Manual of Traditional Wood Carving

If a person could only have one book on woodcarving, this would be THE book. It was written back in 1911, so some of the material is out of date. For example, the section on how to sharpen tools is dated. Some of the "tone" of this large (568 page)book is in the style of stuff written at that time. It can be a bit preachy and it can get a bit philosophical at times. For example it talks about how learning to carve wood makes you a better person. But these points are so minor, when you consider the entire book, that they cannot even be considered as flaws. There is no other book which even tries to cover just about all types of woodcarving. It covers:tools, history, and styles. It provides an almost unlimited (1146 to be exact), and certainly unparalleled set of photos and line drawings of different types of carvings throughout history. He even has a chapter on how to set up training programs for woodcarving for various groups of people. Mr. Hasluck does provide some "how to" information. He provides a set of recommended gauges, clamps, sharpening equipment, bench designs, etc. He tells you about and even illustrates the various steps of carving (setting in, grounding, modeling and finishing). He is the only author I have come across who explains why he recommended every tool that he recommends. This is absolutely enlightening!!! It is interesting that his recommended set of tools is much different from the modern authors on this subject (eg Chris Pye, Nora Hall, etc). After researching this topic, I have come to the conclusion that Hasluck selected his set to be most appropriate to highly detailed relief carving, which is the type of carving that he spends the most time on. I would bet that if someone wanted to start learning how to carve, and they bought only this book, they would be very disappointed. If you are looking for a "how to" book, which gives you a preselected sequence of five projects, from easy to medium, and tells you which tool to use to make each cut in each project, then this is NOT the book for you. There are other books that do this much better. Go to the website for Chris Pye and check out his books on introductory carving, and check out the videotapes of Nora Hall on her website. These will give you much more of the very specific "how to" information on a sequence of specific graded projects. Every really good carver that I know has used this book extensively. Most of the good carvers that I have talked to are mostly self taught. All speak "lovingly" about Hasluck's book. It is the greatest source of carving information and suggestions and illustrations you can find in one place. One of its "drawbacks" is that it is so encyclopedic, that one could not read it from cover to cover. This is more of a reference book that a carver refers to VERY often during his/her development. Hasluck's coverage of Chip Carving is an example of how encyclopedic he is. Other authors on this subject only c

This is one of those rare books written a long time ago (early 1900s) when craftsmen and artists actually made their livings working with their hands (after serving apprenticships under masters). Their art went on to be perfected during a time when such hand-craftsmanship was valued and rewarded albeit simply and honestly. The treasure trove of techniques and historical information in this book is the kind that I typically find only in old books like this one. 'Very applicable to todays professional or recreational woodworker/carver and to those simply interested in historical carved styles evident in todays antiques.

GOOD BOOK AND VERY USEFUL NICE PATTERN,DESIGN,INSTRUCTION STEP BY STEP. THE GREAT BOOK IN YOUR COLLECTION.

This book is more than I expected for. I used to do some woodcarving for more than 4 years then I was teenager and had pretty good teacher explaining woodcarving itself. but this book gave much better understanding about wood, tools and techniques. I've got so many answers into questions which couldn't find by myself.

This is a very worthwhile addition to a woodcarvers' library. I have not read or worked through the entire book yet (it is truly enormous, and I already have most of the skills so it is re-capping them for me) but it is worth 5 stars for the pictures alone - many, many examples of carved furniture through history. Books with that many photos of historical pieces are hard to come by and usually very, very expensive. So for that alone it is worth the price. I cannot yet comment on the written content nor how suitable it would be for a beginner, but it is certainly worth a look.