The Future of Working Wood 1&2

Note
We have sold out of Working Wood 1 & 2. Thanks for your support! For up to date information on the revised edition please check this page.

Closing this week is a momentous one for us - one worthy of great celebration at least. For a little while, we've been working to regain full control of my first published woodworking book, Working Wood 1&2. Last week my mind traced its path through three decades to develop the curriculum I knew new woodworkers needed to get started in woodworking. This resulted from my long-term teaching woodworkers to work with hand tools. Little did I know then that thousands, no, hundreds of thousands, would follow this way of working wood. It's a foundation course that came from my teaching multiple thousands in classes I have taught one on one for decades. I took students through every step and stage of the course detailed in this book. Every student I taught was successful and it was through this that I proved the value and efficacy of the book.

Over the past few months, I thought that this week would never come. My reward is made all the greater by this one fact: After many months of negotiations, I was able to settle some outstanding matters regarding the control of my first book, Working Wood 1&2: The Artisan Course with Paul Sellers. After a protracted passage to regain certainty of full control, my book is now rightly mine. This will be just about the first and only time I have said much at all about this book, even though I put my best into it. I haven't really promoted the book since it was published though it represents my best effort in providing new woodworkers with a curriculum from which they could launch their woodworking future from.

What I've learned through my journey into publishing is that it is vitally important to retain full control of your work no matter what. It is only with hindsight that I know this but I have been fortunate to be able to retrace my steps on this and end up exactly where I need to be with it. Problems arose in trying to partner with others in publishing this first book and I have not felt entirely at ease with the arrangements since this book was published. Now, that has all changed and I have complete control and complete freedom and I can make any changes I need for the revised edition. I now have full control and ownership of all my work and this is how I plan to keep it.

With the book and stock returning to the fold, my immediate goal is to rework, revise and update everything to make it ready for a revised edition to be published later this year. Though as far as content goes there is nothing wrong with the first edition I want the quality of this 2nd edition to parallel our Essential Woodworking Hand Tools in every way. U̶n̶t̶i̶l̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶n̶,̶ ̶w̶e̶ ̶h̶a̶v̶e̶ ̶5̶0̶0̶ ̶c̶o̶p̶i̶e̶s̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶W̶o̶r̶k̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶W̶o̶o̶d̶ ̶1̶&̶2̶ ̶j̶u̶s̶t̶ ̶a̶b̶o̶u̶t̶ ̶r̶e̶a̶d̶y̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶s̶h̶i̶p̶ ̶o̶u̶t̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶f̶i̶r̶s̶t̶ ̶5̶0̶0̶ ̶c̶u̶s̶t̶o̶m̶e̶r̶s̶.̶ ̶T̶h̶e̶ ̶c̶o̶s̶t̶ ̶w̶i̶l̶l̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶£̶2̶0̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶i̶f̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶a̶r̶e̶ ̶i̶n̶t̶e̶r̶e̶s̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶s̶e̶c̶u̶r̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶r̶ ̶c̶o̶p̶y̶ ̶p̶l̶e̶a̶s̶e̶ ̶f̶i̶l̶l̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶b̶o̶x̶ ̶b̶e̶l̶o̶w̶.̶ (Note, we have now sold the small stock we received). There is also an option to tell us you want to hear about the revised edition once we have that ready. Thank you once again for supporting our work.

Paul