The Joiner and Cabinet Maker

by Anonymous, Christopher Schwarz and Joel Moskowitz You can download an excerpt from this book here. "The Joiner and Cabinet Maker" is a huge book – with more than 370 pages of detailed hand-tool instruction, including many processes that have not been covered before in the early woodworking literature. Though this sounds impossible, please read on. Let's begin in 1839. In that year, an English publisher issued a small book on woodworking that has – until now – escaped detection by scholars, historians and woodworkers. Titled "The Joiner and Cabinet Maker," this short book was written by an anonymous tradesman and tells the fictional tale of Thomas, a lad of 13 or 14 who is apprenticed to a rural shop that builds everything from built-ins to more elaborate veneered casework. The book was written to guide young people who might be considering a life in the joinery or cabinetmaking trades, and every page is filled with surprises. Unlike other woodworking books of the time, "The Joiner a