Råsnickeri (Rough Carpentry) - Anyone Can Build, Finn Ahlgren (book)

"Råsnickeri is an unusual, inventive and playful woodworking book that helps the reader shed all the pressure to perform that can come with building furniture." BTJ

Råsnickeri (rough carpentry) is a method of building with reclaimed materials without prior knowledge. All you need is a cordless drill-driver and a saw. It is a permissive technique that sets aesthetic expectations aside, lets chance and the material guide the design, and builds mainly for strength and comfort: a toolbox for reusing, mending, fixing and caring for what we have.

The book starts with a short look at how wood works as a material and some simple principles for building sturdy furniture. It covers basic sawing, how the drill-driver works and why pre-drilling helps. You then learn step by step to build a stool, and with that knowledge move on to chairs, armchairs, tables, shelves, lamps and more. If you like, you can build a piece of furniture in an afternoon.

Finn Ahlgren is a trained cabinetmaker with a bachelor's degree in furniture design and interior architecture from Konstfack. Finn explores the aesthetics, status and morals of design and woodworking through simple methods and tools, in reaction to the often firm, shared opinions in design about right and wrong, good and bad, beautiful and ugly. The book is in Swedish.