More of Roy Underhill’s The Woodwright’s Shop Classic Collection, Omnibus Ebook

Includes The Woodwright's Apprentice, The Woodwright's Eclectic Workshop, and The Woodwright's Guide

Roy Underhill

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Year: 2013
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• eBook ISBN:
  9781469612782
• Subtopic: Technical & Manufacturing Trades
• Index: Technology & Engineering

For more than twenty-five years, Roy Underhill has taught the techniques of traditional hand-tool woodworking. In six books and on his popular, long-running PBS series, The Woodwright’s Shop, America’s leading authority on old-time woodcraft has inspired millions to take up chisel and plane.

This new Omnibus Ebook brings together the final three books into another collection of Woodwright classics. Designed for both woodworking novices and for more seasoned woodworkers looking for enjoyable projects, these books feature step-by-step instructions, complete with easy-to-follow photographs and measured drawings.

Included in this Omnibus Ebook edition:

The Woodwright’s Apprentice
Twenty Favorite Projects From The Woodwright’s Shop
The Woodwright’s Apprentice begins with directions for building a workbench. Each successive project builds new skills for the apprentice woodworker — from frame construction to dovetailing, turning, steam-bending, and carving. Among the twenty items featured are an African chair, a telescoping music stand, a walking-stick chair, a fireplace bellows, and a revolving Windsor chair. Designed both for woodworking novices and for more seasoned woodworkers looking for enjoyable projects, the book includes step-by-step directions, complete with easy-to-follow photographs and measured drawings, and an illustrated glossary of tools and terms. All of the pieces presented here are based on projects featured in past and upcoming seasons of The Woodwright’s Shop television show.

The Woodwright’s Eclectic Workshop
This book features step-by-step instructions for such popular projects as the Adirondack chair, tavern table, folding ladder, rocking horse, lathe, and kayak. All projects are illustrated with photographs and measured drawings. The book also includes colorful descriptions of what it was like to be a tradesperson who made a living by hand, working with the tools and methods Roy describes on television and in his books: carpenters, joiners, wheelwright, millwrights, chairmakers, and blacksmiths. As Roy puts it, he wants to examine 'the old paths in the way that they were originally taken: not as adventuresome recreations but a profession that put food on the table and clothes on the kids.'

The Woodwright’s Guide
Working Wood with Wedge and Edge
Roy shows how to engage the mysteries of the splitting wedge and the cutting edge to shape wood from forest to furniture. Beginning with the standing tree, each chapter of The Woodwright’s Guide explores one of nine trades of woodcraft: faller, countryman and cleaver, hewer, log-builder, sawyer, carpenter, joiner, turner, and cabinetmaker. Hundreds of detailed drawings by Eleanor Underhill (Roy’s daughter) illustrate the hand tools and processes for shaping and joining wood. A special concluding section contains detailed plans for making your own foot-powered lathes, workbenches, shaving horses, and taps and dies for wooden screws.

The Woodwright's Eclectic Workshop

Roy Underhill

The University of North Carolina Press

Chapel Hill & London

© 1991 Roy Underhill
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the
United States of America

The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.

13 12 11 10 09
8 7 6 5 4

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Underhill, Roy.

The woodwright's eclectic workshop / by Roy Underhill.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-0-8078-2003-2 (cloth : alk. paper)–ISBN 978-0-8078-4347-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)

1. Woodwork. I. Title.

TT185.U52 1991
684'.08–dc20 91-24669
CIP

Photo credits:
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, pp. 104, 113, 116
Connecticut Historical Society, p. 56
Geary Morton, pp. 165, 169
Gunston Hall, p. 83
Lowie Museum of Anthropology, University of California at Berkeley, pp. 193, 194, 196
Mariner's Museum, Newport News, Va., pp. 185, 186
Rare Book Collection, UNC Library, Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 120
Tart Collection, p. 11 (bottom)
Valentine Museum, Heustis Cook Collection, Richmond, Va., pp. 29, 30, 32
Yale University Art Gallery, p. 82
U.S. Air Force, p. 160
All other photographs by R.E.U.

Parts of this book have previously appeared, in somewhat different form, in WOOD Magazine and in the National Historical Society publications Architectural Treasures of America and The Modern Carpenter and Joiner and Cabinetmaker.

Contents

About This Book

Introduction

1: LOG CABINS

Felling

Squaring

Building the Walls

The Roof

Hinges and Latches

Chinking and Daubing

Fireplace and Chimney

Built to Last

Axemaker

Henry, Go Soak Your Head!

The Woodlot

2: BUILDING ON

The Carpenter

Steeple Story

A Connecticut House Frame on a Caribbean Island

Four-Harness Loom

The Joiner

Making Planes

An “Unknown Young Man,”

Jefferson's Ladder

The Brickmaker's Hand

3: MACHINES

The Turner

The Wheelwright

The Millwright

The Cooper's Tale

Robinson's Mill

The Gunsmith

Mayhew and the Dark Side of Woodcraft

4: FURNITURE

Folding Folk Chairs

Chair/Table

The Chairmakers

Tavern Table

Butterfly Table

The Old Kitchen Table

Revolving Bookcase

Country Comfort—Adirondack Chair

The Carver's Son

5: AMUSEMENTS

The Toymaker

Toys

Rocking Horse

The Boatbuilders

A Wood-and-Canvas Kayak to Build in an Afternoon

Ishi

Toboggan

6: MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

Appalachian Dulcimer

Walking-Stick Flute

Boxwood Recorder

Three Centuries of Woodworking with Joseph Moxon

Sources

Index

About This Book

The Woodwright's Eclectic Workshop is the fourth in the series of books that I have written to accompany the PBS television series, “The Woodwright's Shop.” The third book, The Woodwright's Workbook, was published in 1986. This book, then, contains projects, stories, and articles from the past five years in the Woodwright's Shop. Joining a half-decade of work into a single piece inevitably leads to some odd combinations that I hope you will find curious, amusing, useful, and informative. Think of this book as a chest packed full of tools, books, clothes, and a picnic lunch thrown in for good measure. You can't work all the time.

Over the past five years I have worked with a lot of folks, most of them right near home. I have an easier time than most people who do research on early trades. Here in Colonial Williamsburg, all I need to do to pick the brains of the world's leading authorities on many woodworking crafts is to simply walk down the street and ask. I say this not as a boast, but in acknowledgment of a great privilege.

The high standards of this community of craftsmen-scholars are due in large part to the stewardship of Earl L. Soles, Jr., longtime director of historic trades at Colonial Williamsburg. Contributors to this book from within the department of historic trades are almost too numerous to mention safely without leaving someone out, but here I go. First, in the building trades, thanks to Bill Weldon, Garland Wood, Russell Steele, Frank Grimsley, Dan Whitten, Robert Watson, and the late Dave Robinson. In the wheelwright's shop, thanks to Dan Stebbins, John Boag, and Ron Vinyard. In the blacksmith's shop, thanks to Pete Ross, Rick Guthrie, Ken Schwarz, and Jay Close. In the gunsmith's shop, thanks to George Suiter and Gary Brumfield. At the Hay cabinet shop, thanks to Marcus Hansen, Mack Headley, Dave Salisbury, and Kaare Loftheim. At the cooperage, thanks to George Pettengell, Jim Pettengell, Cary Shackleford, and Lew LeCompte.

Also at Colonial Williamsburg, I am indebted to Susan Berg, Liz Ackert, Suzanne Brown, Cathy Grosfils, and Laura Arnett for their assistance at the research and audiovisual libraries. In the photographic section, thanks again to Pete Huffman, Dawn Estrin, and the director of audiovisual productions, Richard McCluney.

Among the other individuals and organizations that helped in the preparation of this book are: Frank A. Norick and the Lowie Museum of Anthropology; Rich Mally and Everett C. Wilkie, librarians at the Connecticut Historical Society; Mary Lee Allen at Gunston Hall; Charlotte Valentine at the Mariner's Museum; Bill Cuffe at the Yale University Art Gallery; Eryl Platzer at the Valentine Museum; Barbara Shattuck at the National Geographic Society; Pete Stephano at WOOD Magazine; and Lisa Mullins at the National Historical Society. Finally, Claire Mehalick, who has had a photo credit in each of the preceding books, appears in the photograph with the dulcimer.

“The Woodwright's Shop” began as a television series in 1979. For the great job that they have done since the beginning and at every step along the way, I want to thank Bobby Royster and the staff at the UNC Center for Public Television. If you have watched the television series, Geary Morton, director and coproducer of the series, is the man to thank for what you see.

“The Woodwright's Shop” is underwritten on PBS in large part by the State Farm Insurance Companies. All of us are grateful for their enduring support in making television safe for serious woodworking comedy.

This is also my fourth book with the University of North Carolina Press. They are quite a team and don't approve of individual thanks, for fear that someone might get left out. So, thanks to everyone. The Press building in Chapel Hill burned down while this book was underway. You all never missed a beat.

Here in the Underhill family, Jane, Rachell, and Eleanor were a tremendous help, as always, and I am very lucky to have their support and affection.

Most important, but most neglected, are all the folks who have written to me. I can't say enough how I wish that there was some wa...

Table of contents

• More of Roy Underhill’s The Woodwright’s Shop Classic Collection, Omnibus E-Book
• The Woodwright’s Apprentice
• The Woodwright's Eclectic Workshop
• The Woodwright’s Guide