![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/img_1598_edited-2.jpg\" "\\"img_1598_edited-2\\"")
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There are so many excellent sources to read for woodworking skills<\/strong> that it is difficult to sort through what is available to come up with recommendations. So I will start here with three selections that are easy choices, clear gems, first ballot hall-of-famers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Understanding Wood<\/strong><\/em>,<\/em> by R. Bruce Hoadley<\/a>, may be the one book that I would say every woodworker should have<\/strong>. One cannot go very far in improving woodworking skills\u00a0without understanding the material and no source is better for this fundamental knowledge. Dr. Hoadley, professor emeritus in the Department of Building Materials and Wood Technology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, shows how the biological structure of wood determines its physical and working properties. This is not disconnected science but rather is practical knowledge that will make you a better woodworker<\/strong>. First published in 1980, it was revised in 2000. (The free Forest Products Laboratory\u00a0Wood Handbook\u00a0<\/a>is a good backup to Understanding Wood.)<\/p>\n Illustrated Cabinetmaking<\/strong>,<\/em> by Bill Hylton<\/a>, is a\u00a0wonderful go-to book when you\u2019re contemplating a project and need to study the\u00a0options\u00a0for how to put something together<\/strong>. What are\u00a0the\u00a0choices for constructing drawer runners? How much elbow room is needed for a person at a dining table? What are different ways to design a chest of drawers? If a martian landed on earth and wanted to learn as quickly as possible how humans build furniture, I\u2019d hand him this book.<\/p>\n Understanding Wood <\/em><\/strong>Finishing<\/em><\/strong>,<\/em>\u00a0by Bob Flexner<\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>doesn\u2019t just show you how to finish wood, it brings you to an understanding of the subject<\/strong> so that soon you\u2019ll be answering your own finishing questions. I think Bob Flexner\u2019s<\/strong> book and his articles in Popular Woodworking magazine\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0(and a\u00a0nice collection of many of his articles <\/a>) are not only some of the best explanatory writings in the field of woodworking, but some of the best I\u2019ve read on any<\/em> topic! (I’m not worthy…)<\/p>\n Being always a student<\/strong> of this craft, I will in this blog continue to revisit the topic of learning resources<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There are so many excellent sources to read for woodworking skills that it is difficult to sort through what is available to come up with recommendations. So I will start here with three selections that are easy choices, clear gems, first ballot hall-of-famers.\u00a0\u00a0 Understanding Wood, by R. Bruce Hoadley, may be the one book that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-resources"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":209,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203\/revisions\/209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}