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HOBBITHOUSE REVIEWS OF BOOKS ON WOOD AND WOODWORKING

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TITLE: Woodworker's Guide to Wood

AUTHOR(s): Rick Peters

PUBLISHER / YEAR: / # PAGES Sterling, 2000, 192pp

ISBN: ISBN: 0-8069-3687-8

PRICE: list $20, street price

Preliminary / brief review:

Not primilariy a book on identifying species, it does nonetheless have a set of 64 pics of different species with a half-page discussion of the appearance and working characteristics of each. There's a somewhat useful chart with each species showing realtive values of cost, density, workability, and finishing. The bulk of the book is on various aspects of wood characteristics, ways that wood products are produced, etc. (see pic of index to the left).

I have some nits to pick, but basically this is a very useful book for the begining woodworker. With some notable exceptions, the wood pics are above average although the lack of end grain shots would have been a more notable omission had the book been intended for wood ID. The pics are shown with half the wood raw and the other half moistened, and although it's not clear whether this was actually done with the wood or if it's an image-manipuation thing, I'm betting strongly on the latter because of the unrealistically sharp demarcation between the two sides even in soft, porous woods where ANY finish is going to blur at the edge of where it is applied.

Preliminary grade: A for overall utility, B for use in wood identification