Euclid's Door: Building the Tools of ‘By Hand & Eye’

by Geo. R Walker & Jim Tolpin

illustrations by R. Keith Mitchell & Barb Walker

You can download an excerpt of this book here.

“Euclid's Door: Building the Tools of ‘By Hand & Eye’” is an illustrated how-to journey through building the ancient tools that still help us to build, well, everything today. 

You’ll learn how to use basic, easy-to-follow artisan geometry to make eight indispensable wooden layout tools – tools found in every cabinetmaker’s tool chest – that you can then use to build furniture (or houses). Plus, you'll learn how to tune them up to an incredibly high level – techniques you can use in all your work. 

You’ll discover the truths of geometry in three dimensions on your workbench – a much better way to grasp the secrets of our craft than words alone can convey. The process of making these tools results in much more than the tools themselves (which are in themselves quite amazing). The tools are teachers that take you on a journey into the secrets of artisan geometry. They develop skills important to the craft. These builds equip both the imagination and the hands. 

The cloth-covered hardbound 115-page book has a sewn and glued binding for durability. Like all our products, "Euclid's Door" is printed in the United States.

Table of Contents

Foreword VII
Introduction IX
1. Laying a Foundation 1
2. The Builder’s Bootstrap 11
3. Build a Set of Winding Sticks 23
4. Make a Try Square 35
5. Tools for Layout: Marking Squares 55
6. Beyond Right Angles: Some Handy Triangles 67
7. Build Miter Squares 81
8. Build a Panel Gauge 93

Jim Tolpin and George Walker are also the authors of “Good Eye,” “By Hand & Eye,” “By Hound & Eye” and “From Truths to Tools”.

About the Authors

Jim Tolpin

Jim Tolpin, who grew up on the East Coast and now resides in Port Townsend, Washington, has been making a living at woodworking since 1970, mostly in the finish carpentry and custom cabinetmaking trades. In the last 15 years he's been writing books on woodworking and design and, after helping found Port Townsend School of Woodworking, teaching the trade. Jim is, above all else, a teacher, and the best kind, because he never believes he knows it all and never stops learning. He also believes in passing it on, while you still can. “There are a lot of people out there who want to know this stuff and that includes me,” he says. “I personally love being in the position of not knowing but maybe going to find out.” Visit Jim and George’s By Hand & Eye’s online atelier (design studio) to help you unlock your potential as a builder or maker by honing your design skills.

Read more about Jim in our full profile.

George Walker

Raised in northeast Ohio, George Walker spent the first 20 years of his woodworking in design purgatory. Then after stumbling onto the design language of the artisans, he can’t shut up about it. After four books (and working on a fifth with Jim Tolpin), and scores of magazine articles, he’s just getting started. No matter how ordinary the circumstances, George is regularly struck by the majesty and wonder of life – the way millions of colorful warblers gather at Magee Marsh before their migration across Lake Erie; the way a medieval drawing found in an old monastery can inform his work through the understanding of geometry; or the way he can now build a beautiful piece of furniture, without plans or a tape measure, using instead a stick, a piece of string and dividers. Visit George and Jim’s By Hand & Eye’s online atelier (design studio) to help you unlock your potential as a builder or maker by honing your design skills.

Read more about George in our full profile.