“THE WORKSHOP, Celebrating the Place Where Craftsmanship Lives” is a new release from Taunton Press. Author and long time contributor to Fine Woodworking Magazine Scott Gibson takes us on a tour of thirty different shops around the country and talks with the craftsmen along the way. I don’t know of a woodworker who does not enjoy visiting someone else’s shop so when I opened the book to start the journey I was very excited.

I first paged through the book looking at the photos and turning to shops like the Hay Shop at Colonial Williamsburg and The North Bennett Street School in Boston. Each shop was covered over a few pages with an equal mix of text and photographs. The photographs where of great quality and very inspiring however I felt my self wanting to see more of the shops even if it were old dusty shelves, a cluttered bench or a lumber rack.

Once I settled in and started actually reading book I found the book to be a real pleasure. Meeting the craftsmen, seeing their work and understand how their workspace evolved really pulled the shop visits together.

Overall, I see this as an excellent book, one worth buying, and what I hope is one of many similar books to follow. My only suggestions for future volumes would be to reduce the number of shops covered, increase the photographic coverage and perhaps provide shop floor layouts that included view points associated with each of the photographs.

Scott P. Calkins
The Society of American Period Furniture Makers