Wood Bender's Handbook Paperback – March 4, 2008

After getting in over my head, I bought three books on wood bending: this one, Schleining's "The complete manual of wood bending" and "Fine Woodworking on Bending Wood." This one is oriented towards building guitars and other fine instruments. It omits coverage of milling and coopering wood to obtain curves, and the coverage of planning and drawing is superficial. One potentially useful section covers computing the length of a radius from the shape of the curve. The book has an okay narrative with a pleasant writing style, but I found it short on practical knowledge. Some of the writing is cute. For example, the author pushes homemade hot pipe irons, because the commercial ones cost "what one could dine on for a week." I would rather have been given an actual dollar figure. I've since learned that a good commercial one can be had for about $.... Unless you eat at Taco Bell... Overall, I recommend that most woodworkers will get more out of Schleining's book, which is filled with easy-to-read advice gleaned from years of practical experience. Schleining does not focus on building instruments, however. If you are looking for plans, this one has them: oval boxes, walking sticks, boat ribs, and chair backs.

Well written, concise and very helpful for the hard worker. Recommend 4 sure

This is really a thorough book about bending wood. It is exactly what I was looking for even though i have several other books on the subject. I believe this author knows his stuff and explains it in a way that is uncomplicated and consequently understandable for most of us. Worth the money I think.

A great book for learning the basics of wood bending or new ideas for bending. I have been bending wood for instruments for many years but am always looking for other ways to do something. If I can learn one thing new from a book then the book was worth it. I don't think a book has ever been written that answers all questions but they can start you thinking about the unanswered ones and how to solve them. But this book does answer quite a few questions. Bob

Yes, I would like to get into bending wood for furniture applications as well as boat building. This book was very informative.

Not that much info about bending wood

this book has a lot of useful information for wood bending projects.

Thank you for everything. I could not be more pleased.

I am in the process of building a boat and I need to know how to bend wood, to hopefully create a pleasant looking interior. This is a beautifully produced and superbly designed little book, full of great colour photos and easy-to-follow methods for bending wood for instrument making and furniture. It describes the different ways and methods for bending wood, and has drawings of how to make your own steam box etc. It deals with clamping and making jigs and much much more. It made me feel confident that I might even be able to bend a piece of wood! I look forward to the warmer weather when I can practice wood bending, and then applying it to the finished boat. I highly recommend this book.

Bought as a present. Person seems very pleased with it. Very good condition.Unfortunately postman folded it to push through letterbox, this made a crease on the front cover, would benefit from stiff cardboard both sides of cover for posting. Otherwise satisfactory.

Excellent book very well written full of facts

excellent book that covers everything you need to know when it comes to bending timber..clear concise instructions and hints/tips that are invaluable to beginners..

We bought this book for a friend very useful .Very good, explained very well.will tell everyone about this bookjust great.