The Essential Woodworker, Robert Wearing (book)

In the publisher's opinion, The Essential Woodworker by Robert Wearing is one of the best books on hand-tool usage written in the post-Charles Hayward era. Wearing was classically trained in England as a woodworker and embraced both power and hand tools in his shop and in his teaching.

He begins with a table. As you read the chapter on building a table, Wearing connects the dots for the hand-tool user by showing how all the tools are used in concert to produce accurate work. It's not just about sawing a tenon or planing an edge; it is about how to gather these skills and apply them to building furniture: tables, doors, carcases, dovetailed drawers, plinths, etc.

The book is filled with more than 500 hand-drawn illustrations by Wearing that explain every operation in a hand-tool shop. His illustrations are properly drafted, drawn in perspective and masterfully clear.

Printed in a 6" x 9" format, hardbound with a cloth cover, on acid-free paper with sewn signatures, and produced entirely in the United States. Published by Lost Art Press.