Booklist Review

These fifteen-plus woodworking projects seem simple, yet there's complexity behind the elegant design. Author Okrend boasts major credentials, having been an editor at Workbench and Handy magazines. There is a ton of practical advice up front and throughout: he emphasizes passive and active safety, and includes recommendations on wood selection and basic tools needed (four are recommended: band saw, table saw, joiner, and planer). It's best not to tackle any of these projects unless there's more than a basic familiarity with terms, techniques, and operating essentials (for example, can readers differentiate wood types and grains?). Every pattern--like a pizza peel, knife block, and rolling pin--features materials, a cutting list, and excellent captioned color photographs, with tips like a directive to use a closed-grain wood for the cutting board. One potential drawback: the project plans, black-and-white illustrations of exact dimensions for each design's pieces, are appended at the back of the book, not integrated into specific instructions. A useful list of resources is included in the back matter.