| | 07/23/2013 |  It's been a record heatwave in the Big Apple and our un-airconditioned warehouse has been in the 90's for the past week. It's hard to get anything done when you are concerned that raining beads of sweat will rust out tools and stain projects. But people are doing their best to get stuff done.
We of course are busy getting new products on-line and Friday, while hard at work taking pictures of the new carpenter's pencils and sharpener's a large, eagerly awaited pallet, full of books, finally showed up.
The four volume set of books by Bernard Jones, "The Practical Woodworkers" is back in print(update: gone again :( ). Finally. The original editions are from the early 20th century, were partially distilled into "The Complete Woodworker" (now out of print) and contained some of the best roundup of hand tool information that I know of. At 1600 pages there's a lot of stuff and there is no point in rehashing what I wrote about in the description for the product. The important point is that this series is one of must reads of woodworking instruction, I own a copy of the original but my copies are to fragile to just curl up with and relax, which I what I did for a good portion of the past weekend, and each time I dip into the books, I learn something.
The other thing that is important is that the Popular Woodworking printed the books in the US, in hardcover, and at least for the next six months the books will not be available on Amazon. You can purchase the series from us, from Popular Woodworking, and from a few other woodworking suppliers. What this means is that your money to make the books stays in the country and your money supports woodworking suppliers and Popular Woodworking so we can all afford to bring more books to market. You are also getting a well made set of books, that are comfortable to read, and won't fall apart in a year.
Except for the fact that in all 1600 pages nobody gets murdered or fights a dragon the book is a most excellent summer read - which is what I am doing this for the next few weekends.
N.B. Popular Woodworking is currently out of stock, we have stock but it is moving fast. No decision has been made on reprinting. I assume considering how fast the book is selling the book will be reprinted, but don't know when and if it's going to be this year.
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Having only just discovered your blog can I just say what a great blog it is :-). I was able to pick up some originals of these books earlier in the year. I have found them very enjoyable indeed. Everything from chicken coops to aeroplanes! I liked the section on morticing by hand too showing moving in the direction of the bevel. I thought you never saw that in books http://youtu.be/NYpxhYHMNmI?t=2m24s unless it was Paul's book http://youtu.be/NYpxhYHMNmI?t=7m29s :-). Keep up the good work and enjoy the read.