Product Description

Make authentic reproductions of handsome, functional, durable furniture: tables, chairs, wall cabinets, desks, hall tree, more. Construction plans with drawings, schematics, dimensions, lumber specs reprinted from 1900s The Craftsman magazine.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #32880 in Books
• Published on: 1986-01-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780486250007
• Condition: USED - VERY GOOD
• Notes:
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Customer Reviews

Good book for experienced folks...
This book is a collection of articles/plans that originally appeared in Gustav Stickley's THE CRAFTSMAN magazine near the turn of the century. It has several plans for "classic" Mission/Stickley furniture. Unlike a Norm Abrams (New Yankee Workshop on PBS) book, there are not detailed instructions on HOW to make the joints and features shown in the drawings. Nor is any assembly sequence given. How people knew HOW to do this stuff back then is unknown to me. I love this book. However, I would not recommend it to a novice woodworker. Stickley furniture is all about joinery. This book does not explain HOW to create any of the marvelous joints. Unless you already know how to make pegged mortise and tenon joints, before you grind a lot of oak or cherry into sawdust and eventually firewood, consider buying books by Norm Abrams, Tom Moser, or Tage Frid first. If you aren't a builder and want to look at interesting pictures of Mission furniture, consider buying one of the many reproductions of Arts and Crafts furniture catalogs. A favorite of mine is the "Arts and crafts furniture, the complete Brooks catalog of 1912" by Dover Press.

Good Design Guide, Bad Construction Manual
As a guide to making funiture for the home craftsman, this book should get either zero or one star. It includes a couple of dozen projects which consist of line drawings, a brief description, a parts list, and minimalist plans - just an elevation or two, poorly done.

HOWEVER, these are, by definition, authentic Stickley designs. If you are an intermediate or expert woodworker and a good designer, you can take these plans and drawings and then make your own detailed production drawings.

In summary, what you get in this book is a couple of dozen drawings of furniture and some commentary, both of which are of historical value and of interest to the woodworker. Incidentally, I have seen at least two of the designs in some modern mission furniture construction books.

Good for experts, Novices should avoid
This book has great elevation plans for authentic craftsman furniture. A good number of plans are included. However, if you are looking for a book to teach you the basics of furniture making in the craftsman style, this is not the book for you. There are no exploded views of the pieces and no real description of the process.