The Woodworker’s Pocket Book

Edited by Charles H. Hayward

“The Woodworker’s Pocket Book” is small – just 4” x 6-1/2” – but it contains 112 pages of critical woodworking information for the hand-tool woodworker.

Edited by the great Charles H. Hayward and published in 1949, “The Woodworker’s Pocket Book” is a guide to everything from finishing recipes to drawing ellipses to choosing the correct screw or nail.

We own several versions of this book, as it was regularly updated and republished. After reading through all of the versions, we decided to reprint the original edition (with permission, of course). This edition is packed with drawings from Hayward and doesn’t deal much with the metric system, sharpening high-speed steel sawblades or pulley sizes for your machines. In other words, it’s for the woodworker who likes working by hand using fractions, inches and feet.

Also appealing to us is the small size of the book – it literally fits in your back pocket. We recommend keeping it in your tool chest or tool cabinet. It belongs in the shop and is more like a tool than a book.

To ensure the book’s long life, we made sure this book is designed for a shop environment. All our books’ signatures are sewn and taped for durability. We wrapped this one in high-density boards and picked a durable paper that improves on the original’s paper.

Like all our books, “The Woodworker’s Pocket Book” is printed in the United States.

Here is the complete index to “The Woodworker’s Pocket Book.”

Angles, bisecting, 16
Appliances, 84
Arches, 21
Areas, 23
Beetle. wood boring, 63
Bits, 80
Bleaches, 3
Bolts, 34
Boring tools, 80
Castors, 37
Chemicals, list of, 7
Chippendale mouldings, 94
Chisels, 78
Cramps, 83
Creams, furniture, 5
Dry rot, 64
Ellipse, drawing, 12, 14
Equivalents, mm. and inches, 51
Fibre boards, 87
Files, 77
Fillers, wood, 4
Fittings, 34
French polish recipes, 1
Furniture creams, 5
Furniture sizes, 65
Gauges, 79
Geometry, useful, 12
Glass, 87
Glues, 38
Hammers, 78
Hardwoods, 57
Hepplewhite mouldings, 96
Hexagon, drawing, 15
Hinges, 35, 36
Institutions, wood technology, 42
Jacobean mouldings 92
Joints, 102
Laminated board, 50
Lathe data, 89
Limed oak, 5
Locks, 34
Lubricants, 6
Metal fittings, 34
Mitres, 24
Moisture content, 11
Monarchs, English and French, 91
Mouldings, 92
Nails, 28
Octagon, drawing, 16, 17
Oilstones, cleaning, 6
Old woodwork, 100
Period furniture, 90
Pests, wood, 63
Pitches, plane, 86
Plane pitches, 86
Planes, 71
Plastic boards, 87
Plywood and laminated board, 50
Polishes, etc., 1
Quatrefoil, drawing, 21
Recipes, non-slip, 5
Recipes, wood finishing, 1
Revivers, polish, 4
Routers, 77
Saws, 68
Scales, 108
Screwdrivers, 82
Screws, 31
Sharpening data, tool, 85
Sheraton mouldings, 98
Sizes of furniture, 65
Softwoods, 56
Spokeshaves, 77
Squares, 79
Stains, 2
Stays, 37
Stoppings, 6
Strippers, 4
Strop dressings, tool, 5
Tables, 41
Terms, timber, 46
Timber, how measured, 43
Timber terms, 46
Timbers, list of, 56
Timbers, world map, 54
Tool sharpening data, 85
Tool strop dressings, 5
Tools, 68
Trefoil, drawing, 22
Walnut mouldings, 93
Wax polish recipes, I
Wood fillers, 4
Wood pests, 63
Woodwork, old, 100
Worm, wood, 63
Veneers, 52