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What do a compass plane, a lap splice and a swaged hinge have in common? They’re all things that a woodworker has a pretty good chance of running into at some time in their woodworking career. They’re also three phrases that may be unfamilar. That’s why those phrases are three of the 1,070 entries in The Woodworker’s Illustrated Encyclopedia.
Woodworking has a language that is unique, and if you’re new to the craft (or honestly, even if you’ve been doing it for a number of years) there is terminology that will be new to you. We’ve seen only a few books that tackle the terminology of woodworking. Some have been British, and as such they had a different slant on many of the terms. And a couple cast too broad a net, covering tools and concepts well beyond woodworking. Author Graham McCulloch decided woodworkers needed an encyclopedia to help them through the language, and he also decided adding photos and illustrations to the definitions would make things even more clear. We agreed, and it’s been a fascinating process.
After compiling listings for five years, Graham started putting the definitions together and developed helpful illustrations for each. Some were easy; “hammer” has 24 illustrations. Others proved challenging; “crazing” (“a series or network of fine cracks in a varnish or lacquer finish due to age or excessive sunlight exposure. Humans wrinkle, furniture crazes”) was the last definition to be illustrated. It seems crazed furniture is not a photo most woodworkers have in their portfolio.
Most of us would agree that a dictionary or encyclopedia isn’t on most people’s summer reading list (let’s face it , it’s a reference book, not literature). So Graham also worked to keep things entertaining throughout. I’m particularly fond of the “Duct Tape” entry. It traces the beginnings of this humble giant back to ancient Greece, including the autographed photo of the originator, Aristotle Duct.
If you’re new to woodworking, or if you’ve been working wood for decades, The Woodworker’s Illustrated Encyclopedia will prove invaluable, educational and entertaining. We’ll announce it here when the book is available (late September) at the Popular Woodworking Shop, but in the meantime, take a look at some of our other offerings.
– David Thiel, editor, Popular Woodworking Books
Here are some supplies and tools we find essential in our everyday work around the shop. We may receive a commission from sales referred by our links; however, we have carefully selected these products for their usefulness and quality.
