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REVIEW FIELD TEST

Collins Complete Woodworker’s Manual

A Raspberry Pi-controlled CNC machine (see issue

38 of our sister magazine, The MagPi) may bring

your workshop up to date, but most projects can be

completed with simple hand tools and near timeless

techniques. Power tools and machine tools will speed

up the job, but you also need an understanding of

the basics.

Collins Complete Woodworker’s Manual gives you

the lot – bar the Pi-controlled CNC machine – and

does it extremely well. Before the World Wide Web

(the first edition dates from 1989), weighty tomes like

these were a great way of collecting knowledge on a

topic. Here, design, tools, and techniques are taught,

with little presumption of prior knowledge. The book

is not project-led, yet the principles and practice of

designing and building projects like bookshelves,

cupboards, chairs, and tables are covered.

For some, this will be enough to get started; for

others a project-based book will be a good companion

to this manual, to build the practical experience and

confidence to tackle the design and construction of

the cabinets you dream of for your projects. In either

case, Jackson and Day, aided by Simon Jennings’

wonderfully clear layouts, bring you knowledge far

more clearly and concisely than most YouTube videos.

Easily picked up for a pound or two at charity shops

and car boot sales, the first and second editions

(the latter owned by your reviewer) are astonishing

bargains. But the later edition from 2005, bought

new, is cheaper than most programming books –

yet the skills unlocked within will not go out of date.

An essential for beginners, and you’ll refer to this for

decades to come.

ersonally, one of this author’s

favourite things about the maker

movement is not all of the

soldering, coding, and robots –

much as I love them – but the

revived interest in traditional crafts.

Fabrics, etched glass, wood. Particularly wood.

Wood is a material that brings uniqueness –

through grain, knots, and finish – to the appearance

(and feel) of each object made. It carries history too

• whether from a conifer planted during our lifetime
  for low-cost softwood supplies, an oak planted long
  before Nelson won at Trafalgar, or a tropical hardwood
  recovered from a demolished Victorian building.

Collins Complete

Woodworker’s Manual

Authoritative,

clear, concise

guide to all

aspects of

working

with wood.

VERDICT

Albert Jackson and David Day £30 harpercollins.co.uk

9 / 10

By Richard Smedley @RichardSmedley

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