Here is another book on furniture making that seems to be re marketed for Cabinet Making. For that reason only four stars, as I wasn't born yesterday. Evidently Cabinet Making books are outselling all other furniture making books, hence the cross marketing. What this book does well is show every type of traditional glue joint you might possibly need to make cabinets and other furniture, but it is not set up for those who want to be guided through making their own kitchen cabinets. However using this book for learning joinery, if you master what is taught here: what joint to use and why to use it. You will be able to make your own cabinets and design them yourself. You won't need a layout plan.

It seems like some of the reviewers expect that for the price of the book they should get all the details of the author's plans as well, which is unrealistic. Once you learn the joinery, you will have confidence that you can DIY. If you want more modern applications of hardware for drawers and doors, get David Getts, "Cabinet Doors and Drawers" it is the best guide for "Cabinet Making" I own.

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This is a fantastic book for anyone who wants the following question answered- what joints were used to hold that piece together ? This is what I was looking for, so I am very very happy. Virtually every piece of furniture is shown in exploded form and the joints are revealed and in some cases discussed. If you're a capable woodworker, this is the really critical information you need to make your own variations on any given piece.

If you're looking for actual plans with measurements etc, then this is not the book for you although I should add that each piece odes have a reference to plans or an article on that piece. This doesn't appear to be an ad for some plan-provider but rather draws from a wide variety of the usual places .. Fine Woodworking editions or online articles or another book.

It's hard to tell which reviews are legit because people get paid to ( I have personally talked with people who were paid to do this) flood the reviews of items with three and ten word reviews giving it five stars. Reading these reviews and realizing they're bought and paid for makes trusting the reviews here hard.

I hope potential buyers of this book can see my review is legitimate. I am very happy with this book, it gave me just what I needed with excellent and very clear illustrations. I just went and looked; my book has 367 pages and each piece gets about two pages so there's about 180 or so pieces.

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If you’re looking for detailed content (as I was based on the description), you’ll be disappointed. This is more of a ten thousand foot overview of many different cabinet and furniture builds, not a deep dive on making any one type of cabinet. I thumbed through it, but it hit the bookshelf the same night. I might skim it again for ideas at some point, but otherwise didn’t find this if much practical use. It’s basically the cabinetry equivalent of a coffee table book. Lots of pretty pictures, but light on actual cabinet plans or detailed content.

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Not saying this is a bad book, but it's really just an overview of the different kinds of wood furniture, cabinets, drawers, doors ect. Covers just about everything you can build with wood. And some history of the pieces.

But there are no how-to's or any plans, and not many dimensions. While it is quite detailed, I would have liked to see more dimensions. Such as, cabinet face frames are usually so wide, type of thing.

For me it's more of an idea book, or for more details of the different parts of wood items.

If you want to know all the parts or pieces of different wood items, this will help. It would be a nice addition to a woodworking book collection, but not the first book I'd buy.

Kind of on the fence if I am happy I bought it. 4 stars for the effort that has gone into it. Less for lack of details.

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Great book for project ideas. Great illustrations. But it just offers exploded views of the construction of the furniture, not exact dimensions of how to build it.

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This is how you should depict images in a "How To" book.

Everything is clear and concise, not merely a hard to understand exploded-view of the entire piece, with some pictures of woodworking being done on various equipment where the person in the picture is obscuring most of what is being depicted.

That might work for someone with a lot of experience that doesn't need much more than a list of materials and dimensions to build a piece of furniture, but it isn't much use to a novice that wants a solid understanding of how different joints work and how to achieve them with woodworking tools.

This book is very well put together and gives you great examples of what individual pieces should look like, how they are assembled, and what the finished product will look like.

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This is by far the best woodworking book I’ve ever bought and I’ve bought several in the last few years. This isn’t like most of the books I’ve had witch either focus totally on joinery or have few tips and fill the rest of the pages with projects I’ll never build. This book gives a rock solid foundation that will allow you to design your own furniture with strong practical joinery that looks as good as it functions. I bought this book to give me a few new ideas for cabinetry and was pleasantly surprised to find that it offers much MUCH more! If there were only one woodworking book to own this would be that book.

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This is an extremely well written, insightful and concise overview of best practices for cabinet making. It features a large amount illustrated sample pieces of furniture, highlighting for each both the core design principles as well as the technical key elements. This is not a step by step project book. It expects the reader to apply knowledge already gained elsewhere. Instead, it breaks down the key elements of a very large number of varied pieces and thus allows you to come up with your own variations of these "best practice" designs. Highly recommeded and one of the best books on making furniture which I've seen. Don't expect a "do step 1, then step 2" style cooking book. This is more like a timeless text book which may easily stay with you throughout your woodworking career whilst technologies and fashions change.

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Excellent book although some of the samples are a little 'twee'. Would have been nice if they'd included a wood working bench in there but, hey ho, you can't have everything. I have seen complaints elsewhere about measurements etc. I think those reviewers are missing the point. The books not about giving you shop ready designs, but providing know how and some templates for how things can be fit together. The challenge is to then go off and make your own to fit your personal requirements. Recommend.

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This US book is split into two major parts.

The first part covers just about every kind of wood joint you can think of, along with examples of use and strengths/weaknesses (literally). You should be able to construct most joints with a router or by hand (some are a bit complicated though).

The latter part of the book provides many kinds of examples of tables, chairs, book cases, wardrobes and even beds. While not providing specific dimensions and so on, it gives a clear method for designing to the "average" sized human.

As a bonus it describes the various kinds of styles, e.g. "Shaker" and "Queen Anne" amongst many others. That in itself is useful if you're looking at antiques and ever wonder why they are called what they are.

It is more of a "source book" of ideas than a book of blue-prints. If you can draw and think, it is possible to work out dimensions and the build order if required. However because it is not a cut-by-cut or pin-by-pin book, it's not fully for beginners, but that's fine.

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This book will tell you everything you need to know about how to design your own cabinets, tables, beds, desks and chests. I got my copy in 2016 and it's getting pretty dogeared because of the constant reference I make to it. If you're looking for a book that will give you lots of finished plans to follow then this isn't the book for you, but if you're looking to start working out your own designs and need some guidance on which joints to use, where to use them and why, then this this book is an absolute must have. If you want to take your woodworking to the next level, buy a copy; you won't regret it.

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I wanted this book to perfect my technique for making cabinets and cabinet doors. Whilst there is some reference to the science of wood, why it expands and contracts and why certain types of joint work better than others I found the diagrams of furniture to be understated and gave reference to plans contained in various editions of ‘American woodworker’ this is of little or no use to me so I cannot understand some of the reviewers who state this book is a workshop essential and definitive reference guide to repeatedly come back to, although I appreciate we all have different opinions.