Joseph Moxon's "The Art of Joinery" is one of the earliest texts available to the general public written on woodworking, dating from around the late 1600's. It's actually one part of a compilation of articles written by Moxon starting in 1678, and compiled into book form later, which was titled "The Mechanik Exercises or the Doctrine of Handy-Works". It's significance is really in it's age - it is such an early example of the methods used by woodworkers, that its study is at least somewhat warranted just for that fact alone.
This latest "edition" also includes commentary by Popular Woodworking editor Chris Schwarz, who has also edited the original text in places to help clear up some of the grammar used by Moxon (English was a different language then than it is now) to make it more palatable and understandable to today's reader. Since reading this book, I've been putting off doing a review on it... When it first arrived I was excited to read the book, and I really, really wanted to do a glowing review on an insightful interpretation of a significant historical text, but - I just can't do that - at least not completely.
Read more about Review: The Art of Joinery by Joseph Moxon with Commentary by Christopher Schwarz
