Best Beginner Woodturning Book

Re: Best Beginner Woodturning Book

JL

Too wide reaching a question (IMO).

What sort of turning would you like to do?

Bowl? Spindle? Furniture?

I like Richard Raffan's books - his "Complete Illustrated Guide to Turning" is good.

But frankly, experience is the best teacher. Take a turning class or three.

You will get a lot more out of it (stance, how to hold tools, etc.) than any book.

Re: Best Beginner Woodturning Book

Dick Coers

Anything by Raffan. Nothing beats finding a mentor. You'll discover what tools you like, what other tooling to buy, and someone to watch the sublties needed to be a successful turner. Find a club near you!

Re: Best Beginner Woodturning Book

Jack Guzman from Maine

David,

You can get more answers in Woodcentral's turning forums. Click on messageboards,it's one of the options.I haven't been able to make much progress with turning from books. When I have trouble with it I go to the turning forums and ask questions. Alot of helpful knowledgeable people there.---Jack

Re: Best Beginner Woodturning Book

John K Jordan

I learned woodturning from two books:

"Turning Wood" by Richard Raffan

https://www.amazon.com/Turning-Wood-Richard-Raffan/dp/156158956X

and

"Fundamentals of Woodturning" by Mike Darlow.

https://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Woodturning-Darlows-Mike-Darlow/dp/1565233557

There are others that are good but these two are still my favorite. I periodically go back and re-read sections. I bought extra copies so I could loan them out.

JKJ

Re: Best Beginner Woodturning Book

Bill Howatt

Taking a class, as suggested, is really a good way to get started turning. If you haven't turned, the books are sometimes not that easy to understand. In this regard, DVDs can be better and a book with a companion DVD is even better.

If you are able to join a club they may have an library of media you can borrow and they will be a source of of courses in addition to lots of helpful people to answer your questions. Demos too.

I joined a club years after I taught myself to turn and was shocked to find out how much I learned at the meetings even though I thought I knew it all!

Bill

Might want to ask in the Turning section

Re: Best Beginner Woodturning Book

Don Stephan

Raffan book and dvd combinations.

none

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

I didn't read other's responses but my opinion is that you can't learn to turn from a book. Go take a class, or just have at it and learn by doing. Apparently it works because I know professionals that learned this way......slowly.

opinions vary

John K Jordan

>>>I didn't read other's responses but my opinion is that you can't learn to turn from a book. Go take a class, or just have at it and learn by doing. ...

My own opinion is learning from a book (or two) may not be for everyone but is certainly possible. That's what I did. One simply has to be able to read, then try, then repeat.

One-on-one instruction or a class is certainly useful. But a caution: years ago I took a beginning bowl-turning class years ago and learned some really bad techniques. From the books and my "doing" I learned why they were bad and found better ways. That's one reason I never rely on any one expert, instructor, or author.

Being self-taught can result in wonderful, creative innovation. Or maybe not so wonderful if the teacher (self) is not so good or creative...

Videos are wonderful resources. But compared to a book? - a video that had all the info in a single good book would be many, many hours long. And I can't make notes in the margins.

JKJ

Re: Best Beginner Woodturning Book

Don Orr

In my opinion the single best beginner book is "Woodturning, A Foundation Course" by Keith Rowley.

All the Raffan books are excellent, Ellsworth has an excellent book , Darlow's can be a bit heady and technical.

"A Lesson Plan for Woodturning-Step-by-step Instructions..." is also a very good book and the one we use in our club with beginners.

Find a club and check what they have for a library.

Be safe and have fun!

FWIW...

Mike Farinella

I'm a hobbyist and the only woodworking tool I don't own is a lathe. Why? I knew up front that getting proficient on a lathe requires hands-on experience that doesn't come from a book. And I never lived close enough to a community that offered turning classes.

I hate to offer a possibility

Bruce, a MN Galoot

because it could cost you a new lathe, but...

There is not a wood turning program within many miles of me. However, a friend brought me along to a MN Woodturners Association meeting and I learned there were a couple proficient turners in my own small town. I never would have learned that any other way.

OTOH....

John in NM

There is Allan Batty vid on youtube that is a big help for spindle turning with a skew. Its a commercial video, so well produced and informative rather than the usual youtube vid with a lot of hemming and hawing and many umms.

I agree you probably can't learn from a book in this case, but well made videos are a reasonable substitute for hands on instruction.

Re: FWIW...

John K Jordan

>>>I'm a hobbyist and the only woodworking tool I don't own is a lathe. Why? I knew up front that getting proficient on a lathe requires hands-on experience that doesn't come from a book.

Mike, you may be selling yourself short. I guarantee it is possible to learn woodturning without a person or even videos because I did it and I'm not the least bit extraordinary.

I got started when I bought a lathe from Home Depot and a set of tools from Sears because I wanted to make something for my son, in architecture school at the time. A friend had shown me some things he made so I knew I needed a lathe to make round things. By experimenting with the tools I was able to make the item for my son - a long spindle to fit in a cradle to make a tracing paper dispenser.

Some months later I brushed the dust off the lathe, glued together pieces of red oak board and said "I'm gonna make me a bowl." It came out fine and my sister loved it. Soon after that I bought the Darlow and Raffan books and learned how to use the spindle gouge, skew, and bowl gouges and bought a real lathe. (And eventually learned how to sharpen!)

Perhaps the path I took was not the easiest but it certainly worked. For example although I was told to stay far away from the evil skew, the experts in the books used it so why not me? The exercises suggested in the two books I mentioned were quite effective - soon the skew was my favorite tool.

Today I certainly enjoy a good demo and an occasional class, but with few exceptions they are presenting ideas about how to hold or make something or ideas about design or color or embellishment or best of all, inspiration for excellence and creativity.

I hear and read this all the time, how it is not possible to learn and develop expertise in turning without instructors/classes/mentor/demos/videos. (Such advice sometimes comes with "I can't learn by reading, I need to see it.") It probably depends on the individual and how stubborn, er, focused he can be.

JKJ

I learned from a book- and magazine

john lucas

When I bought my shopsmith I wanted to learn to use the lathe. I don't remember what book I bought first (I have probably 60 or 70 now). I do remember reading articles in Finewoodworking on turning as well as whatever book I got first.

Granted I think learning to turn from hands on is far far superior. I do realize that some simply don't have a way to do that. there are some good videos out there now (mine included). The AAW is now reviewing videos and will put a link on their site. These videos have been reviewed for accuracy and safety. I just volunteered to be one of the reviewers, hope that not going to be a nightmare. there are some downright dangerous videos out there which is why this got started.

Re: Best Beginner Woodturning Book

Roy Girolami

John, I have to admire your library. I counted my turning books and find I only have 52.

Roy

Re: FWIW...

TomD

I started woodturning around the time that Del Stubb's video came out. I learned some from that. And a lot from Raffan, his projects. I did my first wood turning from FWIW articles, I turned my first bowl from a nasty piece of wood, an a horrible sheet metal lathe using the table saw for power.

Raffan at the time had an integrated system. For the time, he was technically sounds, and you could get Raffan books, swag, and videos. That was an advantage at the time as one could get all the relative supports from one consistent source.

Wood turning is HIGHLY dependent on your lathe set-up. So Stubbs tought on the locally produced General 160, which I owned. I later owned the Harrison Union Graduate Raffan did his early stuff on. There is no point in getting a book that describes processes in a way that you can't do them on your lathe. The Oneway as an example, workholds, cuts, chucks, and finishes in ways that are not possible on my HUG or my Conover. Some of the teachers like Ellsworth (from what I understand) have the basic popular lathes in their classroom so they can demo for any student.

Raffan is a skill oriented teacher, which I like. For instance, when I learned he taught a virtually freehand method of grinding. That has stood me in good stead over the years as I segued into other things like knifemaking, and tool making. He has exercises to increase your ability with the skew. But there are other ways to go, you can try everything known to man to avoid building skills, and there are endless jigs and tools designed to deskill the process.

One thing about wood turning, is it proceeds really fast. You can do everything from design through to harvesting materials from the rough, through to final finishing, in a few minutes. You gain skill quickly because there is no reason for projects to stall in the face of, say, 100 hours of sanding. It really pays to be someone who can figure out the code on how to build a business that can sell your product, even if you have no interest in selling the product. Otherwise you have a 4 K lathe, 1 K of bowls, and nowhere to take it almost right away. Some guys enjoy the competitions...

Re: Best Beginner Woodturning Book

AZ in Colorado Springs

I have the book by Rowley. I learned a lot from that, have viewed a few you tube videos, and read a few tips here at wood central. I'm mostly self taught.

The first guy to put a gouge to a rotating piece of wood was self taught ...

Start with small spindle projects and work your way from there.

And, you must have a method for sharpening. Your tools will contact a lot of linear feet of wood quickly, so you'll need to be able to resharpen.

Re: Best Beginner Woodturning Book

ebd

I strongly disagree with those who have said that you can't learn woodturning from a book. I was given an old (1946) Homecraft lathe. I first tried it on my own to make some christmas ornaments. Had a terrible time.

Then I got Mike Darlow's book and found that some of the techniques (using a skew) were counter-intuitive. But by following his instructions I got there quite easily. I'd suggest his "The Fundamentals of Woodturning" as a good starting place.

Also, under no circumstances should you buy "Beyond Basic Turning" by Jack Cox unless you are an engineer that likes to read obscure and esoteric descriptions. That book made my head hurt. Never did get through it.