Christian Becksvoort

"With the Grain: A Craftsman's Guide to Understanding Wood" by Christain Beckssvoort is a woodworking reference that I'll keep in my library.

It has many things that typical woodworking references don't include, such as an in-depth chapter about trees and wood structure (down to the cellular level!) and a chapter on woodlot management and harvesting. Granted these are not going to be used on a daily basis by most woodworkers, but they do provide some interesting material.

There are several show more chapters that the typical woodworker will find useful on a more frequent basis. For example, there is a chapter on trees native to North America. In his descriptions, Becksvoort includes useful things such as suggested uses for each specific type wood and information about working with the wood, such as whether or not it works well for turning on a lathe. He also has a chapter on sawing and drying wood and one on working with solid wood. In the latter he provides much useful information, such as tables and formulas that help to determine how much certain species of wood can expect to expand and shrink with changes in humidity, and he includes various tips about considerations for building different types of furniture.

If I have any notable reservations about the book, it would be two: Firstly, all the illustrations are in black and white, and there are illustrations that would be more helpful if they were in color. Secondly, the editing was not as thorough as it should have been. Misspellings would be just one example, and there were cross-references that were inaccurate. For example, in just one chapter there were at least three instances in which the author referred the reader to another page, only to find that the page number was off by 10-20 pages.

But still, overall, it's a good book. I think its valuable aspects outweigh any drawbacks. show less

Good reference on several levels and topics. I may eventually buy my own copy, but I'm glad this was available via Inter-Library Loan.