Where is there a good review of the Paul Sellers book?

[Gerard Scanlan]

I recently came across Paul Sellers cutting dovetails on You tube and was very entertained by his style of woodworking and presentation. I started thinking about following one of his courses and I saw he had written a book. With all the DVDs it is an expensive purchase. Does anyone just have the book is this a sort of self-study course together with the DVDs?
I found a short review on 'Close Grain' but I got the impression he is very friendly with Paul Sellers. Not a crime but sometimes it can colour a review a little.

 

[Mike Wingate]

I watched a couple of his presentations at Harrogate this year and had a brief chat with him about shooting boards. He is very pleasant and engaging. I had a free sampler of his DVD, very slick. He has a different way of doing things, e.g. how to sharpen a saw, but it works for him. I looked through his book. Again very well produced with some good basic tutorials, well explained and illustrated. Very interesting. I have watched a video of Rob Cosman teaching adults dovetails, even their results are good. Watch, absorb and try it yourself. My colleague at school took exception to me cutting the pins of a dovetail first. He was a tails man. We had both been to the same college a few years apart prior to teaching. He never forgave me for doing my dovetails that way. So be open with new methods.

 

[Gerard Scanlan]

I have had the Paul Sellers book since Christmas. It is really excellent. I have been putting the finishing touches to a work bench built according to his plans today, just the vice left to instal. The fact that he has also filmed the building of the bench and put it up on you-tube makes it even easier to follow. Although the you-tube build is slightly modified with a tail vice and knock down for transport option. Sometimes I pick up a woodworking book and think afterwards I did not need to have dovetails and mortice and tenons explained again. This book is different because Paul wants you to use hand tools. The explanation about scrapers and scraper plane sharpening is really excellent. With all the people explaining how to do stuff for free on the Internet you would expect this book to be unnecessary but nothing could be further from the truth. Paul Sellers really is on a mission to fill people with an enthusiasm for woodworking with handtools. This is not just a book for beginners but for woodworkers with intermediate skill. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

 

[Jacob]

Yes it's a goodun. Probably the best there is. OK for beginners too, but no single book is sufficient in itself.
What I like is the direct hands-on approach - starting with curved shapes and geting to grips with the grain as well as the tools.
Very no nonsense approach. No wittering about expensive tools, engineering precision and crazy sharpening techniques. I don't suppose the shamans of sharpening are too happy about it!.