Customer Reviews

Shop Drawings for Craftsman Furniture: 27 Stickley Designs for Every Room in the Home (Shop Drawings series)

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

 

 

There are a lot of books about making Arts and Crafts furniture, but only a few really good ones. Some offer inspiration, some offer detailed instructions, and all offer a brief history of the Arts and Crafts movement. Very few offer the kind of detailed drawings it takes to really build the furniture pictured.
I'll confess that I haven't built a piece from this book yet, it's simply too new, but a review of the drawings tells me that I could start on a piece tomorrow knowing that the dimensions are accurate.
Here's where the experience part comes in. There are no step by step instructions. It is up to the reader to interpret the drawings, decide on the construction techniques to use and plan the project before starting. This book won't tell you the order in which to assemble the parts you make, you'll decide that, among many other decisions. To me, that's part of the fun and challenge of building furniture.
If you are inexperienced in building furniture, buy this book for future projects and also buy one with some detailed instructions in it for your first few pieces. (I'd recommend "Authentic Arts and Crafts Furniture Projects" by the editors of "Popular Woodworking" magazine.)

This book is an excellent compendium of arts and craft style furniture, but boys and girls, check your measurements when you start some of the pieces. I built the wardrobe No112 and have pretty good shop experience. I found errors all over that particular wardrobe. I can understand bad measurements but some were obviously the planners fault.
Admittedly I have not built anything else in the book and this is a fairly elaborate piece. But I found myself shaving off full half inches where I shouldn't have to. Triple check any measurements made and you will be fine! It is unfortunate that such a detailed book with great ideas for plans does not have its measurements doubled checked. The scales for the furniture in the book do not match some of the drawings either. When I get a series of drawings I expect the measurements to be tried and tested. The book does have a good set of suggestions to build the furniture. Sometimes drawings are missing though that would clarify the project. The economy of pages makes the carpenter lose out.

Professional cabinet maker and draftsman Bob Lang's Shop Drawings For Craftsman Furniture: 27 Stickley Designs For Every Room In The Home is an a draft book filled with precise, exacting line drawings that can be used as models to create a wide variety of elegant and practical home furnishings. A beginning section aptly introduces novice builders to the art of interpreting shop drawings, and the drawings themselves come with brief commentary and instructions. Overall, Shop Drawings For Craftsman Furniture is a superbly presented, highly recommended do-it-yourself guide, and especially useful for building a handmade holiday gift when store-bought gifts just won't do.

Ever since building our first piece of "Stickley" style furniture I've been looking for a book with more ideas. This one certainly filled the bill. Given the time, I could outfit my whole house with these attractive pieces! Mr. Lang's style helped make it an enjoyable read while his hints and advice came in useful from the start. An added benefit was the facinating history of the Stickley company. It really gave me some insight as to the designs.

I built the #332 Morris Chair from the plans in this book and found a huge mistake in the measurements: the chair was fully 4" too wide (I caught this in time to fix it, thank goodness). In Mr. Lang's drawings the seat area is measured at 27" wide; in all the Stickley catalogs, it's clearly labeled as 23". Several of the other dimensions were also questionable.
Much of the information in the book, in the text and the drawings, is very valuable. I've enjoyed the book and would buy it again in a minute. Just make sure, if accuracy is important to you, to check his details against every picture and description of an original piece that you can find!!

23 pages of "how-to's" and then detailed 2D and isometric drawings with dimensions and with cut lists. Cheap paper, no color, but clarity is very high because the plans are in drawing form rather than photos. Could have been improved with exploded diagrams of through-tenon joints, but Stickley's craftsmen didn't need that evidently. The projects are authentic, and work for woodworkers who don't want any style upgrades and only want the 1rst generation Arts and Crafts that the book represents.

I am in the middle of making the Prairie Sofa based on Mr. Lang's dimensions. It has been a long haul. I followed his dimensions very closely and when I went to assemble the sides and back, I was not even close. This is bad. I would advise, if you are taking the books dimensions at face value, you should do your own calculations to make sure it is going to work.
I have met Mr. Lang at a woodworking show in Ontario California. When I mentioned to him I was making a project from this book he had a look on his face like "ok, give me the grief". Well I didn't, as I was not far enough into the project to know better. It is a nice book for the inspiration to build, just be careful with the dimensions.

I have enjoyed looking at the plans and for the most part are very well done but I have built some of the pieces and have found errors in the measurements - as you should always do Measure Twice and cut once

Overall I would buy other books from Mr. Lang

This book provides detailed drawings for some of the great Stickley pieces. They also sell detailed plans. I like to use the book as a reference against the Stickley Catalog to see how things have changed over the years... I believe that you could easily produce a piece of this furniture using this book without any plans if you have a good woodshop. With Stickley prices... go buy some quarter sawn oak and get to work.