Experienced bow builders and practical archaeologists describe the history, evolution, and construction of European style longbows in the revised second edition of this engaging book. For the beginner, clear, uncomplicated instructions are offered, including updated descriptions of construction techniques, tools, materials, and shooting styles. For more advanced bowyers there are tips on choosing wood and adhesive, and explanations of the evolution/adaptation of bow design, including precise dimensions for replicating special historic bow types, from Stone Age bows to modern laminated longbows. This book also offers comprehensive instructions on how to properly test your newly built longbow and construct arrows. This guide is ideal for the bow hunter, bowyer, and marksman looking for a new challenge.

Finally, an easy to follow guide for prepping that seasonal vacation property for the off-season. This do-it-yourself guide is written by an expert who manages personal properties every day- and sees the problems!! Now he shares the secrets so you can avoid the heartaches and headaches when you leave your beautiful summer home, home For Sale, or part time only residence behind.

A complete diary for your home. Great source for keeping and organizing all your information in one place. Space for your notes and photo's. Keep track of your renovations, taxes, and even outdoor plants. A helpful aid for selling or buying. Makes a great Housewarming gift!

How long is an ell? What is the largest size of champagne bottle? How do you measure the heat of a chilli pepper? Why is the depth of water measured in fathoms? And what is a cubit? The Curious History of Weights & Measures tells the story of how we have come to quantify the world around us. Looking at everything from carats, pecks and pennyweights to firkins and baker's dozens through to modern science-based standards such as kilograms and kilometres, this book considers both what sparked the creation of myriad measures and why there were so many efforts to usher in standardisation. Full of handy conversion charts and beautiful illustrations The Curious History of Weights & Measures is a treasure trove of fun facts and intriguing stories about the calculations we use every day.

In this compilation of projects and plans from "Furniture & Cabinetmaking" magazine, veteran craftsman Mark Ripley puts 20 years' worth of practical tips, refreshing ideas, and innovative approaches on the page. The 24 fully-diagrammed and illustrated designs here offer something to furniture-makers of all abilities, from a simple dining-room table to the more complex breakfront bookcase. And these projects don't require a lavishly-equipped shop: each design requires little more than a bench, a small bandsaw, two or three portable power tools, and a basic kit of hand tools. Before diving into building plans, Ripley helps readers understand the basics of properly choosing materials and harmonizing the elements of furniture design.

This book offers hundreds of ideas for turning a backyard into an outdoor living area. Taunton's best-selling "Idea Book" series has sold more than 2.5-million copies. Featured ideas range from outdoor kitchens and fireplaces to innovative and clever solutions for outdoor storage and play areas. Everyone wants more from their homes and that means expanding the liveable space to the outdoors. In fact, homeowners are spending more time and money than ever on their gardens. This book brings together hundreds of fresh ideas and unique solutions for making the most of outdoor space. The inspiration is limitless for small to extensive projects. It is brimming with ideas for porches and patios, outdoor rooms for dining and entertaining, garden rooms, all types of sheds and outdoor buildings and more. Add natural pool settings and picturesque outbuildings to the mix and readers will delight in this outdoor design guide. A new sidebar features a DIY project for more hands-on homeowners.

Peter Lloyd shares his skills and excellence in producing exquisite, solid wood boxes. Their seductive, satin-smooth finish and fine detailing beg to be touched and demonstrate beautifully Peter's trademark of using no material other than wood - even for the hinges. Follow his original designs, with clear, step-by-step instructions and photography with full plans, to achieve one-off pieces to be proud of.

A retro-fit offers many benefits: cutting electricity and heating bills, increasing the resale value of homes, slashing carbon emissions and creating a healthier place to live. This book is the guide to making it happen. It looks at: draught-proofing, insulation and damp ventilation, heating and cooling electrical efficiency and renewable energy water use and re-use materials' life cycles and incorporating nature protection from climate change impacts - modelling energy flows and embodied energy how we can meet the need to cut carbon emissions from dwellings by eighty percent by 2050. Projects can apply to apartment blocks, recent builds and older, solid-walled properties. Enlivened with helpful diagrams and photographs, plus plenty of pointers for further information, it provides a comprehensive resource handbook for any building professional and contractor, students - or any homeowner serious about efficiency (cash and carbon) savings.

For the woodturner seeking projects that are a little more challenging, Dick Sing shares his techniques for creating awe-inspiring wooden ornaments and eggs. Step-by-step instructions and color photos guide you through the process of turning and hollowing out a globe for the incredibly light ornament, crafting a delicate "icicle" for the spindle -- even adding a captive ring for that special finishing touch. Dick provides helpful tips for selecting the appropriate woods, using your tools to their best advantage, and fashioning some new tools from surprisingly ordinary materials. Next he shows how to turn a wooden egg that will look like Mother Nature smiled upon it. One of nature's most perfect forms, the egg is also one of the most challenging, and Dick has spent many years perfecting his techniques for getting an egg to look like an egg. Here he outlines his methods for laying out the egg with a template, making a special chuck so you can finish both ends of the egg in the lathe, and using a homemade mandrel to create an egg that is also a kaleidoscope. Now you can attain eggs you are proud of! As a special bonus, Dick shows you how to recreate the jar he uses for his finish and how to use a wood burning pen to sign your completed projects.

This is the first and only book of its kind, picturing hundreds of colorful, creative children's playhouses, from fancy Victorians to neo-classical creations, all built in a child's scale. Half a dozen of the nation's leading manufacturers are profiled, with both inside and outside images of their creations. The fanciful works pictured vary from the wildly colorful to the scale-model imitations of Mom and Dad's home, from all-askew assemblies of antiques and found objects to a sleek, abstract nautilus designed for a charitable fundraiser. For the do-it-yourselfer, plans and blueprints for half a dozen playhouses are provided, as well as images with plenty of fodder for creating something exquisitely new and unique. This is a dream book for parents, grandparents, and their little pals to pour over, with more than 200 beautiful images to spark the imaginations of young and adult alike. A resource guide will help them make their dreams come true.

Whether they' re drawn to the traditional or the innovative, the plain or the flamboyant, woodturners can expand their horizons with this storehouse of inspirational images and ideas. The emphasis throughout is on showcasing graceful and well-proportioned work, along with examples of usually overlooked styles. More than 100 pieces appear, arranged around ten basic themes: combining different woods for interesting contrast, achieving surface texture, producing paired or grouped items, incorporating other materials (such as rope or leather), fashioning the hard angles of squares and rectangles, exploring exotic woods, turning plywood, laminating work, doing off- center turning, and creating simple shapes and forms.

Today's housing market offers exceptional opportunities and incentives to achieve the American dream. "Your Key to a Successful Home Financing" presents unique resources that will help you understand and simplify the loan process, identify available mortgage programs to meet your goals, and enjoy the advantages of being a homeowner. This book will also prepare you with the essentials for a loan approval and tips on how to improve your credit. I will describe fundamental benefits of using government loans, such as buying with no money down or getting additional funds to repair your home, and options to receive down payment assistance from your city, county or state. I'll show you how to save money by obtaining a seller credit towards closing costs, reduce your interest rate and its cost, and obtain federal and state tax credits. In addition, you will learn ways to buy foreclosures with low down payment. As a mortgage consultant, I strongly believe in full disclosure to my clients; I'll describe important key documents that need to be reviewed before looking for a house and at the closing of your transaction. I was motivated to write this book because I frequently witness loan officers failing to provide existing programs and resources to homebuyers. Ultimately, this lack of expertise or ability can be detrimental at the moment of purchasing your home. Throughout "Your Key to a Successful Home Financing" outstanding online support for homebuyers and homeowners will be listed, and you will discover secrets banks may not necessarily want you to know. Its chapters were designed for readers that don't have time to study vague and lengthy narratives about financing. It provides direct, current and crucial advice to find the most appropriate home loan program to fit your needs, because now it's a great time to take action

This title includes shop tested expert advice from American Woodworker on how to build 50 attractive & functional woodworking projects for all areas of the house, from storage for the kitchen and the outdoors, to furniture and heirlooms. With a variety of style and skill levels included, there is something for every woodworker in this book. Step by step guidance, workshop tips and plans for projects that can take a few hours to a weekend to complete, make this an ideal resource for woodworkers looking for a new project or wanting to spruce up their home.

There are countless ways to join two pieces of wood (nails, dowels, biscuits, mortise and tenon, dovetails, to name but a few), but in recent years pocket hole joinery has been growing in popularity mainly because it is a simple technique to master and the tooling available guarantees a strong joint every time.

Pocket screw joinery makes simple work of face frames, cabinets, and other applications where you want to hide the fasteners. The pocket hole jig, usually a stepped drill bit and guide bushing, drills an angled hole though the end of a piece of wood. A pocket screw, similar to a wide pan-head screw, is then driven through the hole into the mating piece of wood making a strong, tight joint. The advantage is that you are driving the screw through the end grain, similar to toe-nailing into the side grain.

The 8 projects in this book range from a simple picture frame, through a bathroom vanity, to furniture projects such as a bed, end table, and dresser. Furniture maker Mark Edmundson explains the basics of pocket hole joinery, helps you select the right jig for the job, shows how to use pocket screws with dowels and biscuits, and explains why clamping is the most important part of the assembly. It s a complete course in pocket hole joinery, with 8 great projects to show for it.

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Get the expert guidance you need to become a master woodworker! With 448 pages, more than 1,000 lavish full-color illustrations, easy-to-follow diagrams, and step-by-step instructions to walk you through each and every phase of the process, Woodworking outstrips all competitors in affordability, accessibility, and comprehensiveness. From setting up a workshop to the principles of good design, how to use tools and essential techniques, it's the only reference that aspiring craftsmen need to start creating fantastic woodworking projects right away. This big book covers choosing wood, measuring, marking and layout, cutting, joinery, drilling, shaping, clamping, gluing, fastening, finishing and more. But where a lot of woodworking books only show you some skills, this giant woodworking compendium goes on to give you 41 complete home furnishing project plans so you can put your skills to use.