Search
  Shop

Architecture

Baths

Carpentry

Construction

Electrical

Flooring

HVAC

Kitchens

Masonry

Paving

Plumbing

Roofing

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Home

Carpentry

The Woodwright's Shop: A Practical Guide to Traditional Woodcraft

The Woodwright's Shop: A Practical Guide to Traditional Woodcraft
Email a friendEmailView larger imageZoom

The Woodwright's Shop: A Practical Guide to Traditional Woodcraft

 
SKU:  

ACOUK_book_usedverygood_0807840823

In Stock
Availability:   Usually ships in 1 business days
 
 

Roy Underhill brings to woodworking the intimate relationship with wood that craftsmen enjoyed in the days before power tools. Beginning with a guide to trees and tools, The Woodwright's Shop includes chapters on gluts and mauls, shaving horses, rakes, chairs, weaving wood, hay forks, dough bowls, lathes, blacksmithing, dovetails, panel-frame construction, log houses, and timber-frame construction.

 
List Price: $24.95
Our Price: $16.47 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25.
You Save: $8.48 (34%)
 
 

Note: Item may be sold and shipped by another company. Learn more.


Product Details
Author:Roy Underhill
Paperback:211 pages
Publisher:The University of North Carolina Press
Publication Date:October 01, 1981
Language:English
ISBN:0807840823
Product Length:10.88 inches
Product Width:8.5 inches
Product Height:0.58 inches
Product Weight:1.59 pounds
Package Length:10.8 inches
Package Width:8.5 inches
Package Height:0.7 inches
Package Weight:1.35 pounds
Average Customer Rating: based on 10 reviews

Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review:5.0 ( 10 customer reviews )
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 41 found the following review helpful:


5If you only buy one book on the subject make it this!  Jan 18, 1999 By cherryfamily@earthlink.net
This remarkable book by the even more remarkable Roy Underhill will inspire you to forget the breathing and ear protection apparatus and get out your hand tools! It has to be the singularily most inspiring woodworking book available. Enjoy the soft smells and quiet sounds of real craftmanship. The rest of the series is indispensible also. And if you enjoy this book you'll also love the book "Restoring Tuning & Using Classic Woodworking Tools" by Michael Dunbar. A MUST for any true craftsman at heart.

43 of 45 found the following review helpful:


5What??? Only two reviews???  Nov 19, 2004 By Ryan McNabb
This is one of the finest things ever written! I sincerely hope that a copy of this book lives on the shelf of everyone who has a love for tools and wood and what happens when the two come together. Underhill gives us a look into the world of real hand tool woodworking - no electricity, please. "Start with an axe and a tree and make first one thing and then another until you have a house and everything in it." It can be (almost) that simple, but you have to restore a fractured culture first, and also learn to speak the language of trees and wood and steel. This book will accomplish both those aims.

Underhill, former Master Housewright at Colonial Williamsburg, did the amazing hat trick of turning something as offbeat and esoteric as pre-industrial woodworking into a highly successful career, and became a beloved personality and celebrity in the process. When you read his books, you'll know how he did it. Instantly, you get the sense that his deep affection for his trade, and the trades that support it, illuminates his life. He "sees" things, he doesn't just look. Like ripples in a stream allude to rocks below the surface, he looks at the bark of a tree and understands what lies within - twisted firewood or beautiful furniture? Dissecting an old piece of furniture or part of a house tells you about the tools that made it, and the men who used the tools, and the community they lived in, and what their lives were like. But all of this could be ponderous and self absorbed if it weren't infused front to back with an infectious sense of humor and a Tom Sawyer/Peter Pan view of the world, where if we're lucky we'll all get to run away and be pirates together.

Poetic, lyrical, sad, happy, this book has it all. A true classic from an amazingly talented person. Maybe the 60's hippy culture did ONE thing right - it gave us Roy Underhill, boy genius, and set him loose upon a (hopefully) grateful world. His books, and the first two particularly, make a perfect gift for that tired, world weary person in your life who is thinking that there is something missing in his or her work, that their long days are filled with meaningless seeking, and who might like to turn their hands to something slower, calmer, more beautiful, and decidedly valuable for a change.

10 of 10 found the following review helpful:


5Life-changing!  Feb 13, 2008 By Mr. MG
I first saw Roy Underhill on a local PBS station back in the early 1980s. Instantly, I knew that this was the kind of woodworking for me. Screaming routers, finger-chopping table saws and jointers, and multi-horsepower lathes seemed not just dangerous but downright obsolete after witnessing Roy's talents. Honestly, who needs modern woodworking technology when the old methods are clearly better in so many ways? Better for your health and the health of your bank account, and better for the environment. Roy's wonderful series of woodworking books tell you everything you need to get started. They will positively change your woodworking, and your life. Thanks to Roy's books, and others, like Dunbar's _Restoring, Tuning & Using Classic Woodworking Tools_, power tool woodworkers look at my woodworking projects in awe... those amazing and elegant hand-cut dovetails, those silky-smooth hand-planed surfaces, those sweet touches that set my work apart as obviously hand-made. Once you've mastered hand-tool woodworking, you see that the products of woodworking machines stand out as brutal and clumsy. Guys, do not hesitate to purchase the entire series of Roy's woodworking books!

2 of 2 found the following review helpful:


5Fascinating  Nov 02, 2008 By Dick Johnson
I guess it's time I wrote a review, now that the covers are about to fall off of the book. Few books in my shop library are as practically useless for me yet so fascinating as this first Woodwright book by Underhill. I will never actually make anything he displays in here, but I've made everyone of them in my head at least once a winter for a couple of decades.

If you've never seen his program on PBS, then please look for it. In my area it's shown Saturday afternoons. You'll be in nostalgia heaven. Both on the show and in his books, no electricity is allowed, much less power tools. Start here then get the other five.

1 of 1 found the following review helpful:


5The Best Introduction to Traditional Woodworking  May 25, 2011 By Photoangler
This book is a classic! It is difficult to think of anything to add to the other reviews so I'll just say that if you have an interest in traditional woodworking get this book. You will not be disappointed!

See all 10 customer reviews on Amazon.com
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 About UsContact Us
ConstructionMVPBusinessMVPCareerMVPNewsMVPAdMVPNetworkMVPEngineeringMVPHVACNews