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Methods of Work: Finishing: The best tips from 25 years of Fine Woodworking
It took 25 years to gather the essential woodworking information in this four-book series. The books were culled from "Methods of Work, " a column in Fine Woodworking where woodworkers share concerns and offer suggestions for better craftsmanship.
- GenresWoodwork
240 pages, Paperback
First published September 6, 2000
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June 13, 2010
Finishing Methods of Work is one of those compilation books made from a magazine column--the kind where people write in with questions, I presume, and a pool of experts answers them--where the answers to common or interesting questions over the years are collected and grouped together by approximate category. Our curator has also drawn the illustrations for the book, and these are helpful at throwing light on some particularly strange homespun kludges, like the airbrush made from tubing, felt-tipped marker, and a syringe, or the inverted clothes iron mounted in one overzealous DIY-er's workshop for the purpose of warming his coffee.
Thus the book is useful for two types of people: a) those who happen to see the solution to their random problem in its pages, the kind of person who's been looking for the right way to bring out the tone and grain of the wood in the custom rifle handle he or she's been whittling, and b) experts who are interested in amassing a mental collection of solutions to potential problems or plan to use the book as a reference work. Unfortunately, I'm not either of these people; I am a beginner looking for a book that would give a good introduction and explanation of different staining, varnishing, and other finishing options for a few roomfuls (and a yardful) of furniture I want to finish or restore. Really, I probably should've just asked my dad what to do, but I thought I'd try to learn something more broadly.
I did learn a few things - how to varnish that gun handle, for example--and I became familiar with a handful of terms and general things to be careful about. The most interesting, if least applicable, chapter was the one on nontoxic finishes for food-contacting surfaces and children's toys, if only for the odd perspective of it all; this bit, for example, raises more questions than it seems to answer: "Cherry produces cyanide-like compounds, which are potentially lethal, but they tend to concentrate in the fruit and foliage of the tree. The wood is not known for causing fatalities."
(*puts down her nontoxically glazed bowl of cherries*)
The biggest problem, though, is the second-to-last troubleshooting chapter, which, since the original questions have been removed from the book, starts off each question creating and addressing a straw-moron who has ruined his or her project, an embarrassment now filled with white specks, potholes, discolored rings, or what have you. The experts have managed to come up with homebrew solutions to all of these problems, mixing and heating oils and shellacs and pigments together like chemists. These precise solutions are geared towards specific problems, which you probably don't have since it's a book of answers to those very specific problems. But, they'll be quick to warn, you should never mix products to try coming up with solutions to your own problems, at least not until you've consulted a chemist at the company whose products you're using. Step away from the linseed oil, fool! This chapter is terrifying, and will scare any novice out of even attempting a furniture-finishing project by him- or herself. I'm now convinced that anything I do to those maple bookshelves I ordered will result in some sort of moon-surfaced disaster. I already ordered them, so at this point I'll probably just keep them, try to put this book out of my mind, and call up and ask my dad what to do. I like his approach of "sure, it's easy, you can do that yourself" a little bit better.
Thus the book is useful for two types of people: a) those who happen to see the solution to their random problem in its pages, the kind of person who's been looking for the right way to bring out the tone and grain of the wood in the custom rifle handle he or she's been whittling, and b) experts who are interested in amassing a mental collection of solutions to potential problems or plan to use the book as a reference work. Unfortunately, I'm not either of these people; I am a beginner looking for a book that would give a good introduction and explanation of different staining, varnishing, and other finishing options for a few roomfuls (and a yardful) of furniture I want to finish or restore. Really, I probably should've just asked my dad what to do, but I thought I'd try to learn something more broadly.
I did learn a few things - how to varnish that gun handle, for example--and I became familiar with a handful of terms and general things to be careful about. The most interesting, if least applicable, chapter was the one on nontoxic finishes for food-contacting surfaces and children's toys, if only for the odd perspective of it all; this bit, for example, raises more questions than it seems to answer: "Cherry produces cyanide-like compounds, which are potentially lethal, but they tend to concentrate in the fruit and foliage of the tree. The wood is not known for causing fatalities."
(*puts down her nontoxically glazed bowl of cherries*)
The biggest problem, though, is the second-to-last troubleshooting chapter, which, since the original questions have been removed from the book, starts off each question creating and addressing a straw-moron who has ruined his or her project, an embarrassment now filled with white specks, potholes, discolored rings, or what have you. The experts have managed to come up with homebrew solutions to all of these problems, mixing and heating oils and shellacs and pigments together like chemists. These precise solutions are geared towards specific problems, which you probably don't have since it's a book of answers to those very specific problems. But, they'll be quick to warn, you should never mix products to try coming up with solutions to your own problems, at least not until you've consulted a chemist at the company whose products you're using. Step away from the linseed oil, fool! This chapter is terrifying, and will scare any novice out of even attempting a furniture-finishing project by him- or herself. I'm now convinced that anything I do to those maple bookshelves I ordered will result in some sort of moon-surfaced disaster. I already ordered them, so at this point I'll probably just keep them, try to put this book out of my mind, and call up and ask my dad what to do. I like his approach of "sure, it's easy, you can do that yourself" a little bit better.
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