Building 18th Century American Furniture is the latest book from Glen Huey and F&W Media.  It brings together what I think are the best projects from his first three books together.

The 20 projects are:

1. 18th Century Cupboard
2. Chester County Tall Chest
3. Chippendale Entertainment Center
4. Diminutive Dish Cupboard
5. Massachusetts Block Front Chest
6. Massachusetts Highboy
7. Mt. Lebanon Shaker Counter
8. New York/Canadian Stepback
9. Pennsylvania Chest on Chest
10. Pennsylvania Tall Case Clock
11. Shaker Press Cupboard
12. Shaker Sewing Desk
13. Shaker Small Chest of Drawers
14. New England Secretary
15. Slant-Lid Desk on Frame
16. Townsend Newport Highboy
17. Sheraton Field Bed
18. Seymour Sideboard
19. Federal Inlaid Table
20. Queen Anne Drop Leaf Dining Table

Now when I heard this was coming out I was both a bit upset but yet excited.

I was upset because I felt the book should have added a new project or two or should have added a few of his best furniture projects from the magazine but I’m sure this was much simpler for the publisher to put together and won’t knock them for that.

But what I liked about this was the fact that I now have ONE book with Glen’s projects (that I would build) out in the shop instead of 3.  I say that because with Glen’s first book (Fine Furniture for a Lifetime) I am on my second copy.  (I use that book at an idea guide, a project reference, you name it.  That book has my favorite woodworking book ever!)

But like all good things his first two books have been remanded so unless you go to Glen’s (WoodworkersEdge.com) site you won’t be able to easily find them.  (and now  you don’t need to!)

So if you are new to Glen’s work or new to woodworking you’ll really enjoy this book.  Its really a step by step book with tons of photos instead of just text with a photo here and there.  This way you get to see what he’s talking about.

NOTE: This book is a collection of projects from Glen’s first 3 books:

• Fine Furniture for a Lifetime
• Building Fine Furniture
• Building Period Furniture

Here is a photo of my Chester County Tall Chest that I built from his book.

• Collecting every how-to book we can find on a topic
• Subscribing to every woodworking magazine we can find
• Scouring the web for every free plan we can dig up
• Buying museum books covering a specific time period
• Or a combination of all

Now I’ll be the first to tell you I refer to my museum books (and Glen Huey’s) all the time.  They are an endless resource of detail and information when I can’t get my hands or eyes near a collection to study for a project.

Tome Reader by Ozyman

Well as the years go on those books are being publish less and less and the ones that are out there are becoming harder to come by and if you find the one you want or need it costs a small fortune!

So with the graces of the internet, more auction houses and bloggers are posting beautiful photos and details online.  Now the problems with this is keeping track of them and let’s face it when you need them your computer will crap out and you’ll lose your bookmarks.  (Personal experience it talking here)

To help get around this I found a wonderful free tool on the internet (on for my iPhone) that does all that but more for you.  It’s called Evernote and if you haven’t seen it, it’s worth its weight in gold!

Some of its features are the following:

• “Type a text note. Clip a web page. Snap a photo. Grab a screenshot. Evernote will keep it all safe.”
• “Everything you capture is automatically processed, indexed, and made searchable. If you like, you can add tags or organize notes into different notebooks.”
• “Search for notes by keywords, titles, and tags. Evernote magically makes printed and handwritten text inside your images searchable, too.”

I’ve used this so much that I’ve graduated from the free version to the pay version.   By doing so I’m now keeping track of woodworking projects, work ideas, home photos, blog ideas, you name it and it can’t be easier to use.   (NOTE: For $5 a month you get more monthly allowance for uploads & storage with the pay version but if you don’t use the crap out it you’ll never need to think about the pay version!)

I don’t want to waste your time with a tutorial on how I put it to use.  I’d rather you go take a look at it and see how great it is.

And no, I’m no way associated or get paid by them.  It’s just too cool of a tool to not share!

Well two things happened.
1. Experts didn’t really want another board to surf for helping people and
2. Logging blogs seems to be against the law do to IP rights.

With that, I decided to say “well it was a good idea for the year it was up, but it has to go!”

Since then I’ve decided to just create a blog and on it I will be sharing my woodworking projects and go behind the scenes as I work on my upcoming book on Thomas Jefferson furniture.

Along the way I’ll be posting tool/book reviews as I buy them and I’m sure you’ll see non-woodworking things here as well.

Please feel free to comment on any and all posts I have. Tell me when I’m right and more importantly, tell me when I’m wrong! (I’m a big boy, I can take it.)

So for now WWQ will be linked to CreatingSawdust.com but I am actively looking for a way to get WWQ up and running as a way to us fellow woodworkers to help and suggest ideas to each other.

Marquetry Course

I have got to say; if that about page number 3 I knew it was mine! This book starts off covering tools of the trade, what you can buy and build. From there it goes through methods of work including patterns for you to use in your practice. From there they move to building furniture utilizing this method.

One thing to keep in mind, this was written by two Englishmen so there is a bit of a language issue at times. But over all, this book will be one of the books I use over and over.

Now if I could only get the garage cleared so I could build something!!!

Table of Contents:

Chapter One: An Introduction To Marquetry
About This Book
How To Use This Book
Tools And Equipment
Materials
From Tree To Veneer
Techniques

Chapter Two: Tutorials
Historical Background
Assembling Fans By The Template Method
The Window Method
The Fretsaw Method
Parquetry

Chapter Three: Mounting, Pressing And Bordering
Mounting
Two-Stage Pressing
Bordering Styles

Chapter Four: Sanding And Finishing
Cleaning
Sanding
Finishing
Notes On Sanding And Finishing The Projects

Chapter Five: Projects
Oval Gallery Tray
Pier Table
Jewellery Box
Fire Screen

Chapter Six: Furniture-Maker’s Gallery
Appendix
Templates For Designs In Chapter
Drawings For Projects In Chapter
Glossary
Suppliers And References
Index

After completing it, my wife fell in love with it and encouraged me to build more from this style.

Well since then, I’ve built furniture of other periods for myself, others and for a couple of books.

Now I’m trying to figure out what to build next. With that I’ve ordered “American Furniture, the Federal Period” by Charles F. Montgomery. This book I’m told is an excellent book into the world of Federal Furniture.

Once it comes in I plan to review the book and to pick the next piece of furniture for my new home!

Note: This table was built based on a the table Glen Huey built in Issue 148 (June 2005) of Popular Woodwork Magazine.