A Cabinetmaker's Notebook by James Krenov

ISBN: 0442245513

Publisher: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1976

Paperback, 132 pages

Men who know and love wood are never in a hurry with it, preferring to engage themselves in that rich slow magic that wood works on the human psyche. This is no ordinary woodworking book, and James Krenov is no ordinary cabinetmaker. A glance at his work - illustrated here with over 150 beautiful color and black-and-white photographs - will show why his artisanry is probably the finest in the world today. Although James Krenovs work is in museum collections on both sides of the Atlantic and in Japan, and although he is a successful and inspiring teacher, his is a deeper, low-tone experience that is rare in our make-it-big times. A Cabinetmakers Notebook contains reflections on his life and work as a cabinetmaker - not just the how but the why of a way of living and working with wood. Craftsmen in every medium will be inspired by this account of familiar and ever recurring problems - getting started, finding ones true self in the work, developing habits that increase the joys and lessen the difficulties of a complex craft, and the crucial task of resisting the pressure to do less than ones best. Cabinetmakers, amateur or otherwise, will be interested in the discussion of wood Mr Krenov uses (air-dried and flitch-cut), tools (he makes his own), as well as the individual pieces illustrated. All those interested in encouraging fine crafts - educators and museum people - and the public who will receive the work of the craftsman and cabinetmaker will find here a new awareness of wood, one of the richest of materials available to the craftsman