Rating: 
Summary: A Great Book for What It Is
Review: A woodworking store employee sold me this title as the Woodworker's Bible. After reading through it, I realized I really needed the Woodworker's Mistle.I am new to home woodworking and needed a good reference as an introduction to wood. Why is cherry best for this project? What's going to happen to walnut if...? Why should I stay away from this specie for this project? And so on... This wasn't it. It is a very in-depth, fabulous book and if I am still enjoying woodworking and building my woodworking skills 5 years from now this book will be invaluable. Again, I thought the book was incredibly interesting and comprehensive, just a little over the average amateur's head (and needs).
Rating: 
Summary: New Edition combines the best of several Undergraduate txt.
Review: As a professional Wood Scientist, I wholeheartedly recomment this updated book for wood identification of softwoods, domestic and exotic hardwoods(colored side by side photos), basic engineering princilpes, utilization, and general wood principles. For my oral exam in graduate school, I was advised to memorize this book and neglect all others. The advice was good!
Rating:
Summary: Very good book but a little technical
Review: I am college educated and a beginning woodcrafter, I bought this book expecting to learn about the different types of woods and their characteristics. This book covers that an a whole lot more. However, much of the book reads like a chemistry or physics text book beginning with the very basics and expanding into applications. The reading is a bit more tedius than I was expecting, but most of the material is helpful. I anticipate it will be used as a reference as my experience and education expand. Overall I would recommend the book.
Rating:
Summary: The theory of woodworking
Review: I can honestly say that this book is for everyone who works with wood, from the occasional home whittler or handyman to the professional creating engineered lumber.
It covers every aspect of the material, starting with the way a tree's growing environment affects the lumber product. Hoadley gives a variety of different points used in identifying the wood's species. He then discusses the effects of cutting green wood in different ways, drying it (how-to, how long, when it's done, etc), and machining it.
Hoadley doesn't discuss woodworking machines per se, but gives a lot of attention to the interaction of blade and material. He shows the details of how cutting tools affect the visible surface of the wood, and the problems that can come from poor edges, blade angles, pressure, and other factors. He also discusses joining pieces of wood, gluing them, and finishing them.
There is so much here that it's omissions are more noteworthy. It discusses glue joints, but says very little about specific adhesives. That's fair - there are so many, for so many purposes, that the topic deserves an encyclopedia of its own. Also, the adhesives and bonding techniques used commercially are very different from the ones available to home woodworkers or small shops. Any detailed discussion of adhesives would have missed someone's needs. Ditto finishes - the topic is mentioned only briefly. Hoadley's most surprising advice about finishes is the idea of skipping them altogether. He's passionate about the wood itself, and a "least is best" approach shows the material to its best advantage.
With it's profuse and beautiful illustrations, this could be a coffee table book. The information around the pictures is the book's real strength. I find something new in it each time I come back.
//wiredweird
Rating:
Summary: Not perfect but overall great.
Review: This book covers a tremendous amount of information that the general woodworker needs to know but would likely take 20 years to learn on his own. So why isn't it sold in my local wood working specialty store? Because it has a weak first chapter that can be confusing and slightly incomplete. Other parts of the book are better written. Don't let the first chapter scare you off just keep reading, it gets much better and quite thrilling at times. By the time you finish you will feel as though you've taken a college level overview course on woodworking. The information gets deep but is decently written for the non-engineer most of the time. I feel lucky to have found this book.
Rating:
Summary: A serious book for motivated woodworkers
Review: This book is not about woodworking, it is about wood. It is not about the «HOW»s but about the «WHY»s. The author describes wood as a material: how its anatomy and life determine its structure, how the way it is harvested and prepared (dried, riped, planned, etc) will affect its properties, etc. You will learn nothing about the practice of woodworking. Rather, you will acquire background understanding that is essential to anyone who wants to think by himself when working with wood. The tone of the book is a little bit serious. When reading you will have to pay attention. Included are tables, graphics, diagrams, etc. There are lots of lenghty and tightly packed texts, and the edition I read was illustrated by black and white pictures, wich made for a rather austere appearance. The treatment of the subject is systematic, torough and intelligent. The acquired knowledge is pertinent and will make the reader a smarter woodworker, one who understand what he does and who appreciate wood as a wonderfull material, one to be thankfull for its beauty and usefulness.
Rating:
Summary: A Lifetime of Knowledge Isn't Gained in a Single Sitting
Review: This book may appear overwhelming to the person who is new to woodworking, and just wants to make a simple project. As you grow deeper in your skills, this book is a must read. It is fascinating for all levels. Hoadley starts off with looking at wood on a cellular level. The different types of wood, have different cell characteristics. If you look at it scientifically, reducing a substance to its cellular level gives you a cross comparative basis, in which to make relational references. Seeming too technically specific for the person, more interested in router techniques, than a science class. But that is just the beginning. He soon goes into the figure in wood, wood identification, water in wood, coping with wood movement, strength of wood, and other properties. He also covers machining wood, joining wood, and finishing wood. Finishing up with modifying wood, the woodworkers raw materials, and Forests past and future.
I would advise someone who is interested in woodworking, to use this book in addition to the others they may have pertaining to woodworking technique. When you get into the building of projects, and see wood "behavior" then this book will all the more make sense. The relationship of how it was sawn and cured, and in what section of the tree it came from, and be relational to why the wood did what it did. It is the easiest to learn that way.
I found it to be a fascinating read. It is like fine art. At first you say, wow that is great. Then as you see it more and more, you come to appreciate the layers of laws that apply to the medium, and gain all the more from it over time.
For example you may marvel at being able to make a perfect fitting mortise and tenon joint, but do you know what the best possible orientation of growth rings in that form of joinery. One way it is apt to split, another way, it will last 100 years. It may not be as much fun as whether Bosch or Makita makes the best router, but inevitably it will result in a long lasting product. It is a fascinating read. Something that should be put on the shelf as a reference source. Read it ahead of time, and read it afterwards to explain, why this thing did that.
Is this the science of wood? Sure it is, but it is done in such a way that, if you don't mind digging through learning the terminology, so you can understand the higher laws of wood joinery and the like, resulting in knowing what may have taken an old master a lifetime to learn. Parts of it are an easy read. Everyone will glean valuable experience from it. It is not so simple that you can have a beginner explain every sentence, but the learning curve is rewarding.
I find Hoadley to be a technician, as opposed to a salesman. Technicians are interested in purely the scientific understanding of the fundamentals, and the relationship of behaviors to bring about the desired result. A salesman is interested in the excitement and appeal of the project, but not the depth from which Hoadley covers the subject. I must admit, that at times it is a dry read. It can best be described by taking a small amount of text from the book. Here is two sections on mortise and tenon joinery. He starts out with this: "Fastening of end grain to side grain joints can be accomplished with a high level of success using mortise and tenon joinery" Later in the same subject he states, "The improvement in mechanical advantage obtained by increasing height is offset by increased dimensional conflict between longitudinal and transverse grain orientation." There you have it. If we knew the terminology that he uses, we could better understand the meaning of the second sentence. What it means is that if you increase the height of the joint, you create a wider surface area, and that creates a stronger joint, but that is offset by the additional expansion and contraction movement in a wider piece of wood. Since the boards in a mortise and tenon joint are typically joined together with grains running against one another, this is a major consideration. We knew that! :-) I had to read that sentence and ponder it before I knew what he meant. At times it reminds me of learing the computer. At times it is frustration, but with understanding, which is a breakthrough, come elation. This book will take you to higher laws and levels.
I guess I am getting wordy. I am excited about this book. As Woodenboat states it on the back cover, "Clearly the best book available on the subject."
I highly recommend you to buy this book. It is an easy read, and it is a complex read, all wrapped up in one book. Each time you reference it, you will derive more and more information from it. It is like fine art. A lifetime of knowledge isn't gained in a single sitting. No matter how many years you spend in woodworking, this book will be right there with you, ever unfolding the true relationship of the product we have come to love; Wood!
Rating:
Summary: A must for anyone interested in quality
Review: This book takes you from qualitative to quantitative understanding by means of accurate, readable explanations and a minimum of fuss. For instance, after explaining why a house settles, Hoadley shows us clearly how to estimate how much it will settle and what a knowledgeable builder could do about it. Or take this simple woodworking situation: you are building a towel rack from two side pieces of white pine drilled to accept a maple dowel. Exactly how much wider should the hole be than the dowel so that expansion and contraction due to moisture changes in the bathroom won't split the sides? A little time spent with this book will give you the ability to answer questions like these, quickly, exactly, and with authority. No more guessing about the effects of moisture, temperature, finish, and loads on wood: just look up the data in the clear and handy tables and graphs Hoadley provides and do the simple calculations (it's multiplication and division, folks, with nothing harder than an occasional exponent). Almost every chapter contains revelations for the newcomer to woodworking. Early on we learn not only that wood changes size with moisture, but by how much (according to species), in which directions, how this affects its shape, and what are the common and best techniques to compensate for or design for these changes when building anything with wood. Later we learn how to relate these moisture changes to humidity--there's a clear and handy chart, as well as an easily memorized rule of thumb--and how to build and calibrate a simple shop hygrometer. In another chapter Hoadley applies this information to a discussion culminating in valuable information on sanding and finishing wood. The many applications to an understanding of all things wooden make this book stand out for the casual reader, while the detailed, systematic explanations of the whys and hows make it ongoingly useful for anyone who crafts quality things from wood. It is the ideal supplement to an entire library on the how-to's of woodworking, because with the information given here, you will be equipped to make intelligent choices of how to select, cut, assemble, and finish a project of any size and complexity. The only nit I have to pick has to do with the presentation of mathematical formulas: it's miserable. For instance, in one place the expression "D/O" stands for a single quantity rather than a value "D" divided by a value "O". Potentially confusing, yes; but what compensates for it is the clear descriptions and examples in the text: these are so good, you can totally ignore the formulas and not miss a thing. Overall, Hoadley's long, thoughtful experience with all aspects of wood, from the engineering through the creative, shine through consistently. That's why I give this one five stars and I'm buying more copies for friends.
Rating:
Summary: Essential material for beginners and experts
Review: This book takes you from qualitative to quantitative understanding by means of accurate, readable explanations and a minimum of fuss. For instance, after explaining why a house settles, Hoadley shows us clearly how to estimate how much it will settle and what a knowledgeable builder could do about it. Or take this simple woodworking situation: you are building a towel rack from two side pieces of white pine drilled to accept a maple dowel. Exactly how much wider should the hole be than the dowel so that expansion and contraction due to moisture changes in the bathroom won't split the sides? A little time spent with this book will give you the ability to answer questions like these, quickly, exactly, and with authority. No more guessing about the effects of moisture, temperature, finish, and loads on wood: just look up the data in the clear and handy tables and graphs Hoadley provides and do the simple calculations (it's multiplication and division, folks, with nothing harder than an occasional exponent). Almost every chapter contains revelations for the newcomer to woodworking. Early on we learn not only that wood changes size with moisture, but by how much (according to species), in which directions, how this affects its shape, and what are the common and best techniques to compensate for or design for these changes when building anything with wood. Later we learn how to relate these moisture changes to humidity--there's a clear and handy chart, as well as an easily memorized rule of thumb--and how to build and calibrate a simple shop hygrometer. In another chapter Hoadley applies this information to a discussion culminating in valuable information on sanding and finishing wood. The many applications to an understanding of all things wooden make this book stand out for the casual reader, while the detailed, systematic explanations of the whys and hows make it ongoingly useful for anyone who crafts quality things from wood. It is the ideal supplement to an entire library on the how-to's of woodworking, because with the information given here, you will be equipped to make intelligent choices of how to select, cut, assemble, and finish a project of any size and complexity. The only nit I have to pick has to do with the presentation of mathematical formulas: it's miserable. For instance, in one place the expression "D/O" stands for a single quantity rather than a value "D" divided by a value "O". Potentially confusing, yes; but what compensates for it is the clear descriptions and examples in the text: these are so good, you can totally ignore the formulas and not miss a thing. Overall, Hoadley's long, thoughtful experience with all aspects of wood, from the engineering through the creative, shine through consistently. That's why I give this one five stars and I'm buying more copies for friends.
Rating:
Summary: An essential reference manual for woodworking professionals.
Review: This book will prove to be my best in-depth resource for critical information about the materials with which I make my living. As a woodworking professional, I must fully understand my materials to avoid costly mistakes(and a bruised reputation). With Bruce Hoadley's manual, I can make practical decisions or calculations about wood movement, moisture levels, strength and machining characteristics. I can confirm what I already know or suspect of the species I am most familiar with, or start from scratch with a new species I have never worked with. Not a "how-to" manual, it has allowed me to use less guesswork and to broaden my professional knowledge - which helps me win customers over 'the other guys'. This is NOT an easy bed-time read. It is filled with tables, formulas, charts and photos to help get the points across - which Hoadley is able to do well enough in his text with real-world examples and comparisons. But I was a little discouraged (and I doubt it could be helped) by the way this book resembles those dreaded textbooks of my university days. This book is relevant, realistic, and practical. If you are serious about understanding wood, this book should at the top of your list.
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