Book Review: The Essential Woodworker by Robert Wearing

[Andy Kev.]

The Essential Woodworker by Robert Wearing, published by The Lost Art Press.

This book enjoys a reputation as a classic which is justified, for it is, within its limitations (more on these below), excellent. It is divided into five main parts: Basic Woodworking Skills; Make a Table or Stool; Make a Carcase; Drawers, Handles and Boxes; and Appendices, the latter consisting of descriptions of six different jigs, notes on the teeth of the rip tenon saw and notes on the geometry of diminishing dovetails.

In those sections the entire staple diet of what the would-be woodworker needs to digest is comprehensively covered. All topics are illustrated with clear line drawings (535 in all) and 26 black and white photographs. What is most striking though is the style: few books can have been written in which every word is so carefully chosen and so few wasted. There are no baroque flourishes, no anecdotal asides but rather a concentrated delivery in a sort of Spartan intensity of what the reader needs to know. Rarely can so much hard information have been packed into 252 sides.

Here is the author on testing the fit of two edge joints with each other:

Grip one board in the vice and stand its partner on it for examination. Gently poke one side at the corner. If it pivots (Fig 180) it is high in the middle and a shaving needs to be removed. If the top board does not pivot but falls off, either the joint is good or it is hollow in the centre. Careful inspection will ascertain which. On a long joint, say over 1m (3ft.), a very slight hollow is acceptable. On shorter joints perfection should be aimed for.

Can many other writers match that for straightforward clarity? Is there much more which one could need to know about testing edge joints for fit? The result of the whole book being written in this manner is that it effectively functions as an authoritative reference work as well as a guide for the beginner.

The latter point brings us to the book’s limitations which it inevitably shares with all other “how to” books devoted to practical topics. In his introduction Wearing says, “This is really a pre-textbook. It is aimed mainly at those working alone. The apprentice has the guidance of a master craftsman, while the college student has tutors. Keen amateurs, often working in total isolation, lack this advantage. It is hoped that this book will start them off soundly …”

Unfortunately no book can say to its reader as he works away, “Yes, that’s right, well done” or “You’re sawing to the right a bit because of the position of your feet. Try it more like this.” Thus the beginner, as described by Wearing, is likely to be in for a relatively long learning process even if he or she has read this best of guides. However, these days we have a number of advantages over Wearing’s original readers when the book was first published in 1988: the internet and good woodworking DVDs. The beginner, having read this book and thus having obtained a firm and comprehensive knowledge of his objectives, can then enjoy having them shown to him by somebody who can visually demonstrate the skills. It is worth stressing though that this book is so good that such visual sources function as an enhancement of it and not the other way around. They remain nonetheless a very useful enhancement. It is a pity that Mr Wearing is no longer with us as he could no doubt have produced an exemplary DVD to complement his writing.

This book can safely be recommended to every beginner. It will not only be an infallible tutor but will also serve thereafter as a reliable work of reference.

The book is beautifully bound and printed by The Lost Art Press and is available in the UK from Classic Hand Tools.

 

[Cheshirechappie]

An excellent and very fair review, Andy. It is indeed one of the best books around for the out-and-out beginner.

Perhaps worth noting that Bob himself wrote that he hoped the book would be propped up at the back of the bench like a music score, "and if it eventually falls to pieces there it will have achieved its purpose." I doubt many would allow that to happen to the LAP edition. It's too nicely produced for that.

The original publication was by Batsford (I think) in 1988, and copies do surface from time to time on the secondhand market. Before LAP republished the book, originals commanded a substantial premium on the cover price, which indicates the esteem in which the book is held. It may now be that with the new edition available, originals can be had at a more reasonable price.

 

[custard]

However, these days we have a number of advantages over Wearing’s original readers when the book was first published in 1988: the internet and good woodworking DVDs.

I'm unsure if the internet is such an advantage for the beginning woodworker. There are benefits I agree, but there are also some serious negatives.

There's so much conflicting advice that a newcomer must often be left with their head spinning. If you learn as an apprentice, on a C&G course, or even at school there's a consistency to your training which just isn't there with the internet. This is really a critical point, in woodwork there are many alternative routes to the same end. From basic sharpening right through to free form lamination, there's never just one way of doing the job. Depending on the designs you're working to, the tools that are available, or the timber you're working with, then one way may carry some advantages over an alternative method, but they're all equally legitimate in different circumstances. Yet to make any progress, especially right at the beginning of your woodworking career, you can't faff around experimenting with six different ways of sharpening a chisel and four different ways of chopping a mortice, you just have to crack on and get it done. Later you can debate the finer points of one technique versus another, but at the start you need to move briskly through a set series of foundation building projects using a consistent portfolio of techniques.

Which takes me to another failing of the internet, there are almost no comprehensive sources of training. It's all so bitty. And picking one bit of learning from one source and trying to combine it with another bit of learning from somewhere else risks the whole thing falling flat on it's face. At least books like the Essential Woodworker try and take you, in a structured and methodical fashion, right through the basic building blocks of woodworking. I see an awful lot of beginning woodworkers who never seem to finish a project, they get half way through something and then another Youtube fascination comes along so they abandon that project and take up another woodworking challenge and actually fail to lay down any real learning or make any enduring progress.

Then there's the fact that a lot of the internet talking heads have put themselves on line either as vanity projects, because they want the bully pulpit to bang on about their own daft personal obsessions, or because they intend to earn money from the advertising component of Youtube. Consequently a great deal of the supposed instruction is comically inept, it's the blind leading the blind as someone who is basically a hobbyist themselves masquerades as a time served authority.

And of course the internet, or a DVD for that matter, gives exactly the same feedback as a book, i.e. nil.

The real proof of the pudding is in the eating, and hobbyists today haven't made huge strides forward in their accomplishments compared to thirty or forty years ago. Despite all the advantages that the internet is supposedly bringing, the simple fact is that they're not actually producing more furniture or better furniture than they were a generation ago in the pre-internet era.

I'm sure the internet has brought plenty of woodworking entertainment, but show me the evidence that it's producing better woodworkers?

 

[David C]

Excellent review.

This book is a classic and I refer my students to it frequently.

The fantastic drawings were all hand drawn by Bob.

I have just one slight reservation about new edition. There are early photos of planing and John in his shorts and Tevas, does not have quite the same gravitas as Bob in his leather shoes and tucked in tie ! The English publisher would not let Chris use the original photos.

David Charlesworth

One of the best things about writing and DVD making is the considerable feedback from customers who tell me that they have been helped.

 

[Andy Kev.]

Custard,

I was just thinking that it makes sense to stick with one DVD tutor (and in best "speak of the devil" mode up pops David C from whose DVDs I have learned an awful lot) and to shop around carefully in the internet. My experience is that I would occasionally tap in a term like "chop mortices" and up come a number of sources. I don't think you have to be particularly discerning to then sort the wheat from the chaff. The well known names are well known for good reason i.e. they make sense. We could perhaps do with another thread on "Recommended Internet Presenters".

As for DVDs, I reckon that between the aforementioned Mr. Charlesworth and Christopher Schwarz along with Paul Sellars, most of the ground is covered. Choose the one or two you like best and stick with them.

Books are, of course, slightly different. Who can resist a good book in his area of interest? The problem as I see it is that there is a plethora of books aimed at the beginner and some of them are almost useless. Therefore the best books, like The Essential Woodworker, deserve being brought to the attention of beginners as they effectively offer a springboard of knowledge from which to start.

 

[Rhossydd]

Then there's the fact that a lot of the internet talking heads have put themselves on line either as vanity projects, because they want the bully pulpit to bang on about their own daft personal obsessions, or because they intend to earn money from the advertising component of Youtube. Consequently a great deal of the supposed instruction is comically inept, it's the blind leading the blind as someone who is basically a hobbyist themselves masquerades as a time served authority.

How painfully true.
Not only are many of these videos unreliable with their content, but the production values are TERRIBLE. If they make videos so badly, how bad are their woodworking standards ?

 

[bugbear]

Then there's the fact that a lot of the internet talking heads have put themselves on line either as vanity projects, because they want the bully pulpit to bang on about their own daft personal obsessions, or because they intend to earn money from the advertising component of Youtube. Consequently a great deal of the supposed instruction is comically inept, it's the blind leading the blind as someone who is basically a hobbyist themselves masquerades as a time served authority.

How painfully true.
Not only are many of these videos unreliable with their content, but the production values are TERRIBLE. If they make videos so badly, how bad are their woodworking standards ?

TBH, I would have no problem watching a terribly produced video, as long as the maker had something worth showing (*)

BugBear

(*) although I particularly hate videos of people speaking, which would be better (and more searchable) in written form.

 

[Rhossydd]

TBH, I would have no problem watching a terribly produced video, as long as the maker had something worth showing

The point is that with terrible production values you usually can't see if they have anything worth showing because it's out of focus, out of frame, inaudible etc... or of course that the video is just so dull you've stopped it and moved on.

 

[Corneel]

The Internet is not an easy learning environment. But I learned a tremendous deal from the Internet, far more then from books. So I wouldn't be too quick condemning the teachings you can find online. At the end you are yourself responsible for your own learning. The only way you can make the teachings your own is practicing and trying everything you read about. For example the subject of removing dovetail waste, there are quite a few different methods. Without trying you will never find out what works for you and what not. And as soon as you have gained a bit of momentum, it is good to retrace your steps and see if another method which was too difficult for you at first might be better suited now.

What is also a good idea is to get some hands on instruction. At the moment I am trying to learn blacksmithing and learning from a real smith has great value.

 

[dickm]

Not specifically related to the Wearing book (the originals are excellent, IMHO) but does anyone else find the line drawings that used to be the norm in books and magazines much better than the over fussy colour illustrations now used? The line drawings show the essentials clearly without distractions.

 

[custard]

does anyone else find the line drawings that used to be the norm in books and magazines much better than the over fussy colour illustrations now used? The line drawings show the essentials clearly without distractions.

+1

Excellent point.

 

[Jelly]

However, these days we have a number of advantages over Wearing’s original readers when the book was first published in 1988: the internet and good woodworking DVDs.

I'm unsure if the internet is such an advantage for the beginning woodworker. There are benefits I agree, but there are also some serious negatives.

The real proof of the pudding is in the eating, and hobbyists today haven't made huge strides forward in their accomplishments compared to thirty or forty years ago. Despite all the advantages that the internet is supposedly bringing, the simple fact is that they're not actually producing more furniture or better furniture than they were a generation ago in the pre-internet era.

I would tend to agree. My experience is that the internet suits a certain learning style where you pick up lots of related bits of information and go piece them together yourself, this often makes simple tasks confusing due to exessive amounts of information or means very basic things are missed entirely. Woodworking, by virtue of being accessible, visible and comparatively cheap to start with suffers from the oversupply of information end of the spectrum.

I had a massive advantage starting out in a commercial joinery environment, and whilst I took another career path, the initial grounding equipped me to learn for myself... Taking it up as a hobby I daresay I'd have been sucked into all manner of different purchases and directions had I not been testing the ideas against the results and speed I knew were achievable using basic skills (even if I was/am not at that level yet myself when it came/comes to doing very fine work). Access at home to a library of books on timber, wood machining and joinery certainly helped there too.


Your final point is the most prescient to why the internet has not benefited self-taught woodworkers, standards or volumes have not appreciably improved...

But the amount of things sold and money made from woodworking certainly has increased.

 

[John15]

I agree that a lot of the You Tube stuff on woodworking is poor, particularly those from the USA, but I find ones such as Paul Sellers' online Masterclass series are very instructive and helpful and well worth the subscription.

John

 

[custard]

I'm not a huge consumer of Youtube woodworking videos so there are probably many I've missed, but I do agree that Paul Sellers seems to tick many of the necessary boxes. Mainly because he has posted a fairly large body of work, so you can cover most of the woodworking basics under his consistent tutelage.

The negative is that his designs are extremely dated and there seems to be no signs of that changing. By dated I don't mean that they're rooted in a glorious cabinet making heritage, I mean they're straight out of a 1970's knotty pine catalogue! I watched one of his videos about making a clock, the woodworking techniques shown were all very sound and I couldn't fault his teaching or his craftsmanship, but once completed what you had was a cheap quartz clock movement in a pine box that even your granny would be embarrassed to have on her wall.

Sure, the core skills are essentially portable so could be applied to something a bit more contemporary, but he'd have an even wider following if he demonstrated his techniques in the context of something that a 20, 30, or 40 year old would actually be proud to have in their home.

 

[Zeddedhed]

I think that one of the issues here is with time. The average hobbyist has time on their hands. The person earning a crust from making has to get the job done quickly and efficiently if they are to make money from their work.

When I need to learn something new the internet can, as Custard said be my enemy - too many options. As someone (probably a fairytale princess) once said, 'you need to kiss a lot of frogs before you find your Prince.'

One on time is ALWAYS in my experience the best, quickest and most efficient way to learn.

As an example I had a need to turn some items for a project I was working on. I rad Keith Rowley, watched some youtube stuff, read some more articles and still was left somewhat in the dark.

Then I spent a day with Derek (Dalboy) and learnt SO MUCH in five or six hours that I was able to complete my project. I also learnt a whole heap of other useful stuff that has now prompted me to continue practicing and developing my (limited) turning skills.

I know it isn't always easy to find good one on one tuition, and can be costly both in terms of Course costs and time away from ones business, but I feel thats it almost always going to represent better value in terms of total outlay than scouring the net.

 

[custard]

I think that one of the issues here is with time. The average hobbyist has time on their hands. The person earning a crust from making has to get the job done quickly and efficiently if they are to make money from their work.

You've put your finger on a really important point. What's more it's something that Robert Wearing himself commented on and something I've often thought about. Here's what Robert Wearing says in the introduction to The Essential Woodworker,

"Observing many student disasters over the years I have come to realise that lack of skill is the cause of remarkably few of them. This is because, time not being money, amateurs can proceed so slowly and by such small steps that success is almost guaranteed...the main causes of failure seem to be careless and faulty marking out...or else blunt tools."

What puzzles me is that I see very few amateurs taking advantage of their abundant luxury of time. When someone like Derek Cohen comes along who clearly believes a job will take as long as it takes, he's the rare (and refreshing) exception.

In fact I'd add to Robert Wearing's list of faulty marking out and blunt tools a third factor, too much haste.

It's almost as if many weekend woodworkers feel they have such little time that they have to make dramatic progress on a project every hour in the workshop. So there's a paradox, the full time woodworker envies the hobbyist's lack of time pressures. But the hobbyist all too frequently cripples their own efforts by self imposed deadlines that push them into disastrous short cuts and foolish mistakes.

Funny old world!

 

[Droogs]

Well put, that cat. the concept of time does seem to be very elastic depending on the observer/observed and usually to the detriment of both if not careful

 

[Andy Kev.]

I think that one of the issues here is with time. The average hobbyist has time on their hands. The person earning a crust from making has to get the job done quickly and efficiently if they are to make money from their work.

You've put your finger on a really important point. What's more it's something that Robert Wearing himself commented on and something I've often thought about. Here's what Robert Wearing says in the introduction to The Essential Woodworker,

"Observing many student disasters over the years I have come to realise that lack of skill is the cause of remarkably few of them. This is because, time not being money, amateurs can proceed so slowly and by such small steps that success is almost guaranteed...the main causes of failure seem to be careless and faulty marking out...or else blunt tools."

What puzzles me is that I see very few amateurs taking advantage of their abundant luxury of time. When someone like Derek Cohen comes along who clearly believes a job will take as long as it takes, he's the rare (and refreshing) exception.

In fact I'd add to Robert Wearing's list of faulty marking out and blunt tools a third factor, too much haste.

It's almost as if many weekend woodworkers feel they have such little time that they have to make dramatic progress on a project every hour in the workshop. So there's a paradox, the full time woodworker envies the hobbyist's lack of time pressures. But the hobbyist all too frequently cripples their own efforts by self imposed deadlines that push them into disastrous short cuts and foolish mistakes.

Funny old world!

Well here's one hobbyist who can definitely say, "Not guilty, your honour".

Experience leads me to believe that the first attempt at anything new is going to lead to less than satisfactory results. I give whatever it is a go, take my time and do the best I can while being very relaxed about mistakes (some of which have been project-wrecking i.e. start again). It's sometimes hard to take on board, that is to really appreciate the significance of, remarks such as those you quote from Wearing. I read and understood his comments about marking and sharpness but it took a few mangled efforts to get them embedded in my consciousness. He's absolutely bang on about the importance of marking (although if you haven't got everything square first, even the best marking in the world will be a waste of time) and I find that my tolerances with regard to sharpening become steadily tighter with time and experience. What I once would have assessed as being "still pretty damned sharp" is now the threshold for hoofing it back to the stones.

I've just finished a very robust table cum stand for one of my few powered tools and took about two weeks to get it to its current state of more or less finished (one of the legs has cocked a bit, so that unexpected development must now be dealt with according to Wearing's methods). It took two weeks to do. The correction of the legs will probably take about an hour. I suspect a pro would have got the lot done in a morning or less but he would perhaps not exclusively use hand tools as I did.

And I have to ask what on earth a hobbyist is about if he is putting himself under time pressure? It's a great source of pleasure to get quicker at a particular skill as a result of practice but I firmly believe that that increase in efficiency should be allowed to develop at its own pace, indeed what is the alternative if you are working alone? I could imagine that it would be a useful and enjoyable experience to be put under a bit of pressure on a course but you need to have built up some skills first in order to be able to function under pressure. In any event, that would depend on the presence of a tutor whose corrective advice would by definition save many a solo hour.

 

[xraymtb]

Just picked up the book off the back of this thread and I have to say it's great. Wish I had it a couple of years ago, would have saved a lot of bother!

I think the time pressures of doing this a hobby come from only getting short sessions in the workshop - an hour here and there - and the need to feel like something has been achieved each time. It's a difficult lesson to learn that it's OK to spend an hour in the workshop and leave with nothing changed, as long as this doesn't lead to jumping between projects every few weeks!

 

[Cheshirechappie]

One factor about the internet is the immediacy of available knowledge, which is a distinct improvement on my early days in the 1980s. Once you'd found a woodworking magazine with a flavour to your taste, you had to wait a month for each edition, which may or may not contain articles of immediate value. Books were readily available, but few turned out to be of real value to the struggling beginner.

A thought on Custard's point about the output of amateur woodworkers. The pro woodworker has one aim and one aim only - a product saleable at a profit, and all efforts must go in that sole direction. The amateur has no such constraints, and may be diverted in any direction that takes their fancy, so long as they derive enjoyment from it. They may be seeking a sanctuary from the pressures of working life, in which case it matters not whether they achieve anything beyond a couple of hours of relaxation. It's certainly true that some amateurs have a focus that drives considerable output, but others just want to potter about happily. Both approaches are prefectly valid in one's own time.