Fine Furniture for a Lifetime

Rating:
Summary: Great new way of writing How-to Books
Review: Great book, I've not made anything from it, but I like the new way that they are printing these How-To books. Lots of pictures 4-5 per page with assembly instructions explaining the pictures. It makes it easier than 2-3 pages of instructions, and you guessing how it all goes together.

Rating:
Summary: Every design is an elegant and beautiful classic piece.
Review: This book is a standout because every piece in it is an elegant classic worthy of the effort required to build it. I don't know of any other book for which I'd make that assertion. More often books have just a few designs that meet the requirements of truly elegant proportions, classic design and practical utility for a modern home, while the majority of plans given are historically interesting but often display awkward proportions and have little practical value for the way we live now, and the spaces we live in. Not all old designs are good designs! The title of this book, "Fine Furniture for a Lifetime," is appropriate because the designs are so excellent that you'll never in your lifetime come to the realization that you've outgrown them, which can happen with lesser designs. Instead, I think you'll appreciate them more as your design sense matures.

The author's constructed examples are beautifully done, from what is often magnificent wood. The process photographs are clear and informative. The construction steps are well organized and presented. Suggested techniques are professional.

I do have one criticism, and that's regarding the drawings. All of them are done as an exploded view, and in perspective. Only a few dimensions are given on the drawings. You're required to refer to a separate cutting list to get the actual measurements. There are no straight on elevation or plan drawings. These drawings are well done, and together with the cutting lists the information's all there. But you have to labor intellectually a bit more than otherwise necessary to make sense of it. This is in contrast to the furniture drawings of Carlyle Lynch or Franklin Gottshall, for example, who do give you fully dimensioned plan and elevation drawings, and also perspective exploded views where needed. But in my opinion the designs in this book justify the additional effort required.

If you build any one of the ten designs in this book it will have been well worth the price. Build a few of them and you'll have a bargain. Judging by the very inexpensive used copies listed here as I write this, this book hasn't gotten the acceptance or respect it deserves.