Customer Reviews

Build Your Own Log Furniture: Ten Great Projects You Can Build For Fun or Profit

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4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

For a complete woodworking novice such as myself, this one and only manual on building your own log furniture has proven to be worth its weight in gold. The authors walk you through all stages of log furniture construction--from acquiring the necessary tools, wood, etc., to completing numerous projects, including the ultimate prize: a beautiful log bed. While the authors are thorough in their details, they are careful to continually remind the reader to infuse his or her own creativity in the process, leaving some of the specifics of certain the projects up to the reader's desires and imagination. All in all, a wonderful introduction to a craft that produces tremendous rewards for all levels of ability, and one which is not at all inappropriate for those who have absolutely no woodworking experience nor a workshop full of expensive power tools, such as myself. I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes to work with wood, loves the look and feel of log furniture but doesn't want to pay the often prohibitively high prices for such items in retail stores, and/or wants to explore a new, highly rewarding hobby (or perhaps even a profession).

I found this book to be very useful in building my first piece of log furniture. In fact my first project is a log bed (under construction at this time). There are few resources available that teach you how to build log furniture. Dan and Les have written a no nonsense book with detailed information on wood, tools, finishes and etc. The plans are reasonably clear and concise and there are lots of tips that can help reduce the "ooops" factor when building your first piece of furniture. The tools required are simple and fairly inexpensive. If you want to build your own log furniture then buy this book. My only negative coment is that I wish there were a few more projects to chose from.

This is a practical book for working with dry softwood logs. Among others, it has 15 pages on tools, 35 p. on some basics (joinery, finishes...) and 50 p. on various projects. However this includes some big pictures and a lot of white space, or wasted space (e.g. a check list covering 4 pages, with only 15 items /page, and looking useless and stupid to me, pp. 37-40), so that in the end there is not much text per page in average. Although some traditional tools are exposed, everything in the book is meant to be made with power tools (but one could also use traditional tools).

This book does contain some real, practical teaching to help you build things (unlike a book with a deceptive title, Daniel Mac's Making Rustic Furniture). However, as it has so much white space and so little text, I think that it is definitely not worth its price (maybe it should be sold for about 10 dollars?).
If you want to get something for your money, buy instead Drew Langsner's Green Woodworking.

There are few reference works available in this category. Fortunately, this one is a useful, helpful, and clear guide to the art of making log furniture. We have yet to faithfully follow any of the authors' detailed step-by-step plans. The text and pictures were clear enough to enable us to start right off making our own derivative designs. Thanks, guys!

Les has the ability to make it sound as if he is talking right to you in this book. I have just taken an interest in rustic and log furniture and was very happy to get this book from e-bay,and he included his signature!.
The book has several different suggestions, not making one way the only way to do things.
thank you les for your wonderful guidience as I start my new hobby!
jharriet

This book spends very little print space dealing with "how to", and a large amount of space promoting Minwax products, the wide array of power tools required, and how to market your product once it is made. I am a very experienced woodworker. I have all of the recommended tools, and with all of those Minwax sealers, stains and oils. But I am at the same place as a novice as to the fundamentals of selecting wood, debarking, drying, making tenons, drilling accurate mortices, etc. This book was no help whatsoever.

Inspiring ideas for tools and furniture for someone in the coppicing industry in United Kingdom.

Being a beginner this book gave me alot of ideas and step by step insturctions and choices that other books did not.

I just received the book and am reading it (and getting lots of good ideas) but the spelling is atrocious!! Haven't you guys heard of EDITORS? Using a Still chainsaw to build an Amour, or use a Skill saw on your dinning table top and letter rip....oy vey.

I bought this book in 2004 and found it and the video very helpful . In 2004 I paid a total of around $55.00 for both .
Now I need a second copy of the book and find it listed by itself for $52.00.