Thanks for all the kind wishes from everyone. My hand is all healed up and better than its been in over three years. The recovery went faster than expected.
As promised, here is the list of books I read while I was recovering and unable to be in the shop. Detailed reviews may come later.
Making Wood Tools by John Wilson.
John's shop is in Charlotte, MI. That's roughly a two hour drive from here. The shop specializes in Shaker oval boxes. I called to order the book and spoke to John for about a half hour. I will take an oval box class from him this year.
The book looks like a coffee table book in that the photos in the book are all extremely well done. Some of the ideas in it were new to me. I will make a number of the tools in the book. Highly recommended especially if youare just starting out.
Make a Joint Stool from a Tree by Peter Folansbee and Jennie Alexander.
If I were the sort of person to be a fan of a human, Peter and Jennie would make the list. I had previously read John Alexander's, Make a Chair from a Tree so some material was expected. This also qualifies as a coffee table book due to the outstanding photography and typesetting. While I don't see a joint stool in my near future the book did inspire me to rive some red oak from my property to carve and build a 17th Century Bible box in the manner described in Folansbee's videos 17th Century New England Carving,
Cabinetmaking for Beginners by Charles Hayward
The copyright is 1971 but published in 1974, most techniques are hand tool based. My grandfather's garage shop included only a table saw as far as powered tools were concerned. He had a reasonable nest of saws and in my memory only a jack and a smoother plane. There was also a full complement of chisels and whatnot. That, however, was '61 when I "worked" with him. The book seems well suited for a shop of that sort, table saw and hand tools. If you are just getting started it could be quite valuable. The book was originally sold for $3.95 and amazon has several sellers offering used copies for that same price.
I also reread all three of Stephen Shepard's books. Just buy them. They are all worth many times the price.
