Currently at the printer. Expected delivery mid/late November.
The Handyman's Book
by: Paul N. Hasluck
In past centuries, skills and trades were passed down from master to apprentice – from one generation to the next. But as the Industrial Revolution gained steam, the age-old link of this knowledge was lost. By the middle of the 20th century, machines had chased handplanes and saws to dusty workshop shelves, and practical details of the efficient uses of hand tools were rapidly fading from collective memory. Fortunately for us, though, the knowledge of these skills was preserved in books written by a handful of prescient writers.
The Handyman’s Book was originally published in 1903 by Paul Nooncree Hasluck, widely considered the father of the DIY genre. Born in Australia in 1854, Hasluck moved to the UK at an early age. An engineer by training, he was a polymath of the mechanical arts and wrote more than 40 books on topics ranging from carving to engine repair to lathework. But for the practices of hand-tool woodworking, this book was his magnum opus. When it was originally released, Hasluck considered it “by far the most exhaustive book on the subject hitherto produced.” These are not empty words. While many books on tools and techniques borrow overlapping information and repeat the same advice, Hasluck’s Book stands apart. There is information here found nowhere else, written not from a perspective of “looking back” on a lost craft but with a sense of immediacy from a skilled craftsman who mastered woodworking in his own shop. This is simply how things were done.
Hasluck’s writing is renowned for its clarity, practicality, and extensive use of illustrations. His aim was to make complex skills accessible to a wide audience, unpacking the tool chest and unlocking the practices of the shop for anyone eager to learn. Featuring the first 13 chapters of the original on tools and their uses, the properties of wood, shop efficiency, making repairs, and outfitting a workspace, this is the most in-depth period text available. In this reprinted edition from Mortise & Tenon, the pages of an original 1903 edition are reproduced exactly as found, yellowed with age and featuring the occasional note from a reader of the past. This volume invites you in to inherit a great wealth of information, to make your own notes in the margins, and to put the shop practices captured in these pages back to work today.
Table of Contents:
Foreword by Michael Updegraff
Introduction
Geometrical Tools
Holding Tools
Paring and Shaving Tools
Hand Saws
Tools of Percussion and Impulse
Boring Tools
Abrading and Scraping Tools
Nails, Screws, and Glue
Timber: Its Growth, Seasoning, Conversion, Selection, and Varieties
Joints
Easy Examples of Woodwork
Workshop Furniture
Fitting Locks and Hinges
320 pages, matte-coated paper, softcover with sewn binding. Printed in the USA.
