Wood Bender's Handbook

A great book for learning the basics of wood bending or new ideas for bending. I have been bending wood for instruments for many years but am always looking for other ways to do something. If I can learn one thing new from a book then the book was worth it. I don't think a book has ever been written that answers all questions but they can start you thinking about the unanswered ones and how to solve them. But this book does answer quite a few questions. Bob

This is really a thorough book about bending wood. It is exactly what I was looking for even though i have several other books on the subject. I believe this author knows his stuff and explains it in a way that is uncomplicated and consequently understandable for most of us. Worth the money I think.

Well written, concise and very helpful for the hard worker. Recommend 4 sure

This book has given me a insight in to the art cold bend hard wood. I have been interested in it from the time I saw wood bending art at a wood working show. Now I am going to give it a try.

Thank you for everything. I could not be more pleased.

Yes, I would like to get into bending wood for furniture applications as well as boat building. This book was very informative.

Great book for information about wood bending

After getting in over my head, I bought three books on wood bending: this one, Schleining's "The complete manual of wood bending" and "Fine Woodworking on Bending Wood." This one is oriented towards building guitars and other fine instruments. It omits coverage of milling and coopering wood to obtain curves, and the coverage of planning and drawing is superficial. One potentially useful section covers computing the length of a radius from the shape of the curve. The book has an okay narrative with a pleasant writing style, but I found it short on practical knowledge. Some of the writing is cute. For example, the author pushes homemade hot pipe irons, because the commercial ones cost "what one could dine on for a week." I would rather have been given an actual dollar figure. I've since learned that a good commercial one can be had for about $.... Unless you eat at Taco Bell... Overall, I recommend that most woodworkers will get more out of Schleining's book, which is filled with easy-to-read advice gleaned from years of practical experience. Schleining does not focus on building instruments, however. If you are looking for plans, this one has them: oval boxes, walking sticks, boat ribs, and chair backs.