The Woodwright's Shop: A Practical Guide to Traditional Woodcraft [Paperback]

Roy Underhill (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1981

Roy Underhill brings to woodworking the intimate relationship with wood that craftsmen enjoyed in the days before power tools. Beginning with a guide to trees and tools, The Woodwright's Shop includes chapters on gluts and mauls, shaving horses, rakes, chairs, weaving wood, hay forks, dough bowls, lathes, blacksmithing, dovetails, panel-frame construction, log houses, and timber-frame construction.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

For more than twenty-five years, Roy Underhill has taught the techniques of traditional hand-tool woodworking. In five books and on his popular, long-running PBS series, The Woodwright's Shop, America's leading authority on old-time woodcraft has inspired millions to take up chisel and plane. Designed for both woodworking novices and for more seasoned woodworkers looking for enjoyable projects, the books feature step-by-step instructions, complete with easy-to-follow photographs and measured drawings.

Roy Underhill is the former master housewright at Colonial Williamsburg. He created The Woodwright's Shop, one of the first television programs devoted to woodworking, in 1979. The series is produced by the University of North Carolina Center for Public Television and has aired nationally since 1981. Roy is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and holds a master's degree from Duke University. He lives in Williamsburg, Virginia.

About the Author

The longtime master housewright at Colonial Williamsburg, Roy Underhill is the leading authority on old-time woodworking techniques. He created The Woodwright's Shop for public television in 1979. The series, produced by the University of North Carolina Center for Public Television, has aired nationally since 1981, with thirteen new programs introduced each year. Roy is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and holds a master's degree from Duke University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 211 pages
• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press (October 1, 1981)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807840823
• ISBN-13: 978-0807840825
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #95,148 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you only buy one book on the subject make it this!, January 17, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Woodwright's Shop: A Practical Guide to Traditional Woodcraft (Paperback)

This remarkable book by the even more remarkable Roy Underhill will inspire you to forget the breathing and ear protection apparatus and get out your hand tools! It has to be the singularily most inspiring woodworking book available. Enjoy the soft smells and quiet sounds of real craftmanship. The rest of the series is indispensible also. And if you enjoy this book you'll also love the book "Restoring Tuning & Using Classic Woodworking Tools" by Michael Dunbar. A MUST for any true craftsman at heart.

41 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What??? Only two reviews???, November 19, 2004

By 

Ryan McNabb (Ooltewah, TN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Woodwright's Shop: A Practical Guide to Traditional Woodcraft (Paperback)

This is one of the finest things ever written! I sincerely hope that a copy of this book lives on the shelf of everyone who has a love for tools and wood and what happens when the two come together. Underhill gives us a look into the world of real hand tool woodworking - no electricity, please. "Start with an axe and a tree and make first one thing and then another until you have a house and everything in it." It can be (almost) that simple, but you have to restore a fractured culture first, and also learn to speak the language of trees and wood and steel. This book will accomplish both those aims.

Underhill, former Master Housewright at Colonial Williamsburg, did the amazing hat trick of turning something as offbeat and esoteric as pre-industrial woodworking into a highly successful career, and became a beloved personality and celebrity in the process. When you read his books, you'll know how he did it. Instantly, you get the sense that his deep affection for his trade, and the trades that support it, illuminates his life. He "sees" things, he doesn't just look. Like ripples in a stream allude to rocks below the surface, he looks at the bark of a tree and understands what lies within - twisted firewood or beautiful furniture? Dissecting an old piece of furniture or part of a house tells you about the tools that made it, and the men who used the tools, and the community they lived in, and what their lives were like. But all of this could be ponderous and self absorbed if it weren't infused front to back with an infectious sense of humor and a Tom Sawyer/Peter Pan view of the world, where if we're lucky we'll all get to run away and be pirates together.

Poetic, lyrical, sad, happy, this book has it all. A true classic from an amazingly talented person. Maybe the 60's hippy culture did ONE thing right - it gave us Roy Underhill, boy genius, and set him loose upon a (hopefully) grateful world. His books, and the first two particularly, make a perfect gift for that tired, world weary person in your life who is thinking that there is something missing in his or her work, that their long days are filled with meaningless seeking, and who might like to turn their hands to something slower, calmer, more beautiful, and decidedly valuable for a change.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Life-changing!, February 12, 2008

By 

Mr. MG - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Woodwright's Shop: A Practical Guide to Traditional Woodcraft (Paperback)

I first saw Roy Underhill on a local PBS station back in the early 1980s. Instantly, I knew that this was the kind of woodworking for me. Screaming routers, finger-chopping table saws and jointers, and multi-horsepower lathes seemed not just dangerous but downright obsolete after witnessing Roy's talents. Honestly, who needs modern woodworking technology when the old methods are clearly better in so many ways? Better for your health and the health of your bank account, and better for the environment. Roy's wonderful series of woodworking books tell you everything you need to get started. They will positively change your woodworking, and your life. Thanks to Roy's books, and others, like Dunbar's _Restoring, Tuning & Using Classic Woodworking Tools_, power tool woodworkers look at my woodworking projects in awe... those amazing and elegant hand-cut dovetails, those silky-smooth hand-planed surfaces, those sweet touches that set my work apart as obviously hand-made. Once you've mastered hand-tool woodworking, you see that the products of woodworking machines stand out as brutal and clumsy. Guys, do not hesitate to purchase the entire series of Roy's woodworking books!