3d ed. 1951. Harlow Publishing Corp.,Woodworker's manuals 1951 to 1960
What follows immediately below are preliminary remarks designed to highlight matters that I have discovered in beginning a survey of woodworker's manuals published over four centuries, i.e. eighteenth through early twenty-first centuries.
Introductory Notes
Why survey three centuries of woodworker's manuals?
The main focus of my study is the 20th century, but since woodworking manuals published in the 18th century remain popular among certain amateur woodworkers today, I believe that I need to explore approaches that allows you to visualize the context in which these "original" woodworking manuals were published, and thus may be able to sense their significance as timeless artifacts.
My first convictions about woodworking manuals is that the intent of their authors in assembling these manuals is to instruct and to inspire.
The "to instruct" -- the "how-to-do-it" function -- is obvious. Potential woodworkers need guidance, and guidance comes best from other woodworkers' experience.
The "to inspire" part may not be obvious to beginners, of course, but finding any evidence of attempts toward inspiration is usually not difficult, especially if you read the introduction to a woodworking manual.
For example, read the introduction to the 1946 woodworker's manual, How to Get the Most Out of Your Home Workshop Hand and Power Tools, published by Popular Science.
This manual's Introduction revives the term, "Skill Hunger", coined and popularized in the Depression by promoters such as Lawrence Pearsall Jack, for promoting use of "leisure time" wisely.
What is "skill hunger?"
For the editors of the woodworker's manual, How to get the most out of your home workshop hand and power tools, skill hunger concerns "How the Hammer, Saw and Try-Square Can Satisfy the Urge to Make Things". Read more on this term by clicking on this hyperlink.
In comparison, how does this 1946, How to Get the Most Out of Your Home Workshop Hand and Power Tools, manual stand up in promoting use of power tools over competitive manuals?
I checked this matter by doing a survey of woodworking manuals published between 1941 and 1950 in the Worldcat bibliographic database.
(Worldcat, the world's largest bibliographic database of books, periodicals, publications of governments, etc, etc., currently contains records for over 50 million items.)
How to Get the Most Out of Your Home Workshop Hand and Power Tools, Worldcat registers only 17 copies in libraries worldwide -- telling us that libraries did not perceive this title as a "keeper", meaning that we can't use library holdings as an indicator of the impact of this manual on the amateur woodworking movement in the '40s.
(Since How to Get the Most Out of Your Home Workshop Hand and Power Tools is over 50 years old, and has been "replaced" by numerous other more up-to-date manuals, most public libraries could have "discarded" their copies for more recently published books.
By discard, do not think the trash can; instead, it is more likely that the book was offered for sale at one of the book sales public libraries conduct annually. As a rule, public libraries -- unlike college libraries -- do not consider themselves "last copy" repositories. However, while this assumption may be soundly based, it is still only speculation.)
Worldcat registers that in 1946, 35 volumes were published, and for the decade, i.e., from 1941-1950, 206 volumes were published that libraries classified as woodworking manuals. So, with these figures, we can conclude that the How to get the most out of your home workshop hand and power tools volume had much competition, especially in a nation occupied by a war.
How to Get the Most Out of Your Home Workshop Hand and Power Tools was, however, indexed in the Index to Handicrafts, Modelmaking and Workshop Projects, 2d supplement, 1950. This is one volume in a series of five volumes, published between 1943 and 1975. These volumes were purchased widely by public libraries, because their contents are indexes the internal contents of manuals. Pages of The Index to Handicrafts where certain "how-to" plans are accessible: for example, the following entry shows that you can find:
"Mortising and shaping on the drill press". In How to Get the Most Out of Your Home Workshop Hand and Power Tools, pp. 91-95.
The Index to Handicrafts began as an in-house file of hand-written 3 x5 inch library cards in the Pittsburgh Public Library. Click on this link for an online example of how a public library lists these volumes.
How To Get the Most Out of Your Home Workshop Hand and Power Tools is still in the Index to Handicrafts, Modelmaking and Workshop Projects volume, but the manual itself -- probably because in public libraries it is considered outdated -- has been removed from the shelves of many public libraries.
Periodicals Indexed in Index to Handicrafts 1950- 1961
The image below shows numerous magazines -- general and specialized -- published in this era that include articles on woodworking itself, woodworking projects plans, or otherwise contributed to the encouragement of amatuer woodworking.
Deltagram 1931-1959 Home Craftsman 1931-1965
Home Mechanics [get dates]
Mechanix Illustrated get dates Popular Homecraft 1930- Woodworker. v. 55-65. Ja. '51-D. '61. Evans.
Chronological List of Woodworker's Manuals 1941-1950:
1951
Walter E. Durbahn. Walt's Workshop Chicago: General Publishing Co., Hobby Books Division, 1951.
(Given my four decades of experience in conducting research, teaching, and writing six books on research topics, I am puzzled about why my discovery of Walt Durbahn as a major contributor to amateur woodworking occurred only recently. Durbahn -- I discover -- was not only a bona fide woodworking teacher since the early 1930s, but most significant was the Norm Abram -- of New Yankee Workshop fame -- of TV in the late 1940s and early 1950s in the Chicago area. For very brief info on Durbahn's TV history, read down in this link: http://www.richsamuels.com/nbcmm/1968/closeup.html.
Not only a local luminary in promoting woodworking, it's obvious that he had a national presence as well. Durbahn's impact in the amateur woodworking movement -- especially in the critical period of the post-WW II era -- needs much more investigation. More to come, but in the meantime. 8-24-08)
Question: Who is Walt Durbahn?
Answer: "Dean of workshop craftsmen"His television show—"Walt's Workshop",(WNBQ-NBC, Chicago), is a two-time winner of TV's top award for "the best educational and how-to-do-it" show; also cited in 1949 by the Chicago Federation of Advertisers for "the best instructional show on TV" that year. You also know him for his "Walt's Workshop" column which has been appearing regularly in Popular Homecraft since the spring of 1951. As an editor also, Walt is a top performer.
Walt Durbahn is well equipped both as a craftsman and an author—40 years as a craftsman, 35 years an industrial education instructor, 26 years as a professional carpenter.He is chairman of vocational education, and is building trades instructor, of Highland Park's (Illinois) High School; also supervisor of the Lake County carpenters' apprentice training program.
Walt Durbahn has authored several widely used text books on carpentry and construction, as well as numerous how-to articles for Better Homes & Gardens, Popular Science, and others.Finally, on Chicago's Highland Park Historical Society grounds is a "Walt Durbahn Museum of Tools".
1951:
De Witt, Hunt, and Cermak, J. L. Machine woodworking.
Indexed in Index to Handicrafts 1965
C. H. Crocker,
Creative
Carpentry. 1951. Houghton. Paul Bry, How to build your own
furniture. 1951. Macmillan. 138
pages Indexed in Index to Handicrafts
1965 Charles Harold Hayward.
Woodwork
Joints. 1951. London: Evans Bros., 1951:
1951:
1951:
For more detail on this significant author of woodworker's manuals, click here
Indexed in Index to Handicrafts
1965
1951: Henry Lionel
Williams. How to
Make Your Own Furniture. Avenel Books, 1951
Indexed in Index to Handicrafts
1965
1951: Norman
Cherner, Make Your
Own Modern Furniture: Working Plans and Room Designs for More
Comfortable and Convenient Living. New York:
McGraw-Hill, 1951. 140 pages. Drawings by
NORMAN CHERNER and FRANK STORK; Photographs by THOMAS YEE;
Interiors by NORMAN CHERNER
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1951: Mario Dal Fabbro. How to Build Modern Furniture. Volume 1: Practical Construction Methods. Volume 2: Designs and Assembly. New York: F W Dodge, 1951-1952
Link to extended treatment of Dal Fabbro's woodworker's manuals1951: Better Homes and Gardens' Handyman's Book Des Moines, Iowa: Meredith, 1951 (1970). 480 pages.
Loose-leaf format -- where, with frequent use, the pages with the three-holes never wear very well -- these manuals always strike me as "fluff", but -- pentrate below the glitz -- and some substance in the content emerges. A corporate production, no where can you find a name of the person responsible for product, writing, or anything else mentioned.Indexed in Index to Handicrafts 1965
1952: Stanley
Tools. How
To Work with Tools and Wood. New York: Pocket Books.
(Division of the Stanley Works,
Click on this link for an extended treatment.
1952: Stanley Works
Inc.
1952: F. H.
Gottshall. Woodwork for the beginner. 1952.
Bruce.
Indexed in Index to Handicrafts 1965
1952: G. E. Daniels. Easy way to make and remodel your own furniture. 1952. Greystone Press.
Indexed in Index to Handicrafts 1965
1952: C. H. Hayward. Junior woodworker. 1952. Lippincott.
1952: R. E. Haines. Circular saw. 1952. Van Nostrand.
Indexed in Index to Handicrafts 1965
1952: R. E. Haines. Wood-turning lathe. 1952. Van Nostrand.
Indexed in Index to Handicrafts 1965
1952: John Hooper. Modern cabinet work. 6th ed. Lippincott, 1952.
Indexed in Index to Handicrafts
1965
Link to extended treatment of this
manual
1952: F. E. Hoard and Marlow, A. W. Cabinetmaker's treasury. 1952. Macmillan. [in WWU library]
Indexed in Index to Handicrafts 1965
1952: Robert McShane. Portable electric tools and how to use them. 1952. Popular Mechanics.
Indexed in Index to Handicrafts 1965
1952: Arthur Wakeling. How to build your own
workshop equipment. 1952. Home Craftsman Pub.
1953: Frank Hegemeyer. Beginner's book of power tools. 1953. McBride.
Indexed in Index to Handicrafts 1965
1952: John Gerald Shea and
Paul Nolt Wenger.
Woodworking for
everybody.
1953: John Gerald
Shea and Paul
Nolt Wenger. Woodworking for
everybody. 2d ed.
Click here for an account of this significant manual. This Shea manual was, until, 1954, published by the International Textbook Co (Laurel Publishers), as noted in the 1955 Publishers Trade List Annual. Seeing the opportunities in the marketplace expanding for books on woodworking, Van Nostrand -- a mainstream publisher -- acquired Laurel Publishers in 1954, thus adding to its list 20 titles in the vocational industrial arts from this line, which had been the school department of the International Textbook Co. Laurel had been formed by International in 1951, the imprint appearing on ITC's trade titles. (John Tebbel, A History of Book Publishing in the United States: V 4, The Great Change, 1940-1980, NY, R R Bowker, 1981, p. 578.)
1953: Arthur Wakeling. ed. Home Craftsman's book of garden furniture. 1953. Home Craftsman Pub. Corp.
Indexed in Index to Handicrafts 1965
1953: DeCristoforo,
R J. Power Tool
Woodworking for Everyone.
At age 33, Decristoforo evidently was commissioned to write the Shopsmith manual early in the ‘50s decade, because this first edition came out in 1953. After a long, successful career of writng on woodworking, Decristoforo died at 83, in 2004. Among writers on topics of amateur woodworkers in the last half of the 20th century, DeCristoforo is probably the most prolific.
This title seems to be his earliest book. The Worldcat bibliographic database – it lists the holding of libraries worldwide -- registers 87 hits for books authored by DeCristoforo, but because of the nature of how individual libraries catalog their books, you cannot conclude that he wrote over 80 books, but that number isn’t far off.
In the Reader’s Guide Retrospective database (subscription required) – its coverages stretches back to 1890 -- DeCristoforo’s first article, on metalworking, is 1947 (It wasn’t until the early ‘50s that the push for amateur woodworking was launched.) From my calculations, DeCristoforo was 26 in 1947, a young age to begin writing professionally, but evidently, he had a talent, because he spent his whole career writing, mostly on woodworking topics.) In all, Reader’s Guide registers 187 entries under his pen.
According to the entries in the Reader’s Guide Retrospective database, he didn’t start on woodworking topics until 1952, which puts him in sync with the do-it-yourself movement – see Creden's 1953 article, "America Rediscovers Its Hands"
The Shopsmith manual itself was remarkable for its depth and comprehensiveness in showing how many woodworking operations the Shopsmith combo tool performed. The volume is over 300 pages – there are ten chapters -- with almost every page containing at least one photo or illustrative diagram, but often up to 5 or 6.
In the later ‘60s I acquired a 1947 Shopsmith model – 1947 is the year the Shopsmiths came on the market – with a very low serial number, that I used for several years. (For some background on Shopsmith, both historical and technical, read this 1951 article.) Soon after buying the Shopsmith, I located the DeCristoforo’s manual, and benefited many times from consulting it. (Although I no longer use it, since my Shopsmith is an antique in the genre of combo woodworking tools, I will not part with it.)
1953: E. G.
Hamilton. Power
tools for the home craftsman. 1953.
McGraw.
Indexed in Index to Handicrafts 1965
1953: A. S. Milton and O. K. Wohlers. Fundamental wood turning. 1953. Bruce.
Indexed in Index to Handicrafts 1965
1953: John Hooper. Handcraft in wood. Lippincott, 1953
Indexed in Index to Handicrafts 1965
1954: Alexander Frederick Bick. Contemporary furniture. 1954. Bruce. 89 pages
Indexed in Index to Handicrafts 1965
1954: K. T Bassett. Pleasures of woodworking. 1954. Simon and Schuster. 190 pages
Indexed in Index to Handicrafts 1965
1954: Lee Frankl. Basic tools for woodworking. 2d ed. 1954. Prentice-Hall.
Indexed in Index to Handicrafts 1965
1954: M. J. Gunerman, ed. How to make tables,
chairs and desks. 1954. Home Craftsman Pub.
Indexed in Index to Handicrafts 1965
Popular Mechanics Do-It-Yourself Encycopedia for Home Owner, Craftsman, and Hobbyist New York: J. J. Little & Ives Co, 1955, 12 volumes
Popular Science Do-It-Yourself Encycopedia: Complete How-to Series for the Entire Family, by How-To Associates New York: Arlrich Pub. Co., 1955. 12 volumes
Both published in 1955, both sets are also marketed through local supermarkets, at $3.49 per volume. Volumes were issued once a month, over 12 months. My immediate reaction to such news is, basically, cynicism. How can such crude mass-marketing turn out "good"? Well, frankly, it does. The sets, for their times, each contain hundreds of well-written, (mostly) well-illustrated articles that were good then and many, today, even though dated, still have usefulness. "Most" of the illustations -- photos, drawings, graphs -- are good; some of the photos, though, could be clearer.
Homeworkshops -- in the basement, in the garage, even in the apartment -- are featured.
1955:
Indexed in Index to Handicrafts 1965
1955: Andrew W. Marlow. Fine furniture for the amateur cabinetmaker.
1955: Bill Baker. Furniture you can
build. 1955. Arco Pub.
Indexed in Index to Handicrafts 1965
1955: John Hooper, Modern furniture and fittings. 2d ed. rev. 1955. Batsford, Ltd.
Indexed in Index to Handicrafts 1965
1955: Popular Mechanics Do-It-Yourself Encyclopedia for home owner, craftsman, and hobbyist. New York, J.J. Little & Ives Co.,1955 12 v. illus. 23 cm.
1955: Popular science do-it-yourself encyclopedia; complete how-to series for the entire family, Brooklyn, Arlrich Pub. Co., 1955. 12 v. illus. 24 cm.
Foreword
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1955: D. X. Manners.
How to plan and
build your workshop. 1955. Arco Pub.
Indexed in Index to Handicrafts 1965
1956: C. H. Hayward. Period furniture designs . . . 1956. Evans Bros., London.
Indexed in Index to Handicrafts 1965
1956: Livingstone, J. H. Make-it-yourself furniture for the home craftsman. 1956. McGraw.
Indexed in Index to Handicrafts 1965
1956: Cunningham, B. M., and Holtrop, W. F. Woodshop tool maintenance. 1956. Chas. A. Bennett Co.
1956: Hunt, De Witt,
and Cermak J. L.
Machine
woodworking. 3d ed. 1956 and 1961.
1956: A. B. Pattou. Practical furniture and wood finishing. 1956. Drake.
1956: Robert Scharff. Easy Ways To Expert Woodworking. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1956. 185 pages.
Like the title directly below, dedicated to the Dewalt Radial Arm Saw developed for the home workshop. Click here for the Glossary entry on the RAS. That a mainline publisher -- such as McGraw-Hill -- is publishing a book on the radial arm saw indicates that corporate America projects "big time" for a market made up of amateur woodworkers. Checking out the Table of Contents for the Scharff volume (directly below) and the Table of Contents Delta volume (next entry) gives you the feeling that the two authors sat side-by-side when each wrote his respective manual.
Table-of-Contents 1
Introduction to the radial-arm machine 2 Basic operation of the saw 3 Special cutting operations of
the saw 4 Dado-head operations 5 Shaper-jointer
operation 6 Boring and routing Operation of
the 7 Saber Saw 8 Lathe in action 9 Disk, belt, and
drum-sander operations 10 Grind-ing, buffing, and
polish-ing-wheel operations 11 Shop safety 12 Facts you should know when
buying wood 13 Wood-working techniques 14 Wood-finishing facts 15 Work-benches for the Radial-arm machine
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The strength of the RAS is its capacity to Dado safely and accurately. Images of dadoing in Scharff's manual with the Dewalt are above, at the top; the two images below, also on the right, are of dadoing with the Delta.
The "beauty" of dado operations with the RAS is (1) the operation is fully in sight and (2) the saw's dado blades pass across the wood, rather than the wood moving over the rotating blade, as is true with a table saw.Other strengths are cross cutting, mitering, and using the arbor off the motor for precision horizontal mortising and molding.
1956: Delta Power Tool Division, Rockwell Manufacturing Company. Getting the Most Out of Your Radial Saw. Pittsburgh: 1956. 108 pages.
Although lacking the "glitz" of the Scharff volume -- noted directly above -- this volume is comprehensive guide to operating the double-arm Delta RAS, still beloved by owners, like myself. Click here for the Glossary entry on the RAS.
For comparative purposes, I have set the two tables of contents for Scharff's Dewalt manual and the Delta manual, one-above-the-other. Since the Delta "annotate" the contents of each chapter, manual users find out in advance the coverage of each chapter, which can often be a time saver.
CHAPTER THREE—Saw Blades and Cutters--Mounting Saw Blades and Cutters—Planer Saw Blade—Combination Saw Blades—Cross Cut Saw Blade—Rip Saw Blade—Carbide Tipped Saw Blade—Saw Blade Maintenance—Filing Vise—Grinding Saw Blades—The Dado Head—The Moulding Head—Adapters and Accessories. |
1957: Arthur Wakeling. ed. Cabinetmaker's project book. 1957. Home Craftsman Pub. Corp.
1957: Dal Fabbro, Mario. How to build modern furniture. 2d ed. 1957. F. W. Dodge.
1957: Towers, W. K.
Cabinetmaker's
manual for amateurs and professionals. 1957. Home
Craftsman Pub.
1958: Hunt, De Witt. Shop tools, care and repair. 1958. Van Nostrand.
1958: Herman Hjorth (1883-1951) and W. F. Holtrop. Operation of modern wood-working machines. 1958. Bruce.
Under this title, this book was issued in 1958, 1966, and 1980, even though Hjorth died in 1951.
1959: L. V. Newkirk. General shop for everyone. 1959. Heath.
1959: Weeks, Verne. Contemporary and traditional furniture. 1959. Bruce.
1960: William F Holtrop and Hjorth, Herman. Modern Machine Woodworking. Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing, 1960.
Born in 1883, after a long and distinguished career in Industrial Arts and related activites, Hjorth died in 1951. Under William F Holtrop, Hjorth's valued manual was re-edited and published in 1960, to record the "significant changes". The manual describes the tools -- emphasizing major power tools -- explains how to use them correctly and safely, and how to care for them. For anyone with vintage tools of this era, this is an invaluable guide. As a document of its time, Modern Machine Woodworking deserves a place alongside classics like John Richards' A Treatise on the Construction and Operation of Woodworking Machines 1872 and Daniel W. Irwin. Power Tool Maintenance. McGraw-Hill, 1971.