The Essential Woodworker

The Essential Woodworker

In our opinion, “The Essential Woodworker” is one of the best books on hand-tool usage written in the post-Charles Hayward era. Wearing, who was classically trained in England, skillfully incorporates both power and hand tools in his shop and teaching.

The book begins with a chapter on building a table. In this section, Wearing illustrates how to use various tools in harmony to achieve precise results. It’s not merely about techniques like sawing a tenon or planing an edge; instead, it emphasizes how to combine these skills to create furniture, including tables, doors, carcasses, dovetailed drawers, and plinths.

The book is rich with over 500 hand-drawn illustrations by Wearing, which clearly explain every operation in a hand-tool shop. His illustrations are well-drafted, drawn in perspective, and exceptionally clear.

"The Essential Woodworker" is printed in a 6" x 9" format, hardbound with a cloth cover, and produced entirely in the U.S. Like our other publications, the paper used is acid-free, and the signatures are sewn and casebound.