The Table Maker: A Carpenter's Guide to Life

by Joel Bird

The mindfulness of carpentry; sourcing and seasoning your timber; tongue and groove, lap and spleen; legs, aprons, stretchers and trestles; fox wedges and tenon through his inimitable artistry, wit and individualism, Joel Bird passes on the skills of table making while also expressing the personal journey that accompanies the learning of these skills. Split into four parts - table beginnings, the table top, the table base and the table finishing - The Table Maker is part meditation and part guide book, and has within its pages the information needed to make a quality table of your own.'The tables I like are quiet. They sit patiently waiting for the day's purpose to reveal itself. They offer themselves to a room, not attempting to grab attention or dominate, inconspicuous in their simplicity, saving their qualities for those who are interested. The table that I grew up with was one such example. A simple 5' x 3' pine table, four legs joined with mortise and tenon joints, a wide apron to support decent dimensions. It still sits as composed as ever in my parent's dining room. It has participated in the raising of two generations that ate and grew and learned at its surface and there is no reason why it won't participate in two more. Can an object such as this be described as having a soul?'

257 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 20, 2018

Reviews

[Chan Fry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was quite an interesting and informative read. I did like how the author regularly switched focus from the physical, technical aspects of carpentry to the mental and emotional facets — including mindfulness and meditation, and how making things can connect us (in a way) to our ancestors and histories, as well as to nature (from which we obtain the raw materials).

But I think a few of these focus switches were forced, or at least felt that way. Some of the in-between chapters (the non-carpentry ones) seemed filled out with fluff or even repetition because he’d already decided to switch back and forth. One other downside was that he regularly emphasized the hands-on joy of “true” carpentry — using manual, hand planes, for example — but then slipped in a bunch of admissions about how most of the work was done with expensive power tools (jointer, thicknesser, etc.) These downsides were minor, but noticeable.

I was also surprised to realize the book was published in 2018... While reading, I thought it was from the 1980s or '90s, based on the quality of the photos, most of which looked like point-and-shoot film photos rather than the high-definition we’re used to.