Here is a collection of books on woodturning. These books will cover topics such as lathes, tools, projects, materials, and techniques.

Books on Turning page 1, 2, DVD's

Book Index Page

Turning Wood With Richard Raffan (by Richard Raffan)

Begins with an introduction to the lathe explaining its standard parts. Richard goes on to explain attachments for the lathe including drives, faceplates, and chucks. He also describes the differences, uses, and maintainence of the cutting tools, such as gouges, scrapers, skews, and parting tools. Safety precautions, measuring diameters, depths, and wall thickness, centerwork and facework, and finishing surfaces are also explained. This book contains many color photographs and black and white illustrations.

Get into woodturning at the hands of a master with these 20 classic projects. Some early, basic projects will prepare you for headstock-turning work, including cheeseboards, salad bowls and servers, a novelty clock that really works, a gavel and anvil, a square-edge bowl, and an array of beautiful urns and goblets. 176 pages (8 in color), 300 b/w illus., 8 1/4 x 11.

160 pages, 0.38 x 10.02 x 9.18, Taunton Pr; Revised and Updated edition (March 12, 2002).

Hardcover, 64 pages.

Decorating Turned Wood: The Maker's Eye (by Michael O'Donnell, Liz O'Donnell)

Bring a new dimension to wood turning! Working with native trees, rather than exotic varieties, can really draw out a woodworker's creativity. While remaining ecologically aware, your challenge is to find inventive and unusual ways to enhance the plain wood, and to add color and character to your pieces. In sumptuous illustrations, see how a renowned turner developed a range of impressive techniques for doing just this. Try carving or charring, sandblasting, pyrography, painting with oils and acrylics, wire brushing, bleaching, marbling, gold leaf, inlay, routing, and more. The drawings show, in detail, precisely how each design evolved--many of which use imagery such as birds and seashells as a point of departure. The results give unprecedented insight into the creative process.

Woodturning is the art and craft of using a lathe to fashion raw wood into useful and decorative objects. This book looks at the tools and techniques needed to create a variety of effects including chucking, turning spindles and round objects, multi-axis turning, turning ellipses and rings, and drilling methods on the lathe.

This book has very good instructions on how to get good results in turning furniture parts. The chapter on table legs is a high point.

"It is only by personal trial that many of us can appreciate the toils, troubles, and labors of the artisan. Yet...Boase almost instantly transforms our perceptions of the not-so-ordinary art bowl, primarily through striking color photographs of 10 artists at work....the piece de resistance is prefaced by good-to-have information, such as a brief history...and data about wood....helpful hints...the art supersedes all...it's hard not to gasp when viewing Louise Hibbert's radiolarian bowl executed in sycamore."--Booklist. "...innovative studio pieces, colored photographs and detailed captions illustrate the entire process, while each turner is profiled."--Woodshop News

Here's an absolute must for all woodturners! With its concentration on the quality of designs, in-depth study of all aspects of the craft, and sheer pleasure in the work, this incredibly striking guide provides a creative learning experience that will enhance turners' skills and get their artistic juices flowing. Unleash your potential with fresh applications for hollow-turning, bowl-turning, and box-making, and gather new ideas for laying out, equipping the workshop, improving and adapting tools, reverse chucking, and more. Projects, shown in lavish photographs and line drawings, include lidded pots, domed boxes, an Oriental-style nesting bowl, and hollow vessels with a spout--and each one suggests ways to tailor it to specific skill levels. Bonus: three galleries featuring nearly 100 examples of the author's own designs. 224 pages (all in color), 8 1/4 x 10 3/4.

The basic course on woodturning for 10 years just got better! More photos, more color, new and exciting projects, and a whole host of new techniques and machines are covered. It's thoroughly updated and expanded to include all the latest lathes and accessories. Start with the most suitable types of wood you'll need. Then develop your techniques for between-centers and faceplate turning, and boring and routing on the lathe. Try 12 projects, including a goblet, an apple and a pear, a platter, staircase balusters, an inlaid nut bowl, a twig pot, a pepper mill, a table lamp, and a twist
pen. It's the first turning book you should ever own. 176 pages (all in color), 8 1/4 x 10 7/8.

Woodturning With Ray Allen (by Dale L. Nish)

Covering a technique popularized by master woodturner Ray Allen, this manual moves beyond basic woodturning with the segmented woodturning technique. This creative approach is demonstrated in one complete step-by-step project that effectively guides woodturners through the complicated process of creating geometric, repeating patterns with a Southwestern feel. Detailed, illustrated instructions make this seemingly elaborate technique approachable. Additional information on common problems helps avoid mistakes along the way. A full-color photograph gallery provides inspiration for future projects.

The Art Of Segmented Wood Turning: A Step-by-step Guide (by Malcolm Tibbetts)

Woodturners learn how to cut and combine pieces of wood to produce multicolored geometric designs in turned bowls and vases in this highly illustrated book. Techniques are provided to achieve the accuracy required in segmented work, and professional tips reveal how to create preliminary blueprints. Step-by-step instructions and hundreds of color photographs explain how to accomplish the often-complicated tasks involved with sphere turning, building a porthole-style ring, and inserting diamonds and round designs.

Books on Turning page 1, 2, DVD's

Book Index Page