No comments about How to Make Simple Wooden Puzzles & Jigsaws.

3 comments about Making Miniature Furniture.

1. I don't dominate English very well, but I am very easy of understanding and of carrying out the projects that he explains, everything it is useful and easy of carrying out



2. In a field with no published works on making fine doll furniture, this is a gem. Keep in mind that these plans are for 20-30 inch dolls. The basic information is explained, but some basic woodworking skills will be needed. The measurements are quite valuable and illustrated plans are good, and one should take note of the doll sizes that will match the scale. All the furniture plans are colonial reproductions. If time and care is taken using these plans, very fine heirlooms can be created for those little girls in the family.



3. This book has those things that are very hard to find: excellent plans for doll-sized furniture and good instruction on how to make them.

5 comments about Making Doll Furniture in Wood: 24 Projects and Plans Perfectly Sized for American Girl and Other 18" Dolls.

1. How disappointing! I bought this book for my daughter's 9th Birthday. Her dad is going to make her American Girl dolls some furniture & I thought this would be the perfect guide. WRONG! The armoire is only 6" deep. The American Girl clothes hangers are 6 1/4" wide. Tell me, how is that going to work? The doors won't even be able to close! Thankfully my hubby is a skilled woodworker & can expand the dimensions, but if he is going to have to come up with his own pattern this book would have best been left on the shelf. We are very disappointed. My brother-in-law is making the picnic table & my niece told me that they were surprised & how small it is looking. Seems like more than one project is not quite up to the 18" par. Think twice before buying this one or at least find one to look at in person before hand.



2. An excellent book with good projects. So far I've only built the armoire, but have others in mind. I did discover minor discrepancies in the directions. Cuts did not agree with what pictures showed in the construction. Trying to find all the different thicknesses of woods specified was difficult if you do not have access to a thickness planer or sander. There is no problem that can't be overcome with a little ingenuity.



3. Great book! I bought it for my son-in-law--he loved it.



4. My husband and I had a ball with this book. Although we didn't have all the tools needed to complete some of the projects, we were still able to use the book to get some good plans out of. We can't wait to see our granddaughters' eyes on Christmas morning when they see their doll beds and bunks!



5. Thank you everyone for your comments and corrections. We are putting out a revised and expanded edition of this book (link is below). The armoire was originally sized to fit the hanger design also included in the book, but we have modified the dimensions so that it will fit either the hanger purchased from American Girl or the design in the book itself.
   
   Additionally we have combed through the book looking for discrepancies in directions and fixed all of those that were found.
   
   The new book also includes directions on building a modular dollhouse for an 18" doll.
   
   
   Making Furniture & Dollhouses for American Girl and Other 18-Inch Dolls

5 comments about Great All-American Wooden Toybook (Reader's Digest Woodworking).

1. Since I purchased this book I have madea Model T Ford and am now making a Stearman biplane.
   The instructions are generally clear with good illustrations. Most of the projects are not for beginners and most require a table or radial arm saw, a band saw and a power drum/belt sander. The author's suggestion to use knotty pine is economical but most of this wood in my local home improvement stores is warped, bowed and generally a pain to work with. Spend a little more and use clear pine or better yet, poplar which in my area is available in many different sizes and thicknesses. Also, the author may love resawing wood to get the sizes that he recommends but it would be a lot easier to scale the projects so that they require standard thicknesses.



2. This book is great for making fun, easy projects that make great gifts. I have made a total of four trucks from this book. This book is a great way to introduce woodworking to kids. I would reccomend this book to anyone.



3. I echo what the other reviewers have already said. Excellent intro to wood toy making provided you have or can get access to tools. Good step by step instructions. This book is a good way to develop your woodworking skills without being overwhelmed.



4. I've been using this book to make toys for children for 15 years and find the drawings and instructions clear and easy to follow. I like how all the projects are designed around stock lumber. One reviewer mentioned that the drawings are on grids for easy scaling. I should note that only items that are odd shaped and can't be drawn full scale in the book are on grids, but that is all that is needed. The only toy that I would have liked to have been included is a dump truck, but I designed my own once I got the hang of how his trucks are designed.



5. As a semi-pro woodworker with a shop full of tools I found his step-by-step directions clear and his plans complete. Whether you have a Shopsmith or a Unisaw, you'll find something in this book for your kids or grandkids. I personally recommend the Pull-Along Train for the novice, and the biplane or P-40 for more experienced and better equiped weoodworkers. My only suggestion is this: Get better wheels. If you can't figure out how to mmake them, buy them.

1 comments about Speed Toys for Boys (Woodworking Classics Revisited).

1. Originally published in 1928 (an era when pushmobile contests were popular among kids), Speed Toys for Boys is a classic woodworking guide to crafting wheeled devices, including carts, scooters, pushmobiles and more. Straightforward instructions, specific material requirement lists, and black-and-white diagrams make the projects as accessible and easy-to-follow today as they were eighty years ago. An ideal resource for woodworking hobbyists and parents looking to share involved, hands-on crafting (and racing!) projects with their children.

2 comments about The Knot Handbook.

1. As I commented in my review of an even worse knots book (viz., _Great Knots..._ by D. Lewis), "In short, this book seems to have been hastily prepared by an uniformed author, without regard for standards of care in advice or courtesy in acknowledging sources (there are no acknowledgements, and no info re author, such as credentials)." (Nevertheless, both books' publishers give some sort of (...) disclaimer to the effect that "every effort has been made to ensure that the book is accurate"--...) While not quite so error-laden as the Lewis book, this one similarly contains no real advice on the use of knots, and some of its photographs are of such fuzzy rope/twine that one can't readily discern the parts of a knot!

   Here is a sample of the book's numerous errors:
   p30, Fireman's Coil: shows a supposed means to tying off a coil that won't hold; p34 West Co. Whipping: shows the whipping running off the end of the rope, like a night cap;
   p49 Slipped Fig.8 stopper: image 4 distorts the fig.8, and 5 is hard to discern;
   p53 Englishman's Loop: the SPart's overhand knot is misoriented, and the end's ov.knot is wrong-handed;
   p54 Perfection Loop: image 2 conflicts with image 1, and the final image is ambiguous re which end is loaded;
   p56 Bowline: says of this knot that is won't "slip, loosen, or jam", which is not true--it can do all of those (the last in capsizing, as seen in some mooring hawsers), and is why the SAR, caving, & climbing communities have favored a Fig.8loop;
   p58 Double Bowline: makes the incredible claim "...some 70% stronger ... than the ordinary bowline"--nonsense--, and the orientation of the doubled turns is confused, with the tied knot's image showing a sort of midshipman's knot form;
   p60 Triple Bowline: it asserts that this knot is "indispensible" for learning to climb--hardly the case--, and additionally adds the nonsensical adivce "if one of the [SParts] is shorter than the other, for security, tie it to its partner ..."(!!);
   p63 Water Bowline: it shows the 2 half-hitch turns of this knot close together, as a clove hitch (they should be spaced), and claims that "when wet it's less liable to jam", which should surprise one having read on p.56 that a bowline can't jam(!);
   p65 Bowline on a Bight: the knot is mistied, with the SPart running straight through the rest of the structure (hence, this would effect a noose)...
   p68-9 Portugese Bowline: the image shows the inter-loop/shared part lying outside vs. within the SPart's half-hitch turn;
   p71 Frost Knot: copying text from Lewis copied from Budworth, it wrongly asserts that this knot is nothing more than "a simple overhand loop that is tied in webbing instead of cordage"--bull: that would be more or less apt for an overhand tape loop, but the Frost knot (loop) is a means to tie jointly both a loop & bend, joining the ends of the tape (typically forming a etrier) in forming the small top loop;
   p79 Bowstring Knot: the entry point of the end into the overhand part differs between images 3 & 4, with both being at diff. parts of the spine, yet image 6 shows it through the belly of the overhand, and as she equates this to the Honda loop, all of the entries are from the wrong side, for that;
   p80 Double Fig.8 loop: says "it stays tied because there are no ends to work loose", but this isn't quite the case, and it otherwise applies equally to a great many other knots;
   p86 Midshipman's Hitch: says "when stopped or seized, this is one of the strongest slide and grip knots", which, firstly I doubt has any real evidence to support it, and secondly if the knot is seized, it's no longer sliding;
   p109 Grief Knot: I've never heard of this, and hope not to, again as it is worthless; the images here are royally fouled and the final shows one of the two ropes passing straight through the tangle of the other(!);
   p131 Round Turn & 2 Half Hitches: wrongly shows a RT and larks head;
   p141 Cow Hitch w/Toggle: images 3 & 4 show a toggle inserted absolutely pointlessly--the point SHOULD be to show the knot in the bight, w/toggle effecting the locking--;
   p165 Timber Hitch: amazingly, this knot is grossly mis-tied, with all of the end's wraps that should be securing it against the tied-to object being instead loose between object and SPart(! no other author I'm aware of has botched this simple knot);
   p180-1 "Double Overhand Bend": firstly, the name is wrong (which rightly denotes either the grapevine/dbl.fisherman's bend or a beefed-up ring bend), and the final image of tied knot is grossly misformed; moreover, she has copied Ashley's text for the thumb knot, the side-oriented overhand bend (in which the ends lie together, opposite SParts), in saying this knot was used to tie up "ham, bacon, & bananas";
   p183 Carrick Bend: maybe she was confused by the bad photo in the later (not earlier!) Jarman book, but the final image is mis-formed, with one half of the knot collapsed but not the other (also likely a result of her using ropes of differing flexibility);
   193 (Asher's) Seizing Bend: wrongly shows the end being tied to the SPart with an overhand vs. being tied into a bowline;
   197 (Smith)Hunter's Bend: image 8 (final) is hopelessly wrong (in part from her trying to follow the ridiculous tying method given for this in Ashley's amended edition);
   198 Zeppelin Bend: she shows her ignorance of Hunter's bend by saying of Z. that it differs in having ends perpendicular vs. alongside SParts--no, both are alike & perpendicular;>BR>200 Fisherman's bend: wrongly shows the overhand part in the gold rope misoriented.

   Enough?
   Damn, yes, enough of such books (...)




2. I'm not a knot expert, nor do I play one on TV, but I found this book useful and interesting enough to buy two copies. I found the first one at my local independent bookstore and bought it for my nephew's birthday present. Once I had it at home I considered giving him one of my other 6 knot books and keeping this one for myself because I found the pictures much clearer than the other books on my shelf.
   
   In fact, during the "scanning" period I saw the Pile Hitch on pages 154 - 155 and thought it was an elegant solution for a temporary tying-off. Within days our waterwell pump's wiring had a short and so we had to pull it up and replace the pump and wiring and then re-install all of that in the well casing in temperatures a bit above zero. This required being able to easily stop the pump and 147 feet of coiled tubing when we needed to and this particular hitch came to mind. It was cold and dark and this simple hitch worked perfectly. For me, that one use paid for the book.
   
   For my nephew's book, I took it took an office supply place and had it done with a comb binding so it would lay flat. I've done the same with my copy and am having fun practicing knots. I can only tie about 3 knots (bowline, taut-line hitch and a stopper knot) with confidence, but enjoy trying to learn more.

4 comments about Puzzles Old and New: How to Make and Solve Them.

1. Whether you love puzzles or they just frustrate you beyond belief, you's sure to find this book intriguing and absorbing. Filled with 150+ pages of pictures, diagrams, text, and solutions, this book is the most comprehensive treatment of puzzles of all natures that I've ever seen. Puzzles addressed include: 3D Wood block puzzles, Drinking Vessles, Imposible Objects, Folding Puzzles, Disentanglement Puzzles, and more...

   Of course not all puzzles are solved by the book...the authors have to leave you something!

   If you're handy in the machine shop you'll enjoy the diagrams of wooden blocks and other items that you can make. I've made a few with great results.




2. This book is full of many types of mechanical puzzles many dating from the early 19th century. 150 pages of pictures and discriptions of how to make and solve many of these puzzles along with history and biographies on many of the puzzles and makers. The authors have included concise instructions on how to make many of these puzzles from wood with common handtools and a basic knowledge of how to read net drawings. A great read for any age.



3. I bought the book originally to learn how to make some of the puzzles. The fact that there are dozens of puzzles to make immediately differentiates the book from others. There is an enormous wealth of information about puzzles of all kinds. The authors have notes about puzzle inventors, tips on making puzzles, and, in a few cases, tips on how to solve the puzzles. Really a nice book for anyone with an interest in puzzles.



4. This book on Puzzles was first published in 1986 and later published in paperback. I borrowed it from my Library a couple of times and recently obtained my own copy. If you have any interest in puzzles,you'll immediately agree that this book is outstanding in every way. The authors are two of the biggest names when it comes to writing about mechanical puzzles of today and of the past. Jerry Slocum has collected puzzles all his life,has over 30,000, and has probably the finest collection in the world. He is President of the Slocum Puzzle Foundation,in Beverly Hills,California.
   This book is an overview of just about everything there is about puzzles.There are all kinds of puzzles such as Crossword,Word Search and many types more commonly called Pencil Puzzles;but that is not what this book is all about. It is somewhat difficult to define Mechanical Puzzles;but if you think of the types of puzzles that you can pick up in your hand,it helps to see the types of puzzles covered in the book.
   The authors cover puzzles everyone is familiar with such as Rubik's Cube,Sliding Blocks,Tangrams,Wire,String & Rings,Mazes,Puzzle Locks,Puzzle Boxes,Take-Apart Puzzles,and on and on. I think you get the picture.
   The authors cover the history of the puzzles and give hundreds of pictures of them from their collections as well as from collections of other great collectors. The book has many pictures of the creators of puzzles and it is a real treat to put a face to the names which are so well known in the puzzle world.
   The book is a pure delight to read and to look at the fascinating array of puzzles;but it doesn't end there. There is all kinds of information on how to go about solving many of the puzzles;and on top of that lots of instructions oh how you can make many of the puzzles. No doubt,the reader could build quite a collection of puzzles,just from the information in the book.
   I also find this book to be a real help in finding and identifying puzzles. People don't throw away these puzzles;but they often end up in Flea and Antique Markets,Second Hand Shops,Garage Sales and so forth. This book shows you what to look for and find. Let me give you an example. A while back,I saw one of the Japanese building towers shown on page 65,sitting on a shelf amongst a bunch of bric-a brac,didn't recognize it as a puzzle ,and passed it by. When I saw it in this book,I immediately knew what I had missed. Oh well,live and learn. The point is,if you hope to find puzzles,you got to know what to look for;and this book shows you. Another good example. The Bombay stores carries puzzles at times and recently had 4 very well constructed puzzles.I bought one called "The Comet" which is quite similar to the "Papa-Chuck" puzzle on page 74 and consists of 51 interlocking pieces.
   So,if solving,collecting,making or anyting else about puzzles interests you,this book will become a prized possession.It would take many lifetimes for one person to find and enjoy what the authors have assembled in to this excellent book and made it available with extremely high ,color,paper,illustrations ,printing and construction quality;and at the same time a very reasonable cost. While you're at it,why not check out Jerry Slocum's Page on the Web,to see what's going on in the world of puzzles.

5 comments about Scroll Saw Puzzle Patterns.

1. My first and favorite scroll saw pattern book. Great stand up puzzles, inlays, and some unusual puzzles. Spielman's patterns are excellent designs, not just drawings cut into pieces. Quite a bit of how-to included, from sawing to painting and finishing tips. Most patterns are of animals (standups include: mouse, turtle, elephant, hippo, dog, bunnys...) (inlays include: bird, fish, turtle, whale...) (unusual include: apple with dowel piece, large dowel puzzle) (one jigsaw pattern and how-twos, and a stamp puzzle). A great book for any scroll saw library.



2. We are beginners with a scroll saw and came across this book. It is terrific! It gives a lot of how-to information and the patterns are wonderfully clear. We've already made the adorable alligator; we'll definitely be making more puzzles than we can give to our nieces and nephews; they are fun to make so we will begin to make some for charity!



3. I am a beginner with the scroll saw and I wanted some easy and rewarding projects to start with. This book really fit the bill.



4. I bought this book so my husband could make christmas presents for our kids with his new scroll saw. I couldn't get him out of his shop. He found out what kind of wood to buy, how to use his new saw, and he made the coolest puzzles - much more original than anything I've seen in stores. The kids love their puzzles and play with them all day. I can't wait to see what else he creates from this book.



5. Large collection of great patterns. A good way to get a lot of reward for a minimal amount of investment in terms of tools and materials. I have as much fun making them as the kids do playing with them. A decent range of patterns from simple shape/alphabet/number puzzles to more intricate circus scenes and map of USA, etc.

1 comments about Making Wooden Dinosaurs: Plans and Instructions With Notes on Each Species.

1. Very detail oriented book with lots of pictures, scaled plans, and step by step instruction. More for the medium skilled woodworker but a novice with patience and ability to work with his/her hands will find this a very useful book. Definately a book with room to grow as ones skill grows. Has plans for 13 dinosaurs and 3 prehistoric plants (palm, fern, and a kind of cattail looking plant) to add some scenery. Author's list of tools required includes drill, router, router table, belt sander, and bandsaw. But if you're skilled, patient, and dedicated there are workarounds with fewer powertools.

1 comments about Making Toys: Heirloom Toys to Make in Wood.

1. The book has some very interesting plans and good photos for those how like to work with wood and make toys for children and as keepsakes.

   However this is not for the begining wood worker. The plans were not proofed before printing, there are many mesurmetments missing or do not agree with parts list. Unless the part is drawn to scale you will need to make it to fit on your own.

   Having a complete wood shop, I found that I had to use many tools that were not listed as needed in the book. In some cases I needed to improvise, such as using my drill press as a vertical lathe. Just watch the grain paterns as shown and you will be able to produce somthing to be proud of.

   To date I have made the Pick Up (29 Ford), Peterbilt Tractor with box trailer and Buick Sedan. From the expereance I gained it should make it possable to complete the projets pictured but not show in detail.