find out.
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