>>> BlackFriday The Complete Dovetail: Handmade Furniture's Signature Joint
Woodworking magazines are forever publishing articles describing methods for making dovetail joints. There are articles on router jigs for dovetails home made jigs for dovetails dovetails on the table saw and dovetails on the band saw. None of that is in this book. Nevertheless the title is not misleading. To Ian Kirby those methods have nothing to do with dovetail joints. So absent those table saws and jigs how can he do 151 pages on four simple hand-made joints. Well it is easy if you consider this book not a treatise on joints but the essential textbook for a hands-on weeklong beginning course in woodworking in Kirby's shop. Mr. Kirby is obviously a teacher. The book focuses on the smallest detail from how to mark the face side of a rough board you have just prepared with a hand plane to how to stand when you pare horizontally with a chisel. In these small details Mr. Kirby is precise and opinionated. I can easily invasion enthusiastic disagreement over these details with other classically trained master woodworkers. But only the most thorough understanding and elegant skill could give one the right to disagree. The writing style is as simple straightforward and precise as the joints it describes. The illustrations and pictures are clear and explanatory. Nevertheless Mr. Kirby often presumes on the reader's woodworking vocabulary and knowledge of drafting. The book sometimes expresses the impatience of a master who sees the subject clearly and cannot fathom the student's incomprehension. If your woodworking ideal is cutting gnomes from plywood on a scroll saw or running out to buy the latest laser-guided nuclear-powered jointer you just saw "advertised" on the "New Yankee Workshop" this book is not for you. But if you want to learn how to quickly and precisely create dovetails with simple hand tools and you are willing to actually do the exercises Mr. Kirby prescribes buy this book. A last word of caution though - know how to sharpen your tools first.
