The Handyman’s Guide

Essential Woodworking Tools and Techniques
by Paul N. Hasluck

We were glad to find this book available again after a version called “The Handyman’s Book” was discontinued. First published in 1903, this book has been an underground favorite of many woodworkers and historians of woodcraft.

Its vast scope – over 1,000 designs for home, office, workshop and garden, and over 2,500 accompanying illustrations – makes The Handyman’s Guide both an entertaining artifact of woodworking history and a practical “how-to” guide for modern hand tool users. The amount of information this book is staggering: build a chicken coop (pp. 309-323) or learn the history of the hammer (“Tools of Percussion and Impulse,” p. 87). The chapters on workshop furniture and workbenches are especially useful. Certain chapters such as the one on Trellises and fencing contain information that is unique. For those appreciative of the late Victorian era, or those living in a period house, there is enough information here on how to duplicate most of the period detail. The last three hundred pages of the book are devoted to a room by room examination of Victorian furniture, complete with dimensioned plans and a construction narrative.

Even if the furniture is not to your taste, the narrative is very helpful in my overall woodworking education and still fresh and relevant for contemporary woodworkers.

Pages: 760
Binding: TP
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing