Snickra träleksaker, Erik Skarman (book, Swedish)

Snickra träleksaker (Making Wooden Toys) by Erik Skarman. Sturdy wooden toys never go out of style.

Wooden toys bring great joy both to the adult who makes them and to the children who receive them. They also withstand years of rough play, and they only get more beautiful with age.

The book describes some thirty models of varying difficulty: rattles, animals, small cars, a caravan, lorries, a forklift, a tractor with digger, front loader, road works vehicles, a tow truck, mobile crane, forestry machines, a combine harvester, aeroplanes and more. All the toys work: you can dig with the excavator, lift with the crane, and so on.

Dimensions are based on standard timber yard sizes, so very little material preparation is needed. Many of the toys are therefore easy to make and do not require a fully equipped workshop. Each model has clear step-by-step instructions and scale drawings on a grid, making it easy to transfer the profiles to the workpiece.

Only a few of the toys are suitable for children under three, as explained in the introduction, which also gives advice on timber, equipment and accessories as well as practical woodworking tips. The book ends with a list of suppliers. The book is in Swedish.