Chris Pye: Woodcarving
Recommended Books

Manual of Traditional Wood Carving
By Paul N. Hasluck

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I must have bought this book, when it became available, in 1977.
My copy is fairly dog-eared now and, yes, that's it! - in the picture above. Sound, thanks to Dover's excellent binding; well-ploughed and well-loved.

Manual of Traditional Woodcarving covers an enormous range of topics: the history and styles of carving; practical chapters on pretty much every carving process; drawing and modelling; and a large number of projects.
The illustrations are abundant but the text is densely written: it's a serious book that repays study - making notes as you go along. The information - a mine of it - is sound and reliable and the techniques and information invaluable.

There are several things to add to this positive image however, to give a fuller picture:

The original edition came out in 1911, and the books stops there in time. To look at the somewhat grainy photograph (fig.153) of a waist-coated carver's torso, in an apron, demonstrating the method of using a grounding tool is almost like looking back at old film footage. Or ghosts - who did Hasluck get to pose? We are told nothing of the author, although he has written other wood-orientated books. There is a deep sense of tradition in this book, as intended in the title.

The downside however is that many of the patterns offered as projects look dated - Edwardian style - and not really to current taste. However, about this time flourished one of the last original decorative movements: Art Nouveau, and we have many examples in the book.
As the book is so well illustrated that there is plenty of scope for adapting and adding to what is given.

So, overall, a tremendous achievement when it was written, and still put up against anything else being written today.

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