With the Grain: A Craftsman’s Guide to Understanding Wood

by Christian Becksvoort You can download an excerpt from this book here. A little knowledge about trees goes a long way toward improving your woodworking. You don’t need a degree in dendrology to build a desk. But you do need intimate knowledge of how our raw material grows and – more importantly – how it responds to its environment after it has been cut and dried. This knowledge allows you to tame the wood into the shapes you have envisioned in your head. And it ensures that your furniture will endure the seasons and age with grace and aplomb. That is why we are particularly pleased to offer the third revised edition of “With the Grain: A Craftsman’s Guide to Understanding Wood” by Christian Becksvoort. This is the book about wood that we wished we’d had when we started woodworking. It is, above all, succinct, easy to understand, and perfectly suited for the furniture maker. As important as what is in its 160 pages is what is not. It’s not a detailed analysis of cell growth. It is not