The Foundations of Better Woodworking: How to use your body, tools and materials to do your best work

by Jeff Miller

Woodworking with Mind, Body, and Senses

What's the secret to producing beautiful furniture that you and your family will treasure for generations? It starts with the fundamentals--those essential, yet often overlooked principles upon which all of your skills should be based.

In The Foundations of Better Woodworking, craftsman, teacher and noted woodworking author Jeff Miller clearly lays out these basic concepts, helping you understand:

How proper body position and mechanics improve your ability to cut precise joins, as well as add efficiency and safety. Just what it means to cut a line. How the wood works, so you can avoid such problems as tear out, splitting and warping--whether you use hand tools, machinery or both. How woodworking tools actually cut and work, so you learn to use them more easily, effectively and accurately. Follow the advice in this book and you'll build the foundation for making significant advances as a woodworker. Your time in the shop will be more rewarding, and your results more satisfying.

Genres: Woodwork

453 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 2, 2012

Reviews

[Tech Nossomy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Richly illustrated guide on working with wood, dealing mostly with the tools as opposed to projects. Topics like wood types or joinery are out of the scope of the book. It is rare to have a guide with images so clear and detailed. Tools covered are both of the hand-held variety and machine variety.

Some deficiencies:
* Some sentences do not flow very well and some photos are repeated.
* The section on saws is somewhat limited.
* The use of glue is barely discussed and there is no treatment on clamps or clamping.
* The books is geared towards the american woodworker as it still uses the imperial system together with its fractional measurement system.
* The last few chapters cover basically the same subject matter and could have been condensed.
* There is no index, bibliography or imperial-to-metric conversion table.

[Youssouf · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good read; The book has increased my interest in woodworking, and I learned plenty from Jeff Miller!

[Christopher Hachet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jeff's book is gorgeously illustrated, well written, and extremely helpful. A true five star book!

[Caleb Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A technical manual of woodworking

I read another project book along with this one to supplement.

It has a lot of good fundamentals, but in all honestly got way too meticulous and boring to read on it's own.

The author obviously understands wood and it's properties. This knowledge and his system of extreme precision are incontinent.


I won't be sharpening any pencils to 320 grit after reading this. I'll stick to a knife.

[Larry Click · Rating 4 out of 5]

Textbook for my woodworking class, but lots of great information. I found that by following suggestions in the book I'm sawing straighter and chiseling better.