Cheshirechappie
Established Member
'Mouldings in Practice' by Matthew Sheldon Bickford continues the trend being set at Lost Art Press for producing high quality books of diverse, informative and thought-provoking content. The book itself is beautifully produced, a cloth-bound hardback with sewn pages; it will not fall apart the second time you read it.
The author covers the making of mouldings using hollows and rounds, supplemented by snipes bills and side round planes. The main thrust of the work, however, is the use of rebate and plough planes to remove the bulk of the waste, and to create guiding rebates and chamfers for the hollows and rounds, thus making the task of steering these planes easier, and reducing the amount of waste they have to remove. He shows how a great variety of mouldings may be cut by using comparatively few planes. He shows how to lay out a moulding, and the sequence of work required to successfully complete it. There are copious sequential diagrams showing the steps required. He also discusses the sharpening of simple moulding plane irons, and how to return antique planes to use (the difficulties he had in getting good results from antique planes led the author to make new planes). Workholding, and the use of 'sticking boards' is discussed. There is a short chapter on correcting mistakes and 'cheats' worth knowing. There are several appendices discussing the work required to produce the mouldings for 8 historical pieces of furniture.
The book does not cover the use of complex moulding planes, the working of curved mouldings, or the strategies to work harder woods or cross-grain mouldings. The different bedding angles of moulding plane irons, and the reasons for using those different bedding angles, are not discussed.
At about £28 plus postage, this is not a cheap book. However, the information it contains is not widely available, and despite the omissions, would be a valuable addition to any hand tool worker's library. The author's writing style is simple, direct and accessible, and the illustrations generally clear and informative (one or two of the photographs are slightly unclear, but these are exceptions). Using the information in this book, any moderately competent woodworker will be able to produce a wide range of mouldings using a fairly small kit of planes. Whilst not a book for the out-and-out beginner, I have no hesitation in recommending this book as a useful and interesting addition to any developing woodworker's library.
In the UK, the book is available from Classic Hand Tools; the LAP blog suggests that Axminster Power Tool Centre may be stocking it in due course.
The author covers the making of mouldings using hollows and rounds, supplemented by snipes bills and side round planes. The main thrust of the work, however, is the use of rebate and plough planes to remove the bulk of the waste, and to create guiding rebates and chamfers for the hollows and rounds, thus making the task of steering these planes easier, and reducing the amount of waste they have to remove. He shows how a great variety of mouldings may be cut by using comparatively few planes. He shows how to lay out a moulding, and the sequence of work required to successfully complete it. There are copious sequential diagrams showing the steps required. He also discusses the sharpening of simple moulding plane irons, and how to return antique planes to use (the difficulties he had in getting good results from antique planes led the author to make new planes). Workholding, and the use of 'sticking boards' is discussed. There is a short chapter on correcting mistakes and 'cheats' worth knowing. There are several appendices discussing the work required to produce the mouldings for 8 historical pieces of furniture.
The book does not cover the use of complex moulding planes, the working of curved mouldings, or the strategies to work harder woods or cross-grain mouldings. The different bedding angles of moulding plane irons, and the reasons for using those different bedding angles, are not discussed.
At about £28 plus postage, this is not a cheap book. However, the information it contains is not widely available, and despite the omissions, would be a valuable addition to any hand tool worker's library. The author's writing style is simple, direct and accessible, and the illustrations generally clear and informative (one or two of the photographs are slightly unclear, but these are exceptions). Using the information in this book, any moderately competent woodworker will be able to produce a wide range of mouldings using a fairly small kit of planes. Whilst not a book for the out-and-out beginner, I have no hesitation in recommending this book as a useful and interesting addition to any developing woodworker's library.
In the UK, the book is available from Classic Hand Tools; the LAP blog suggests that Axminster Power Tool Centre may be stocking it in due course.
