Customer Reviews

Glen Huey's Illustrated Guide to Building Period Furniture: The Ultimate Step-by-Step Guide (Popular Woodworking)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

An outstanding book for a beginner or more experienced woodworker. I am truly impressed. I am a fairly experienced woodworker. I own many books on the subject. Glen Huey has produced a very fine book on period furniture.
Another very excellent book is Lonnie Bird's: "Period Furniture Details" I would reccomend buying both books.
This book is more step by step and informative than many.There are five main projects:1.block front chest 2.Massachusetts high chest{high boy}3.Pennsylvania chest on chest 4.Pennsylvania tall case clock 5.New England desk and bookcase{secretary} All projects are thorougly covered with step by step construction instructions.The book is easy to use in the shop with its spiral binding.There is an accompanying D.V.D That is by itself worth the price of the book! Every project has full cut lists and sources for specialty hardware.The D.V.D {82 minutes} has detailed demonstrations on: making cabriole legs,stickered miters,dye finishing,ogee feet and more. There are printable full size patterns for all curved or special parts for all projects on the D.V.D. [One negative the book like many is printed in China and in my opinion the picture and printing are not as good as many others] If you want to build one of these period pieces this is the book for you,you can do it!

I give some context on myself, to help you understand where my review is coming from: I have only built one half of one of the pieces in this book (the lower half of the secretary). I began this book/dvd with basic woodworking skills, but have done no serious furniture building. I have a table saw, scroll saw, router (with table) and drill press. My prior experience comes from boat building.

I consider the book to be an excellent guide to building furniture that you will be proud to have made. The plans are very thorough and the DVD is an excellent supplement for the more difficult parts. Although all the pieces covered in the book are quite involved, there is some variation in difficulty between projects so that you can develop your skills as you work through different projects. Besides hand tools, you will need the tools I mention above as well as a thickness planer. For some pieces you will need a lathe and a band saw. This book has allowed me to make the transition from basic furniture that looks homemade due to its simplicity to truly classic furniture. The pictures that accompany each step are excellent. Sometimes I had to rely on information on the pictures (such as measurements) that I could not find on the plans themselves, but all the information needed is there in one form or another.

This is an excellent book. Great pictures take you step by step through the process of building each piece of furntiure. The book comes with a DVD which was also very good. Glen Huey's book are worth the money if your into woodworking.

This book has both picture and verbal instructions making it easy to use. It includes numerous projects for the woodworker.

Illustrated Guide to Building Period Furniture and Building 18th Century American Furniture and Fine Furniture for a Lifetime (Popular Woodworking) are the same book. I bought the tree at the same time not knowing that.
This is a racket.

I thought this was a great book. very inspiring, detailed pictures.
Lots of good pointers.