Old Books

[J T]

One of my books surfaced the other day, and I was looking through it. It's one of those I got at my favorite used book store.

Ttitle: BUILD A BOAT For Pleasure or Profit (It's East To Build Your Own Boat). It's a Popular Mechanics Press book, copyrighted 1941.

Got some powertool info, besides the handtool stuff. Loads of photos, detailed drawings, information. Several examples of steamboxes, etc. One thing is doing curved rabbets - with a hammer and chisel. Most of you guys would want to know how to do it with a router. By the time you set up to do it with a router, you probably could have done half a dozen by hand..

You guys that want good books on woodworking really need to start checking out used bookstores. Prices are very much lower than new bookstores, and they have books that are lonnng out of print. Not sure, but I think the most I've paid for any woodworking book is about $9, lowest 50 cants. My personal woodworking library is larger than the local library, and probably than the county library's too.

Books like this are geared toward people who aren't professionals, and have pretty clear instructions. Or, at least what I consider clear. I guess the authors back then figured people were capable of doing the work on their own. I think they were right. As a bonus, it has plans for some very neat boats, and most of them look as good as anything made today.

I love old books.

JOAT Intellectual brilliance is no guarantee against being dead wrong.

- David Fasold

[Silvan]

You can learn how to use an arfl and a splinth to defuliminate the splinnoxes too.

Me too. I find it especially fascinating to read about how they used to build steam locomotives in an era before electric motors were prevalent. Not WW-related, but still. We're so spoiled, and we've lost so much technology; except for what is preserved in those old books, which might come in handy someday.

[Ed Clarke]

You're not buying the right books:

$510 for a catalog. I almost bid on this thing, but the price shot over two hundred and I passed.

[gregg]

I don't know how you'd do it with a router. Since most are curved, the angle changes along the curve, etc. You have to loft it out, cut the rabbet with a chisel in particular locations along the rabbet, then 'connect' them.

While it's still in print, I really like "The Complete Woodworker" edited by Jones. It was put together aournd the turn of the 20th century so it's all handtools, but the joint, technique, etc info I think is more than worth the price of the book. I think it's still in print.

[Larry Jaques]

On Sat, 12 Feb 2005 02:27:35 -0500, the inscrutable Silvan spake:

Me, three! I love reading about the lost arts.

-- Vidi, Vici, Veni ---

Comprehensive Website Development

[J T]

Sat, Feb 12, 2005, 10:53am (EST+5) [e-mail] (Ed=A0Clarke) says: You're not buying the right books:

$510 for a catalog. I almost bid on this thing, but the price shot over two hundred and I passed.

Old catalogs, interesting, but once the price for one goes over a dollar or two, my interest goes too. I think the most I ever paid for one was a repro early Sears catalog for about $5, and it was about 2 inches thick. And you've got to remember, on eBay, you also got shipping.

JOAT Intellectual brilliance is no guarantee against being dead wrong.

- David Fasold

[Larry Jaques]

On 12 Feb 2005 10:53:45 GMT, the inscrutable Ed Clarke spake:

Interested in going to 42 volts lighting? Here is a paperback book of research along that line:

mere $510 pales in comparison, wot?

-- Vidi, Vici, Veni ---

Comprehensive Website Development

[snowdog]

I remember seeing just recently in one of the mega bookstores a catalog from the Cumberland General Store. What was neat about it was that it looked just like those old catalogs, and they sold many of the same old useless gadgets. I did a short web search and found some references to the place but could not find their site. I'll check to see if the catalogs is still carried at the store, Amazon has an old one (1991) listed for $15.00

John C

Old catalogs, interesting, but once the price for one goes over a dollar or two, my interest goes too. I think the most I ever paid for one was a repro early Sears catalog for about $5, and it was about 2 inches thick. And you've got to remember, on eBay, you also got shipping.

JOAT Intellectual brilliance is no guarantee against being dead wrong.

- David Fasold

[Joe_Stein]

Did you see what he started the bid at? $8.99. It fetched $510. Makes me wonder how much he paid for it. Joe

[Joe_Stein]

Keep it in the outhouse?

[Joe_Stein]

Hey guys, Check out abebooks.com for your old and maybe out-of-print books. I am not affiliated, just a past customer. I like old books too. Joe

J T wrote:

[Paul Kierstead]

vehicle? What kind? I am baffled...

As an aside, why does everything technical have to be an "architecture" now-a-days? Whatever happened to "system"; does "architecture" make it sound more fancy then "bunch of wires carrying current"?

PK

[J T]

Sun, Feb 13, 2005, 2:12pm (EST+5) [e-mail] (snowdog) says: catalog from the Cumberland General Store. I did a short web search and found some references to the place but could not find their site.

They do have a website, but I don't recall the , and don't think I have it saved anymore. At least it was on line maybe 6 months ago, so I suspect it still is. You might give them a call and check.

?Listing=172JOATIntellectual brilliance is no guarantee against being dead wrong.

- David Fasold

[J T]

Sun, Feb 13, 2005, 3:48pm (EST+5) [e-mail] (Joe_Stein) says: Hey guys, Check out abebooks.com for your old and maybe out-of-print books. I am not affiliated, just a past customer. I like old books too

I do use them, but, only for books I already know I really want. That's only one reason I like used bookstores so much, I can thumb thru the book and make sure it's what I want.

I sometimes go to new bookstores with the specific goal of checking specific books. A few time have found a book I wanted, but waaaay too expensive; so I've bought a used copy on-line. I shop around on-line too. A number of times I've gotten out-of-print books I really wanted, for less than $20 (ncluding shipping), and most places were asking way more, like $30-35, not including shipping. Nice thing about used bookstores, you can run across books you've never even heard of, at some really reasonable prices - $4-7 usually.

JOAT Intellectual brilliance is no guarantee against being dead wrong.

- David Fasold

[Tom Watson]

Just outside of the town where I grew up there was a place called Baldwin's Book Barn.

was just like what its name says; a barn full of books.

It was an easy bike ride and I used to go there maybe every other weekend when I was a kid.

A lot of the books were only a dime or a quarter and they would take old books in trade.

Unfortunately I traded in my Tom Swift Jr. collection to buy some stuff that was probably far less memorable. I'd like to have those books today. I'm just glad I didn't trade my Hornblower books, or the Albert Payson Terhune (sp?) series, because my kids read them now.

Baldwin's Book Barn may have been the cause of my becoming a Philosophy major in college. When I was in my teens I was a great fan of anything having to do with The American Civil War (cf: War Between The States, War Of Northern Aggression, et al.)

On one trip I picked up a book that I intended to use for a book report. I figured it would fit right in with my current interests of the time. It was called, "The Rebel", by some dude named Albert Camus (which I pronounced as "Caymuss"). I maybe should have paged through it before writing it down as my choice for the report.

My tenth grade English teacher was both surprised and intrigued by my choice - and my life took a sharp left turn - from which it has yet to recover.

I still love old books and the places that hold them. I love the musty smell and browned edges - and the connection between me and someone of another time.

tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (real email)

(webpage)

[W]

For used books worldwide try

WM

[Joe Gorman]

It's down right now but when it's working it's

store's not as big as you'd guess by the catalog. Joe