I really like this book. The projects build skills used in later projects. The reason I did not give it 5 stars was the descriptions for some of the steps in project making. I found them hard to follow, requiring several readings. I also think that there is a typo on step one on page 65.

The skill building sections, however, were first rate. I liked the section on hand tool sharpening.

All in all a good book

Mark

I was very excited to get my hands on this book after reading some of the material covered. I have a woodworking background from a long, long time ago, but wanted a good refresher since so much has changed since the last time I held a block plane in my hand. I am currently finishing up the first project and am extremely disappointed in this book. The errors contained in the first few steps didn't become apparent until several steps later, causing me to basically toss aside my first few pieces of work. This is never a good way to start for a "beginner" like myself. I am going to have to draw up my own plans and do all of the calculating and measuring myself, since the author and editor can't provide it.

First example: Step 1 of the box project tells you to cut your 1/2" x 3 1/2" piece of wood into two 16" long pieces. Easy enough, as this was later chopped down to two 4 1/2" and two 10 1/2" pieces to make the sides of the box. WRONG!!!! The actual wood that should be used to make the sides of the box is the 1/2" x 2 1/2". First step already a mis-step, as the finger joints to be cut was specified to be 1 1/4" (which is correct for 2 1/2" tall side pieces). Fortunately, I recognized this mistype early and cut my finger joints at 1 3/4". I did have enough material to build 3 boxes when I first started - now I am going to be lucky to be able to build one, as a majority of my 1" x 4" (nominal) wood was mis-used. Frustrating. . . .

Second example: When you later cut the bottom and top of the box to begin working on the finger joints, you realize that the 4 1/2" pieces that you cut for the sides (and the 10 1/2" pieces as well) are too short, as the author tells you to buy 1" x 4" and 1" x 3" wood, but her actual measurements assume your wood is 1/2" thick, not the 3/4" thick that 1" nominal actually yields. Now the pieces that were cut from the wrong wood to begin with are useless as they are too short to form the joints. I suppose that you could cut the top and bottom pieces down further to fit, but then your box is too small to do much with other than admire. I began at this point to question my sanity as to getting back into woodworking, but as I have already squandered nearly $1000 in equipment, I decided to forge ahead.

Third example: The pictures are best ignored, save for the final project. They aren't presented with the text that they represent, so they can be more confusing than helpful. The author likes to use terms that I have either forgotten or never knew when referring to parts of tools, so I find myself re-reading and studying pictures until the concept of the written text dawns on me. I have small children, so my workshop time is limited to late at night - not the best time to decipher this text.

If you buy this book, be sure to buy some Post-It notes or book marks or tape flags, as you will be flipping back and forth continuously. The skill builder sections are nicely done, but appear in very strange places in the book. I would have put them all either before the projects or in an appendix. As it is, the first project refers you to several skill builders that are scattered throughout the pages of the first project (never on the facing page or the same page). This breaks the project text and pictures up too much.

The best thing that can be said for the first 1/2 of this book is that the projects look really neat, if you can survive the errors. I am now taking the approach to study the end product, draw my own plans, and learn the hard way (always a dangerous prospect when using sharp tools). If I could get a refund, I would - then spend the money on a different book.

I bought this book since I am relatively new to woodworking and was looking for a book with some different woodworking furniture construction projects that would be fun to build and develop my skills. This book has about 5 different interesting projects ranging from simple box construction, adirondack style chair, bookcase, coffee table, and low file cabinet. All the projects will result in fairly simple yet attractive projects which are well worth the time spent working through. In the process of each project Fraser walks the reader through increasingly difficult woodworking skill building exercises.

Now for the bad news, as touched on buy several of the other reviewers there are numerous typos and innacuracies which I think are inexcusable being that this book is written by a former editor of a very fine woodworking magazine, and it is directed towards beginners which don't need the additional challenge of catching and working around type errors.

Because I liked the project, I skipped directly to the last project, the low file cabinet. The project starts out with an explanation of dimensions for the project, but for some reason leaves out a few of the key dimensions on the drawings. Then the text references photographs, but for some reason the photos don't match the text, or are not sequenced in the right order. Also, a few of the dimensions in the text are simply not correct, and unless you carefully study the provided dimensions in the drawings and make some visual scale estimates on the photos, you will end up with an incorrectly designed project. In spite of the inaccuracies I was able to successfully build the project, but it is imperative you check the drawings, photos, and text carefully and pick the source which provides the most accurate information to complete the project correctly. Not really something a novice woodworker should have to deal with. So I give this book 3 stars, a 4 for concept and a 2 for execution.

The book contains good explanations of terms and techniques but there are a lot of errors in it. Errors in a book for beginners is unacceptable. It's hard enough to figure out the difference between a dado and a rabbet without being given wrong directions. Take the first project for instance. The first step in the project tell you to cut the wrong piece of wood. The author tells you to buy 1x3, 1x4, etc. wood. The dimensions given for the cuts, however, are for wood that is 1/2" thick. 1x wood is actually 3/4" thick. Additionally, some of the pictures in the introduction to tools section are mislabeled. I haven't tried any projects after the first one. I'm gunshy now.

I read all the reviews on this book and they were all good; I ended up happy even with a couple of typos in the beginning of the first project. There was a little wasted materials and time; but, the instructions were thorough and I ended up with a beautiful box.