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Books on Wooden House:
Fine Decorative Wood Boxes
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Manufacturer: Sterling
List Price: $19.95
Our Price: $34.95
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Average Customer Ratings:
Follow a master craftsman’s secrets for creating intricate, beautifully decorative pieces. He reveals the best tools; handiest jigs; tips for converting wood; hints on matching veneers and finishes to attain the desired look; and more. “[There are] 10 exquisite boxes, all instructions and photographs included, from a surprisingly sophisticated diskette box to the octagonal Chinese balls container.”—Booklist.
PRODUCT DESCRIPTIONS:
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 745
EAN: 9781402703171
Format: Illustrated
ISBN: 1402703171
Label: Sterling
Manufacturer: Sterling
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 144
Publication Date: 2003-05-28
Publisher: Sterling
Studio: Sterling
SIMILAR ITEMS:
• The Book of Boxes: The Complete Practical Guide to Design and Construction
• Celebrating Boxes
CUSTOMER REVIEWS:
Big Letdown -
I love the picture of the box on the cover. That is the only thing I love about this book.
If you want to see how to build the box on the cover (and other similar boxes that are shown in pictures throughout the book), you won't learn it from this book. In fact, the boxes that you are "shown" how to build are not so impressive, in my opinion.
Further, I consider myself a pretty accomplished woodworker and a guy who has put together quite a bit of machinery and electronics with pretty lousy instruction manuals. However, if this book was given to me as a manual on building the boxes in it, I would be VERY frustrated.
For example, the "step-by-step" instructions for the VERY FIRST project continually instructs you to refer to other projects later in the book to learn how to perform a particular step. I'm sorry, but if you are teaching the first project in the book, a reader should not have to flip back to the middle of the book to learn how to perform a step.
This book shows you one way to make a box using one set of tools and substrates. If you can buy it for the $8 I paid for the book, it MIGHT be worth the money just for some alternative ideas. However, I have seen articles in magazines like Fine Woodworking that give better step-by-step instructions on building veneered boxes using less difficult techniques and more commonplace shop tools.
So, while I am impressed with the picture on the front of the book, I am disappointed that the book was poorly written and no instructions on building the box on the front of the book appear anywhere in the book.
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Disappointing but nice for the right crowd -
Well. I have been to Andrew Crawford's website and I think his work is terrific, looks great, and uses wonderful techniques. So I expected this book to share many of those techniques. There's barely any hardwood used in the book so it won't cover issues such as wood movement and such things, but I expected it to be the case as most work is made out of beautifully veneered plywood (even though it is a bit of a letdown for me as I would have lliked to know how some of those techniques would work with hardwood).
The real disappointment, however, comes from the choice of the boxes for the projects in this book. There are a couple boxes that I've seen on AC's website and look nice, but most are far from being on par with the work shown on the website and as interesting. I wanted to see how he makes those sweeping, curvy, arlequin boxes, but that type of box is shown only on the cover and on some photos, for advertisement, but not in any project. Not good when it's the box that is featured on the cover of the book. The curvy sides (laminated) box featured in the book is a project that would seem better suited for papier maché than woodworking imho.
Very little hardwood in the book but there is still some nice hardwood work on the website that is far above what is shown here, so why not include some of those?
Despite the critiques, it is still a nice read, especially if you are intereted in beautiful veneer work and techniques and don't mind the plywood-centric construction. Quick but good sections on tools, finishing, mounting hardware etc.
Buy this one last.... -
If you check out my other reviews on box making books, you will want to start with one of those first. Box Making Basic's, by David m. Freedman, or Box Making, by Doug Stowe. After mastering the basic techniques and you feel confident in your box making talents, go ahead and purchase this book. Mr Crawford designs and makes beautiful art boxes, and his book is very good at taking your thru the steps to make your own variations of his creations. Nice section on tools, their care and use. Real good sections on selecting woods and veneers. Lots of pictures and diagrams to assist you in constructing the 10 projects contained in the book. Mr Crawford does a lot of inlay and veneer work. This is the reason you want to have the basic's firmly in hand before moving on to these projects. It's a new ballgame here. I have been making boxes for quite awhile, and some of mine have been fairly exotic, but Mr Crawford's book is way up there in the "WOW" factor. Especially the gallery portion at the rear of the book, featuring other artist's work. With all that said this is a "working mans" book. You can tell that he wants you to understand how to do this type of work and goes to great lengths to help you accomplish a finished product. As in most of these type of books, the author is attempting to teach you the basic's with tried and true designs, but expects you to supply the imagination to go beyond what is contained in the book. This is an excellent book, a welcome addition to my "library" and I highly recommend it.
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