There are numerous recommendations for beginner-friendly woodworking books, available on the internet. However, there are certain differences that make only some rank in the top trending list. So, we have profiled a list of top 7 woodworking books for beginners to learn the overall concept of woodworking and its usability from the grassroot level.
All the choices, mentioned below, feature vivid project demonstrations; both by text and images. You will also get the option where the author offers video tutorials on YouTube. Our primary motive is to suggest books that will teach and help you build wooden stuff even better than what has been shown in the book.
Table of Contents
Woodworking Books for Beginners
1. Woodworking: The Complete Step-by-Step Guide to Skills, Techniques, and Projects
Tom Carpenter’s Woodworking: The Complete Step-by-Step Guide to Skills, Techniques, and Projects is currently one of the sellers on the market. This book is fit for both a tenderfoot as well as a pro-grade user. Here you get the full-fledged expert guidance to master your skills to become a refined woodworker. It is basically a 2 in 1 woodworking book, as it contains both a woodworking project guide and skills-building guide.
Total 41 woodworking projects have been provided inside the book; for both indoor and outdoor furbishing with the accessories that strike the viewer’s attention. What more? You get more than 1,200 images, detailed demonstrations, easy diagrams with stepwise instructions and time frames for hassle free project completion. You will get a list of the prerequisites; materials and tools individually mentioned under every project instruction.
Additional information regarding the procedure of wood selection, shaping, drilling, measuring, layout and marking, cutting, clamping, gluing, and more. In all fairness, it is a beginner-friendly book that makes the concept of woodworking a cakewalk. This woodworking guide undoubtedly surpasses all its competitors in terms of comprehensiveness, affordability, and applicability.
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2. Good Clean Fun: Misadventures in Sawdust at Offerman Woodshop
Nick Offerman’s Good Clean Fun: Misadventures in Sawdust at Offerman Woodshop is one of his many sellers in the New York Times. In this book, you get the complete discipline to learn and get into woodworking as a professional. Like any other woodworking guide, here also you get a couple of demo projects to try out initially.
This besotting guide demonstrates various types of projects based on every level of expertise, with simple instructions. Other than that, you get some vivid and vibrant colored pictures of the instances of those demo projects. Whether you are a professional woodcrafter or beginner, with Offerman’s woodworking guide, you will really find doing your projects quite entertaining and easy as the book itself is quite illuminating and useful to all.
The book renders shop tips, in-depth demo projects insight, tricks, and more. The DIYers will also find the book equally amusing and useful and is a great fit to the workshop of any woodworking enthusiast. In all fairness, this funky woodworking tutorial guide will make your work more fun than ever.
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3. Woodworking with the Router by Bill Hylton
Bill Hylton’s Woodworking with the Router is an undisputed Woodworking guide, which contains how to do woodworking with a router. The details have been presented in the easiest way possible, so that the reader can learn and grab the concept fast and easily.
The book helps you with molding, cutting decorative edges, gluing up joint edges and surface wood, shaping furniture of different paradigms, cutting circles, ovals, curves, cabinets/panels, all types of practical cuttings including rabbets/laps, dadoes, half or dovetails laps, and sliding dovetails, mortise-and-tenon joints, making simple fixtures and jigs, and what not! With this guide, you can make different designs, learn how to use templates for shaping parts and making intricate cuts with precision, using a router table.
This revised guide edition is simple, vivid, readable, and comprehensive. Plus, it features all the required tricks and techniques you might need to discover your router’s never-reached potential.
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4. The Handbuilt Home by Ana White
Ana White’s The Handbuilt Home guid is specifically dedicated to the occasional woodworkers and DIY enthusiasts. This book is a great compact option to learn and create modern day furniture, according to one’s lifestyle. Anything starting from a bed, a play table to an Adirondack chair, etc., this guide is a versatile choice on the market at present.
The simple to build, cost-effective cum quality furnishings with an indispensable collection of other woodworking projects, makes this book an inspiration to the homemakers, who always look for the furnish their residence with. The DIY spirit of this guide is also equally commendable.
The good part about the book is that woodcrafter’s of any level of expertise will find it really helpful to their requirements. Inside the guide, you will get detailed plans of 34 woodworking projects, which have been designed taking every section of your home into consideration. The beginner-friendly guide is laden with comprehensive data on how to use basic equipment and off-the-shelf woods/lumbers effectively and purposefully.
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5. Great Book of Woodworking Tips by Randy Johnson
Randy Johnson’s Great Book of Woodworking Tips guide features shop-tested suggestions and descriptions of how to achieve any woodworking project successfully. The ultimate woodworking guide includes the steps of how to rout edge joint fittings perfectly at every try, how to sharpen any type of router bits(including the bits of the carbide router) and blade, how to store, move and 4×8 sheets simply by your own. Making drawer slides, clamping and gluing of odd mitred and curved cuts, warped wood flattening, and others are some of the additional information provided in this guide.
If you are a DIY hobbyist, then this book is going to be of great reference to your occasional projects. The book contains reader-written woodworking techniques and tips from American Woodworker magazine, which is the premier woodworkers’ publication. This is a 650 page volume comprehensive guide that provides simple yet feasible solutions to common woodworking issues.
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6. Complete Starter Guide to Whittling
Complete Starter Guide to Whittling, by Editors of Woodcarving Illustrated, is the seller on the market, typically targeting the beginners. This comprehensive book includes 24 easy wood carving projects with stepwise demonstration. Not just that, you get vibrant photos to get a better practical view of the projects shown in the book.Here you get to know how the classic toy whittlings are done, how this whittling technique is applied on the twigs and branches to make the ultimate work of art/showpiece.
What are the 4 fundamental types of knife cuts that are commonly used in whittling, what to consider while selecting a whittling knife, what are the doables to sharpen the knife for smooth and secure whittling, etc., are all what you get inside this wood carving guide.
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7. The New Bandsaw Box Book
With David Picciuto’s The New Bandsaw Box Book, your woodworking project experience will be more worth than just making the box. Just a little piece of wooden block followed by a couple of challenges and your box is ready with a satisfyingly useful project output. There is no denying that box making projects are the most common/ranked, especially among the beginners as well the advanced craftsman.
Being a great fan of making boxes, typically the ones that he made with his reliable bandsaw, David Picciuto uploads weekly round-ups on YouTube for his woodworking followers. So, other than his textual tutorials, you get to see some of the practical wood box making projects with more clarity. Every project of David is demonstrated in a stepwise manner through a modern approach, so that the reader/viewer finds it easy to learn. The author has made sure and focused on the information accessibility through his engaging manner of explaining things as lightly as possible.
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Conclusion
Well, these are only some of the most bought beginner-centric woodworking books trending in 2021. Each of them is unique with their own set of pros and cons. However, here are top three picks from the list:
- Good Clean Fun: Misadventures in Sawdust at Offerman Woodshop Many practical woodworking project demonstrations available with easy to follow steps.
- The Handbuilt Home Perfect for furbishing one’s residence with unique home decor woodworking ideas that are easy to conduct and get it done without a hassle.
- Complete Starter Guide to Whittling This book is typically recommended to the whittling enthusiasts.
