A Christmas gift certificate is burning a hole in my pocket!
I was about to order Landis' _The Workbench Book_, which I have heard
highly praised, and seen in the library. But I was intrigued by the
description and Amazon reviews of The Workbench : A Complete Guide to
Creating Your Perfect Bench -- by Lon Schleining. Anyone here seen
both books and can give pros and cons of each?
Similarly, I was going to get Leonard Lee's Sharpening book, but see
the new one from Tauton, authored by Lie-Nielsen. Anyone who has seen
both and can offer a comparison?
--
Alex -- Replace "nospam" with "mail" to reply by email. Checked infrequently.
Mon, Dec 27, 2004, 1:27pm [email protected] (alexy)
A Christmas gift certificate is burning a hole in my pocket! <snip>
Me, I wouldn't buy a book, simply on someone else's recommendation.
Primarily, I very seldom buy any book, unless I have already thumbed
thru it and know exactly what it contains. Secondary, I've found long
ago, books recommended to me by other people, are seldom books I would
buy on my own.
I'd go to a bookstore, find a copy, and look thru it, then decide.
Or, go to the library, same - if they didn't have a copy, I'd check on
them borrowing a copy.
Woodworking books are getting more expensive all the time. I'm
finding that few of them have more than one or two projects that
actually interest me. And, I've found I can usually find the one or two
project plans somewhere else, cheaper, or even free. I've gone to B&N,
and other bookstores, looked thru books priced at $35, with maybe one
project that interests me - usually the plan is on the web, maybe even
free, but at the most usually maybe $10 - so it would make sense to me
to buy just the one plan, not a book, and "save" $25.
I have paid up to around $45 for a book. But, you can damn well bet
it has a lot to interest me, and I'll be refering to it, on a regular
basis. My personal (woodworking) library at one time was larger than my
local library. About all of the books were bought from a used
bookstore, at prices from $.50 to about $9 each, most somewhere in the
middle. A lot of them are in almost as new condition - some of which
were sold new at $35, and I bought for around $5 each.
My way of thinking is, one of the workbench books would be great.
But, how many workbenches are you going to make? Same with a sharpeing
book, once you learn how, how many times you go to be using it?
Besides, Scarry Sharp is free.
Me, I think I'd get a book on making boxes, probably one of Doug
Stowes.
JOAT
People without "things" are just intelligent animals.
> A Christmas gift certificate is burning a hole in my pocket!
>
> I was about to order Landis' _The Workbench Book_, which I have heard
> highly praised, and seen in the library. But I was intrigued by the
> description and Amazon reviews of The Workbench : A Complete Guide to
> Creating Your Perfect Bench -- by Lon Schleining. Anyone here seen
> both books and can give pros and cons of each?
>
> Similarly, I was going to get Leonard Lee's Sharpening book, but see
> the new one from Tauton, authored by Lie-Nielsen. Anyone who has seen
> both and can offer a comparison?
> --
> Alex -- Replace "nospam" with "mail" to reply by email. Checked infrequently.
I have the Scott Landis book "The Workbench Book", this gives four complete
classic designs, total plans you can build from as well as a vast history of wood
working benches, awesome book. I intend to buy the Schleining book but I cannot
comment on it yet. I also have the Lee sharpening book which simply is an
awesome wealth of info on it's subject, in every field of sharpening of every type
of tool from chisels to plane blades to drill bits and kitchen knives, nothing
about your lawnmower blade I don't think...but entirely worth buying. My suggestion,
you have an Amazon gift certificate, just go to a major chain store like Borders
and Barnes & noble where you can compare two books side by side.
Alex
On Tue, 28 Dec 2004 17:49:22 -0500, [email protected] (J T)
wrote:
> My way of thinking is, one of the workbench books would be great.
>But, how many workbenches are you going to make?
So you need all the books you can get. Even buying books brand-new,
full-price is cheaper than mistakes in the benchmaking budget.
Wed, Dec 29, 2004, 1:29am (EST+5) [email protected]
(Andy=A0Dingley) claims:
So you need all the books you can get. Even buying books brand-new,
full-price is cheaper than mistakes in the benchmaking budget.
Nah. You goes to your local library, borrows a copy of the
pertinent book, copys the pertinent pages, if necessary, makes your
workbench, and returns the book. So, you're out a couple of bucks for
gas, instead of $$$ for a book you'll only use once. I can spare a few
bucks much easier than I can maybe maybe $35, especially when the end
results are the same.
Then you spends a few bucks more for gas, go to a decent used
bookstore, and spends what was saved by not buying one new book, on
several used books.
JOAT
People without "things" are just intelligent animals.
The Landis book is pure inspiration. There was/were three
books put out by Taunton in almost the same time frame, The
Workbench Book, The Workshop Book (also by Landis) and The
Toolbox Book by Tolpin that really belong in any tool
junkie's LEEbrary.
Sorry, I don't know about the other.
UA100, who isn't much of a help other than to say that the
money won't be wasted on the Landis book...
On Mon, 27 Dec 2004 23:28:41 GMT, Unisaw A100 <[email protected]>
wrote:
LEEbrary.
(sigh...but I mean this in a good way...)
Regards,
Tom.
"People funny. Life a funny thing." Sonny Liston
Thomas J.Watson - Cabinetmaker (ret.)
tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (real email)
http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1