I’m working with only hand tools at the moment and also interested in the green wood work, with axes and such, and restoration of hand tools. I have the book Wood by Eric Meier, which is great so far for wood properties and identification.
Are there any other books that you guys can recommend? Ones especially for green wood work, hand tool restoration, or hand tool identification and usage would be fantastic. There are many good videos and books out there, but sorting through which ones to try can take some time.
Any of Paul Sellers books: https://paulsellers.com/paul-sellers-books/
Essential woodworking hand tools is a super thorough look at hand tools, their uses, sharpening and care etc. Sounds like it’s what you’re looking for.
P.s. his YouTube videos are amazing, he pretty much got me into hand tool woodworking by himself.
The anarchists toolbox
And if you want a free entry point, The Anarchists Workbench is available for free as a pdf. Link to blog post here
Anything published by Lost Art Press
Not specific to wood working, but a really good book:
Human Dimension & Interior Space: A Source Book of Design Reference Standards https://a.co/d/gAfsvI6
Technically not a single narrative, but the Mortise and Tenon magazine’s first three issues are bundled into a single binding. I didn’t subscribe to the magazine until much later, but I’ve enjoyed every article I’ve read so far over the last couple years. Green work is somewhat common in later issues, but may not feature as prominently in the first three issues as I thought at first.
M&T The First Three Issues: https://www.mortiseandtenonmag.com/collections/books/products/the-first-three-issues-book
I have been listening to maybe a dozen of their podcast episodes and find them pretty interesting. I tried a few other ones but they seem to have the right angle and speed that I’m interested in. Mike and Josh really get into some more philosophical aspects that is promoting a lot of introspection in general. I’ll definitely need to check out that binding; thanks for the suggestion.
