anarchist design book review

Book Review: The Anarchist’s Design Book

The Anarchist’s Design Book by Chris Schwarz.

Short Summary: Interesting book with good ideas that makes me want to build furniture.

I recently finished the latest subversive rant “ The Anarchist’s Design Book ” from the chief anarchist of woodworking, Chris Schwarz.  I’ve been a fan of his work before, and have had the opportunity to take a week long class from him making the infamous tool chest.   So, I’m obviously somewhat in the Schwarz camp already, so this review should be taken in that light.  Also, I should note this review is of the Electronic version.  I wish more publishers gave me the electronic version with the printed version, then I could have it both ways with a easily portable library at my finger tips, and a book case full of wonderfully tactile tomes.

Anyway, on to the review.  The book is written even more so in his laid back and somewhat sardonic style than previous books.  This is not a dry textbook style book, but rather one full of personality and life.  This may not appeal to people for sure, especially those who are already not fans of the Schwarz.  I personally like this style, because it’s more interesting to read and you can get a real sense of the person.

The book is divided into two main sections, each tackling what the author considers somewhat lost arts (see what I did there?) of “staked furniture” and “boarded construction” techniques.  The text is a mix of projects, instructions, and opinion blended together.  You have to read the whole thing to get the sense of it. You can’t really just skip to the projects, and jump in.  The projects them selves are interesting, and I found myself considering taking on at least half of them. Which is pretty good for me as I tend to only be interested in one or two projects.  The staked chair section is of particular interest, as I’ve been turned off by many of the designs, and styles out there.  Building a Windsor chair seems terribly daunting, and overly complicated for someone who doesn’t get a lot a shop time.  The four legged chair is likely on my list to build.

He does go on at length about the 3 legged chair, but it’s not something that appeals to me.  This is one of the places where it felt a little forced to me, where he had an idea that he was intellectually in love with and tried to force the idea a bit.  This is the anarchist in him showing a bit, challenging the status quo for which I applaud him.  Ultimately it’s interesting as a thought exercise, but visually I just don’t love the look.

In the next section he tackles boarded construction, which is something I’m a bit more familiar with personally, but still contained quite a bit of great information in it.  I’m going to give the bookshelf construction a go, following his steps verbatim for one, and then try applying them to larger projects.  We have a lot of books, and a lot of sagging IKEA shelves.  I would love to replace the tall ones with hand made ones, so that’s going on the project list after I try the shorter version.

For me this book will occupy a place on my woodworking bookshelf, or rather will likely have a spot reserved for it, but will probably be down on my work bench for a while, while I experiment with staked tenons, and octagonal legs.

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Two Reviews of ‘The Anarchist’s Design Book’

Reviews don’t really change what I write about in the future, but they do let me know if I am communicating my ideas. Sometimes what I think is obvious is not so obvious to a reader.

This week, I spotted two reviews of “ The Anarchist’s Design Book ,” which finally seems to be making its way into the hands of readers. You can check these out for yourself:

Greg Merritt of the blog “By My Own Hands” published this review .

And Norman Reid at “Wood News Online” published this one . In the interest of full disclosure, Wood News Online is published by Highland Woodworking, which carries our books. But Norm is nobody’s tool.

Note: Unlike many publishers, we do not send out free copies of our books to reviewers. We don’t ask for book reviews from magazines, blogs or anywhere else. Heck, we don’t even advertise our books. I know I’ve said all this before, but it bears repeating every now and then.

In other news concerning “ The Anarchist’s Design Book ,” we have had to go back to press for a second printing already. We corrected about a dozen typos (sorry about that) and two small factual errors (very sorry about those). I’ll put up an errata on those in the coming days. Right now, I have to make dinner, or Lucy will punish me.

— Christopher Schwarz

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10 thoughts on “ two reviews of ‘the anarchist’s design book’ ”.

So you’re intentionally not going to make dinner…?

This was my first though

I’ve noticed the reamers are all sold out at Lee Valley. I feel like they owe you some kind of retainer fee.

I hope that most people won’t let that stop them. You can make your own reamer from wood with some saw steel. It’s covered at Jennie Alexander’s greenwoodworking.com site.

Will books ordered from this point forward be from the second printing?

Nope. We still have about 800 in the warehouse.

Is there any news on the “buy the hard copy get the pdf at a reduced rate” for international peeps front? Have I just missed it? Did I imagine it?

We have created a mechanism for international sellers to offer this. But they have not taken it up yet except in Australia – Henry Eckert offered a pre-order special.

We cannot force them to offer our products, I’m afraid.

I did a once over this week. Like your work bench book, it is clearly written and understandable. I primarily use hand tools so these books, both the new and vintage, have been instrumental in helping the light go off. Wearing’s book was a game changer so thank you for making that available.

Anyway, much of the furniture I have looked at or books I have flipped through are mortise and tenon with the exception of a Windsor chair. There are many lovely pieces made that way but its cool to see a different way to do it. I tried experimenting with a bench that was “staked” a years time ago but wasn’t able to get that stable (legs too thin, joints too loose, 90 degrees, ect – but I did have a thick top). The presentation you provided that includes “the math stuff” and how to properly construct the joint should help me have a more successful second attempt.

I also liked seeing joinery combined. I thought the combination of a sliding dovetail and “staked” leg into a thinner top was a radical solution to that problem but in a tubular way. In terms of designing other pieces it opens up some interesting doors.

I am also looking forward to getting one (or many) of those book shelves together. The video on that and the refresher on how to prep rough stock was excellent. I do well with written instructions but having a visual reference, especially one that moves, is excellent reinforcement. Instead of trying things several times it may only take a few to get it right.

I received the book on Friday, a quick scan and a solid read of a few chapters have revealed more than a few head slapping moments. The staked furniture is in my near future.

I’m looking forward to reading right through and consuming the rest that it has to offer. The scattered humour is also welcome and lightens the mood.

As a physical thing it’s stunning, the paper quality, printing etc … are level with the nicest books that I own.

You can tell that you take a great pride in your work which is a great lesson to us all. Another fine work Sir.

I’m saving the Hayward books for when the baby has gone to bed.

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