Compendium of Wooden Wand Making Techniques: Mastering the Enchanting Art of Carving, Turning, and Scrolling Wands

Compendium of Wooden Wand Making Techniques is a technique guide with tutorials for designing and carving wooden wands. Due out 24th Aug 2021 from Fox Chapel, it's 192 pages and will be available in hardcover, paperback, and ebook formats. 

This is such an appealing and useful book for crafting wands using several woodworking techniques. The introduction includes tips and pages with prompts/blank sketch pages for readers' own designs as well as a good overview over woods, tools, and supplies. For fans of Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, there are pages with lots of color photos of famous wands and their wizards. The wands are varied in shape and size and will appeal to all-ages. The tutorials are arranged by technique: hand carving, scroll saw, turned/lathe, and power tool carving. There are 5 tutorials in each chapter for a total of 20. 

Each chapter begins with a general primer on tools and how to use them. The primers feature full color photos and tips from specialists in each technique. The instructions are clear and easy to follow and would be appropriate for all ages (younger crafters obviously need adult assistance). The individual tutorials contain a large close-up photo of the finished project, an introduction, and tools and supplies listed bullet-style in a text sidebar. Measurements are given in both American standard and metric (yay!). The tutorial steps are numbered sequentially and are accompanied by clear color photos which are easy to follow. The templates for each project are included in the book. 

The included projects are all appealing and professional looking and they vary enough from one another that something is bound to appeal to most readers. The instruction and lessons in this book are great for skill building, allowing readers to take the skills learned to other projects.

Five stars. Well written and full of good tutorials from master crafters. This would be a good selection for public or school library acquisition, maker's groups, scouting, art / crafts in a classroom or workshop setting, or for the woodworker's workshop library.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.