3 comments about The New Yankee Workshop Kids' Stuff.

1. This book is aptly named and is loaded with "Kids' Stuff". Projects include a cradle, toy chest, a block wagon, and a 1/16" scale model of the New Yankee Workshop, and more! I just got this book yesterday and will be getting started this weekend on the marble roll which I know my 2 year old will just Love! If you have a child or know one you want to make really happy get this book and get to work!



2. This book presents a very nice collection of Norm Abram's kid-related projects, and the text and photos are a great help to actually building any of the projects. Having built the cradle project, though, I'd certainly recommend purchasing the set of plans that goes with each project . The plans are indespensible.



3. I received this as a gift, and I'm simply not equipped to produce any of the six pieces included. I don't have the tools, or the time, and the previous reviewer is correct that - if I *did* have the tools and time - I'd probably want to buy the plans for the projects.

   That said, if *you* have the tools and time, and particularly if you're crafty and know what you're doing with wood and tools, there are six fantastic projects here that would suit a wide range of ages, something to keep you (and, then, your child) busy through various stages of their development.

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 Builder Boards: How to Construct a Set of Notched Boards Children Use to Create Their Own Playspace.

1. The book direction for making the play house is clear and work great.

No comments about Bird Carving Basics: Habitat (Bird Carving Basics).

1 comments about Painting Waterfowl With J.D. Sprankle.

1. Jim Sprankle is a world class master waterfowl carver and painter. He has published a number of remarkable books and video tapes to help others with their carvings. This painting book is outstanding. Jim has a unique method of painting wood carvings with thinly applied washes of acrylic paints, masterfully blended. This book shows in color how he paints several species of waterfowl, step by step. He even gives the formulas for the correct mixtures of paint. The book is an invaluable source of information for anyone wishing to paint waterfowl carvings.

3 comments about Making Kitchen Cabinets: A Foolproof System for the Home Workshop.

1. After checking out all of the kitchen cabinet making books I could find from local libraries, I found this one to give me the simplest foolproof way of making cabinets. I am planning to use this book to make my kitchen cabinets. It is based on the Euro style cabinets, ones without face frames. He also has an accompianing video which is also very good.



2. I found the book to be very outdated and full of useless information. The book does not even give you any useable plans for constructing your own cabinets. The material choices and assembly procedures are so out dated that an extreamly large amout of wood and money would be wasted. I would not recomend this book to anyone.



3. If you are new to cabinet making, this is the one book you should have to learn how to make frameless cabinets.
   Levine has a system which may not be for everyone, but it is easy to understand, and he explains things with a clarity that is hard to find in the woodworking world. Here is what I like:
   1) He explains basic dimensions and layouts for kitchen cabinets. There are no plans, but there are lots of photos and illustrations.
   2) His coverage of European hinges (Grass) and Accuride drawer slides will be invaluable if are just learning how to install this hardware.
   3) Ditto for plastic laminate.
   4) In the field of woodworking, I think Levine is just about unparalleled at taking complex information and explaining it with great clarity.
   [...]

3 comments about Landscapes in Relief: Carving Techniques and Patterns.

1. While I am a great fan of L.S. Irish as an artist, her newest book falls far short of being of the same caliber as her art. If it is intended for novices, it lack sufficient detail. If it is for intermediate or advanced carvers, it wastes far too many pages on the basics. It has 32 nice patterns which are mostly variations on the theme of old barns in the woods. One of the projects in the book can be downloaded from her website FREE. Last of all, many of the photos are in color. However, it looks as if the photographer used daylight film under incandescent lights because all of the photos are yellow-red. This makes it impossible to appreciate the sections on painting the carvings. All in all, I cannot recommend this book.



2. I initially chose this book because of it's very nice illustrations. My mistake was in buying this as my first relief book. I assumed that the step-by-step instructions for the sample project, Mountain View Farm, would be geared towards beginners since it was, after all, broken into steps with corresponding photos. Not quite.

   Now, in her defense, Lora Irish does cover the basics of relief carving, however, I found it to be too general for a beginner. Also, I often found myself tripping over slight contradictions between what the author instructs you to do and what she actually does. This is especially a problem if you use the picture on the back cover for reference, which is a slightly different version of this project. Carvers more familiar with the process might not have a problem here, but for a beginner who hangs on every detail of the example, like myself, he or she might become frustrated.

   Lastly, I would have preferred that the entire lesson's scene been included in the process (the waterwheel, water, and reflection elements are left out) so as to have an opportunity to get familiar with creating the water's illusion of depth and the use of reflections. The good news is, the picture on the back cover is the full scene, you'll just have to figure out how to do the waterwheel yourself.

   In conclusion, if you have a bit of carving experience and are looking for a refresher course or beautifully illustrated patterns this book is worth looking into; if you are looking for a beginner's guide to relief carving, you might want to look elsewhere.




3. If you are into carving landscapes then you will learn a good deal about carving techniques. Learn how to carve various materials used in structures you are trying to represent. Lora Irish is one of my favorite designers and I feel this book is worth its cost. I cannot over emphasize the need for quality carving tools and proper procedures for keeping them sharp.

1 comments about Make Your Own Model Dinosaurs: 7 Prehistoric Patterns for the Scroll Saw.

1. I got this book to make a dinosaur for my boys for their birthday. I do not own a scroll saw. I do not have any experience with one. I do own a scrolling jigsaw. One of the few criticisms I have of the book is that it was tough to figure out how big the finished dinosaur was. I was sure I wanted a bigger one (for kids at a party to put together) and thought I'd just go do the best I could.
   My husband copied the pages at 200% and I used them as the patterns on the plywood as outlined by the authors. I made the velociraptor. My jigsaw was actually able to handle everything but the slots, which I partially cut with the saw then sort of cleaned up with the file. (I almost forgot to scale down the width of the slots, which copying the design had enlarged to 1/2". You want them the same width as your plywood.)
   The pattern was a very good pattern-- my velociraptor turned out really well. I stress again I'd never attempted anything like this before. I started to assemble it as I was fitting and trimming the slots and the animal really started to emerge in front of me-- I brought the skull up out of the basement one night to show my husband and I was as excited as the kids. I think it's a good design if a novice like me can produce a finished dinosaur that almost stands up alone (I think it would be better balanced if I had scaled up the thickness of the plywood a little-- I used 1/4"). My finished dinosaur is a little larger that my three-year old. My three year old likes him very much. So do my five year olds, for whom it was made, and my eight year old, who helped make it. My older sons don't seem to mind at all propping it on the coffee table. I'm glad I got the book and tried the project.

1 comments about Designing Furniture: From Concept to Shop Drawing : A Practical Guide.

1. If you have read my other reviews on woodworking you know I am practical as well as into the spirit of wood. Marc Adams of Marc Adams Woodworking School "The Largest in the US" held a seminar here in Minnesota for the MN woodworkers Guild. I found Marc to be and excellent teacher and he shared some of his sources. This is one of them! It helped me to get hold of the process as well as the steps in designing furniture. I found I have made similar mistakes, but I won't be making the same ones the author has made.
   
   For me I want more than skill training, it is important to know why I should do this. An "ah ha!" experience is the reality of fine woodworking takes a lot of time. Wood prices keep rising, and I know I am always going to make a mistake.
   
   This is truely a "practical guide" and the author shares his frustrations and the why and how to get through them.
   
   This book is on the top of my reading pile!

3 comments about The Home Workshop (Custom Woodworking).

1. For the information that I needed, this book was very efficient. It was detailed perfectly and the language used was simple.



2. The book gives good general idea options for various workshops in the home/garage. It does give a nice option for a closet workshop, although it didn't look real practical to me. The book is lacking in specifics for bulding a bench or home repair area. This book is designed more for a person who wants a "workshop" and has a number of power tools to place in the room, such as scroll-saw, drill press, planer, etc.



3. This book is a compilation of articles and plans from previous issues of Woodsmith. If you go to their web site, you can download the individual plans, but you're much better off buying this book. The book gives you twelve plans, including the workbench and cabinet, router table, table saw and miter saw stations, and a pretty good lumber rack, among others. The plans are well laid out, you get materials lists and cutting diagrams, and they include enough text to guide you through an entire project, start to finish. What I particularly liked were two things: 1) They warned you in advance of what NOT to do and what to watch out for, and 2) they gave you additional plans for jigs to make the job faster, easier, and better. Each project shows multiple exploded views, with plenty of closeups of the tricky parts. Additionally, they ocassionally offer alternative ways to build things, usually faster, cheaper, and/or easier if your skills aren't quite up to snuff. A real bonus are the Shop Tips. These appear about every three or four pages and convey some little tidbit of information that usually applies directly to the project you're working on.

   I built the workbench and cabinet from the plans, and everything went smoothly (well, as smoothly as you could reasonably expect). I'm not a cabinet maker (yet), but this bench was the first step to move me in that direction. I learned a lot about joinery and ended up building the most valuable tool in my workshop. Unfortunately, to build a truly excellent bench requires a pretty good bench to begin with. (As with most jigs, you wish you could use the jig you're building to help you build it.) It's such a beautiful bench that it's almost a shame to do work on it. This is a work of art that could easily live in the living room. I'll be laying down a piece of melamine on it before I do anything involving glue or stain or anything else that could potentially hurt it.

   The pages are high-quality and won't tear out easily. The book binding is loose leaf, held together by 32 rings. This means the book lays flat and stays open at whatever page you were reading. Of course, it also means you have to take care not to crimp the inside edge, as with any loose leaf binding. Like with a three-ring notebook full of paper, you need to help the pages a little. Small potatoes, though.

   The cover is adequate, glossy over heavy card stock, and it seems to hold up okay. I've not abused my copy much, but I believe it will take a fair amount of punishment so long as you keep it dry.

   In summary, if you're looking to learn about fine furniture crafting, this is where to start. If it doesn't help you, I'LL give you your money back. The only complaint I could find was that the authors have access to many more tools than the Average Joe, and so you may need to beg, borrow, buy, or rent additional items to complete your project. Use good materials, take your time, do it right, and you'll be rewarded immensely.