Making Wood Tools - 2nd Edition

Hands-on involvement separates the craftsman from the collector. Whether you are an armchair craftsman or a shop dust veteran. you are invited to participate in the process of tool making described in the pages of this book. You will find tools that can be made for woodworking, by woodworkers, in the wood shop. They are insightful of how tools are made, inviting to be put to use, and worthy of collecting. Explore this world in Making Wooden Tools. With the resources at hand in the wood shop, you can do it.

Hands-on involvement separates the craftsman from the collector. Whether you are an armchair craftsman or a shop dust veteran. you are invited to participate in the process of tool making described in the pages of this book. These tools harken to the classic period of woodworking, 1700 to 1900, when a student made his tools as part of his education in moving from apprentice to journeyman. In the late 1800s a series of changes in how wood tools were made took place. The blades became integrated into more complicated adjustment mechanisms, and the tool body was made from a casting rather than a block of wood. Wood tools became the province of the metal shop. What you see in this volume recaptures both the look and the feel of classical wood tools, as well as reclaims the making of them by woodworkers themselves. You will find tools that can be made for woodworking, by woodworkers, in the wood shop. They are insightful of how tools are made, inviting to be put to use, and worthy of collecting. Explore this world in Making Wooden Tools. With the resources at hand in the wood shop, you can do it.

John Wilson and the work of the Home Shop, which he founded in Charlotte, Michigan in 1988, is well known for quality wood instruction. Classes focus on projects that teach skills, imparting techniques while giving a fine project. You will find here a full collection of his tool-making projects that will enable you to make them in your shop. Born in Syracuse, New York, trained as a residential carpenter, and educated as a social anthropologist, he taught for a decade in university and college in that field before turning to woodworking. For 23 years, he taught wood courses at Lansing Community College in Michigan, from which he developed his independent teaching career both at the Home Shop and on the road.