Tools of the Trade: The Art and Craft of Carpentry

It's a shame that this book is now out of print and likely to become scarce, as I have given it on several occasions and have always received many thanks in return. The author fills the reader, even a reader with minimal knowledge or interest in carpentry, with a true respect for the tools, their usage, and the history behind them. Not just the history in a greater sense, but also the history these tools have in the author's life.

I'm now reading this book for the third time. I usually like to pick it up when my office job is making me dream of a life building and remodelling houses.

Regardless of how many partially read books you've left behind, you will read this one to the very last word. It has the homey-isms you'd expect after reading the reviews and the reader comments and is a lovely read because of them. It has the communing with tools discussed by reviewers and you will never see a hammer the same. It explores the art and craft of carpentry so you'll see more when you next see a finished cabinet or framed house. But there's more. Jeff Taylor is a fabulous writer. (You'll find his work in everything from anthologies to the latest woodworking magazines.) His story telling ability and Rich Iwasaki's photography come together to make Tools of the Trade a book both from which you'll learn--it will leave you changed--and you'll thoroughly enjoy; rarely paired benefits. Buy the book. (Aside: Maybe I have a weak mind, but I like bite sized chunks of reading. I'll almost always dive into them and read a bite or two even when time is short. Taylor's 26 five- to six-page chapters are just such.)

This is a book you can read to your children (I have)! As a hardware retailer, I am fortunate to be surrounded with wonderful, powerful & mysterious tools almost every day; but Jeff Taylor's essays let me in on what happens when these tools go from showpiece to workpiece. Most of the books I have read concerning tools, woodworking, etc seem to have the common thread of minimilist instructional tone...just like your high school drafting teacher. This book taught me more about tools than any other. Great stuff.

Who would have thought that anyone could write more than a scant paragraph about a hammer? Jeff Taylor not only wrote an entire chapter, but made it so intriguing that I read every word (often out loud to whoever was in the room), and turned eagerly to the next chapter and tool. I gave it to my husband when I reluctantly finished; he ordered three more for gifts. Yes, it's a book about tools, but it is also a book about teachers, not only of the craft of carpentry, but of the more difficult art of coping with the foibles of human nature. Taylor's prose leaps from resounding metaphor to the language of the street in an engagingly warm and humorous fashion as he introduces his readers to each tool and all the mysteries and wonders they hold. Mundane objects like Yankee drills and framing squares take on personality when seen through the author's eyes (and through the incredible glamor of the book's photography). Glamour? Hand tools? Yes! Only halfway through the book, I conceived a powerful craving for a rosewood level -- and I am not a carpenter. Not only are we made privy to the secrets of each tool, but also to the secrets of the myriad characters who instructed him in his craft. And these teachers are definitely characters, masterfully sketched.Crusty, perhaps, sometimes even shifty. But they knew their trade, and after a lifetime of working with their hands, they knew fifty tricks with a hammer and other things the home dabbler has never dreamt of.They knew their tools. So does Jeff Taylor -- now. Even if you've never held a hammer in your life, you'll appreciate this book. It's a great read, and a must for the woodworkers among your acquaintance for Christmas. Buy several, because you'll keep loaning yours out, and it won't come back.