Turning Wood with Richard Raffan: With Richard Raffan

by Richard Raffan, Faffan, Raffan, et al.

Book Overview

Richard Raffan demonstrates the moves that are so important to skillful woodturning. Then he leads you through six useful projects from his companion book, Turning Wood with Richard Raffan. You will... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1561584177
• ISBN13: 9781561584178
• Release Date: March 2001
• Publisher: Taunton Press
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 8.5" x 10.9"

Customer Reviews

A must for the novice turner

As a brand new wood lather owner, I wanted a book that would give me some basic instruction, some exercises and a simple project or two. I was not disappointed in Turning Wood by Richard Raffan. Mr. Raffan writes with humor although what he is saying is not to be taken lightly. He cautions again the things that can harm a new turner and even one who has worked on a lathe for years such as wrapping a rag around your fingers when applying oil to a project or an even better one: "Don't work when you are tired". Turning Wood begins with an explanation of the parts of the machine and continues with the extras one could buy to enhance/make your turning easier. He discusses chucks, drives, faceplates and adhesives. There is even a chapter on sharpening the tools which is very important as a dull tool can get you hurt. He also recommends getting The Complete Guide to Sharpening by Leonard Lee which I plan on purchasing. He does speak to safety many, many times and I have to agree that this is one area that cannot be over emphasized. The projects offered were a Pencil Pot, a Vase and even a Lidded Box. He does recommend "wasting" wood so you become familiar with the best way to make grooves, coves- turn your square blank to a cylinder, create your grooves, coves and bead and turn it back to a cylinder again and keep repeating until there is nothing left. Simply stated PRACTICE, PRACTICE and more PRACTICE! As in all woodworking, dust and wood chips are a constant. Mr. Raffan describes how to make a Handmade Vacuum System. I did find several proofing errors in the book like the one on page 62: "Over the years I've had four lots of stitches mending my face and forehead..." and a photo reference on page 14 that refers to page 65 (the actual graphic is on 67). I also found a sentence split by the Vase project which took me a bit to figure out where the end of the sentence was. It was four pages over. I thought a glossary of terms would have been useful to the novice turner. And it would have been nice if the book were ring/wire bound as it would stay flat on my workbench so I could reference the exercises and projects as I used the lathe. All in all, this is one book that every beginning turner should invest in. If you do nothing other than look at the photos and read their captions, you will get a small part of what this book is all about. It is packed-full of all the do's and don'ts of turning wood.

Out of all the woodturning books I bought, this is number 1

Turning Wood with Richard Raffan is my number one pick out of the several books I bought on wood turning. He went into the lathe, its components, safety, and techniques. The editorial reviews go into all of the subjects covered in this book, so I will not reapeat them all. What I wanted to share with you is the overall feeling of the book. You know the frustration of buying a book, and it doesn't feel right. I guess you could analyze some of the reasons why. This book feels right. The photos, the explanations, the way it is laid out, all are done in a way that makes me say, I really like this book. I turned wood when I was in high school. Recently acquired a lathe, and wanted someone to walk me through the essentials. This book covers that. Safety is a primary concern. For example he explains, that you always want to use your wood turning chisel from the higher areas, into the shallower. If you do it the other way around, you could have a piece of wood flying into your face. It is like your skiing down the side of the mountain. I know this sounds trivial, but he is not afraid to cover the essetials for those of us renewed in the hobby. Great book, highly recommended.

It includes some very important basics.

I have some experience in turning wood. I am getting back into it and wanted to freshen up on some safety items. I was having a hard time finding what speed to start turning a piece of wood I had preparted. After reviewing several book on a book store shelf, this book was the only one that actually has a chart for wood sizes and speeds to match. I think this is very, very important. For this reason alone I would give this book a 5 star rating; valuable information that other authors left out.

Great book. Most useful, broad & well illustrated.

Great book. Very useful for a novice, particularly with regard to tool selection & use.

excellent book!

Raffan's book is excellent! There is also a video that is available that gives footnotes to pages in the book. I have been turning for a year and a half and I was given a copy of the video and I later purchased the book. It has helped me greatly as I study it. He covers sharpening, turning spindles, bowls, boxes and making other round things.