The Joint Book: The Complete Guide to Wood Joinery

Many good illustrations and photos. Reinforced spiral binding allows book to lie flat for easy reference on workbench, etc. Joint Selector section at back of book shows thumbnail illustrations of all joints in the book, with corresponding page numbers to the detailed instructions. This section makes it easy to visually identify a particular joinery type and then get more info on how to create it, etc. Also has nice sections on common joinery tools (squares, clamps, etc.), how to select the proper joinery for a particular project, how to properly glue and clamp a joint -- including a comparison chart explaining the different types of wood glues, a discussion of various hardware used in some joinery types, a glossary of terms, and a thorough index. A great little reference book for any woodworker.

This book is great, has ton of very useful information and very organized. Notably this is much more informative than the other woodworking book I bought at the same time, woodworking: the complete step by step manual, which has a lot of useless sentence just repeating itself. I also like the physical quality of this book. The only complaint is that the corner is damaged during shipping, which is the fault of the seller and not the book itself.

This is a fantastic little book and I love the fact that it is spiral-bound. You don't see it in the picture because it is covered. It provides some great information on lots of different types of joints. I would have liked a little more info about applications, but it gives me enough. I don't care much at all for the types of drawn out pictures-i would have preferred actual photographs of what they were showing, as seen on the cover. The book was smaller than I expected, but oh well. It is a bit more than 8" tall...almost like a handbook. There may be other, better books, but for the price, this one was hard to beat. It is enough of a how-to for a beginner to advanced woodworker. Hey, there's a joint for everyone! My next book will include information about Japanese joinery-not because I am that good, but because I find it fascinating.

My father is a master carpenter. I largely grew up watching him work, so I probably am underestimating my own knowledge on the subject of woodworking. But, I would say I am probably a intermediate woodworker, as least as it pertains to furniture/fine woodworking skills. As such, I think this is one of the finest wood working reference guides I have personally run across. This is a smaller book, which is good for a reference. It is spiral bound, so it is especially useful to use while actually working in the shop, as you don't have to find a place on your work desk to prop up a huge book, as too many reference or DIY books tend to be. This book is extremely well indexed by type and sub-type of various joints. The topics covered range from very simple, mitered joints to joints that are fairly exotic to complex, a few of which I have never actually seen before. All of them usually have well drawn diagrams as well as full color pictures. This is also a rarity in woodworking manuals, as the pictures tend to be in black and white or grainy color and/or diagrams which are vague and unhelpful. These seem to be extremely clear and straightforward. I have not attempted all of the joints in the book yet, but of the ones I have tried, the manual's directions and pictures on how to build them have been superb. One feature of this book that I particularly liked was that most of the joints presented are discussed in two different how-to methods. By that I mean the author goes into great detail, step by step, on how to build the joint both via simple hand tool methods and also how to build them if you have more mechanized saws and tools. So, if you don't have a huge workshop with a lot of specialty saws, this is still a good reference, as a lot of the joints can still be made by hand with just a hand coping saw, a pencil, and a measuring device. Again, most woodworking books I've looked at tend to be either one or the other in explaining the how-to step-by-step process but seldom go to the lengths of explaining how to do one joint via two different methods. For the engineers and professional grade builders, this book might not be technical enough for you. But then most professional cabinet and furniture makers already know how to make most of the joints presented, so I do not know why they would be buying such a reference to begin with. This book is geared towards those who either do not know how to build joints or know some but are by no means experts. As such, I think the target audience is the novice to intermediate range, but I think it would still be valuable for the professional builder who does not make joints every day, so he needs to refresh his memory from time to time, particularly with fairly exotic types of joints. As such, I highly recommend this reference if you might ever need to know how to build a joint for any sort of project. I would guess the major uses for the joints made in this reference would be for tables and furniture as well as picture frames or shelving, as it covers both 3 dimensional joints and 2 dimensional joints. As such, I cannot image that there would be a better reference on this specific topic for the price.

this is a good, concise, one stop reference for making -and even choosing wood joints. It gives more than one method in most cases, it is laid out well and the instructions and illustrations are done well. It explains the structural pro's and con's of each type of joint, clamping methods, and jigs-all in a compact volume. I am fairly experienced, but there are joints in it that I have not needed to try yet-but may now. I am no longer a beginner, but I don't see how this would be difficult for a beginner to understand. My thought is, that if a beginner was trying to use this book, they would not rely on it solely. You need other sources for proper tool operation instruction and so forth. I will call on this often.

You can judge this book by its cover. It is a systematic treatment of wood joinery, distilling the knowledge won by centuries of craftsmanship. All the ways two (or more) pieces of wood can intersect and be joined are described, and analysed as to strength and appearance. Also, dozens of variations are covered, where aesthetics, applied load, or available tools suggest a modification to a basic joint design. The illustrations are clear and informative, the layout makes it a very convenient item for the workshop, and the text is compact. Some points to know before you decide: 1. This is about joinery - that is, the joints you make by forming your pieces so they fit together. Screws, nails, bolts, brackets, even glues get only brief mention as reinforcements for joints. 2. This is almost completely independent of the tools you choose. Whether you cut a mortice with a chisel, a router or a dedicated machine-shop morticer, a mortice-and-tenon joint is still a mortice-and-tenon joint. The one partial exception is the finger joint, which is doable with hand tools but hardly worth the trouble, whereas it is quick and convenient with a table saw or router. 3. Beginners may be challenged and even discouraged. I'm no master craftsman, just a weekend hacker, but still not a newbie. The text in places is so dense that I have had to pull it apart almost word by word to get my head around the technique being described. It's rewarding, but it's not always easy. If you are happy with those three points, this book is incredible value for money, distilling so much knowledge and skill into a compact and accessible format. It now lives on a shelf just by my bench.

I love this book. I've always wondered about how some joints were made. This book answered my questions. It's easy to read with lots of pictures and graphics. The binding and size of the book are well-thought out (it's small and has a spiral binding). This makes it easy to read and to use in the shop environment. Now if you're looking for really detailed plans for making these joints, it's not bad for getting started, but I've found myself searching for more detail on the web when I decide on a joint. All in all, a great little book to build your knowledge base of joints (and to speak knowledgeably about them with experts).

This book is the best book on joinery I have seen. The author gives suggestions for hand made and some machine made joints, of about anything you would need for furniture making. So much to learn. The book really showed me, an inexperienced wood worker what I did not know, and gives enough information to be very confident when approaching a joinery project. There is a heavily (over 300,000) followed lifestyle woodworker fellow on You Tube who if he read this book would highly recommend it, as it seems to duplicate his methods, right down to the knife line!

Książka będąca kompendium wiedzy w głównej mierze dla początkujących, chociaż również osoby doświadczone w stolarstwie mogą po nią sięgnąć. Bardzo wygodny format publikacji do korzystania w trakcie pracy. Autor nie uniknął kilku drobnych błędów merytorycznych.

Un libro para iniciar a conocer ensambles más complicados

I bought this book so as to better understand what different joints were available and when to use them. I was not disappointed . This is an amazing little book crammed with pictures and text alike. It covers all the different joints and has an extended section on dovetail joints. The contents pages at the front are well laid out and it is easy to find the joint you want. whilst at the back of the book there is a "Joint Selector" which guides you to the correct page for more detail on the joint. There is also a comprehensive glossary of terms and and index The book itself is in hardback A5 format with a spiral binding: excellent for sitting on the workbench whilst making the chosen joints. This is now my "Go To" book for all things joint-related. Every woodworker should have a copy of this book!

... mit vielen Bilder und guten Tipps für Woodworkers. Würde ich wieder kaufen.

Contenuti molto sintetici ma chiaramente esposti. Forse qualche disegno in più avrebbe meglio illustrato i particolari più difficili. Nel complesso, comunque, utile.