Simple Japanese Furniture: 24 Classic Step-By-Step Projects Paperback – June 14, 2022

Excellent introduction to vernacular Japanese mid-century designs. The step- by-step instructions and illustrations are easy to understand, increasing the likelihood of success in building the projects offered in the book.

This is a pretty cool book and it includes many different plans and instructions but it does not include any traditional Japanese joinery as I would expect a book titled as such would include. This book instructs the use of screws, brads and corrugated nails. I would recommend this book to anyone looking to build some cool looking furniture using cheap construction grade materials but not for the carpenter looking to up his or her joinery game.

Unlike most woodworking books I've read, the drawings are to scale. This means that using a bevel guage (or angle-finder as the book calls it) you can get angles directly from the drawings. That's why there are no angle measures (other than 90 degrees). You can enlarge the drawings to full-scale using your printer or use them as is.

The book is great quality, as far as it being nicely printed and having a nice aesthetic. The projects are all really nice, minimal, modern designs. The problems the I have with it is that is really lacking in certain details, to make this table that I’ve attached in the photos, I had to make these really difficult miter cuts that it didn’t really explain how to measure and cut, so I kinda just had to do it my own way. Also everything is in metric, there is a conversion chart in the back, but it’s still a pain for me. As much as I want to like this book, it’s just not giving enough instruction on how to fully make the pieces.

A fun book with some nice pieces but anyone who wishes actually build the Pinched-Leg Side Table will be challenged by the lack of detail in the plans. Not a single miter is specified and one is left to reverse engineer the dimensions. Step 4 specifies "they are at an angle, so be careful with the angle" then jumps forward to "after processing sand all parts" A LOT of the processing as taken for granted.

I took on the pinched legged dining table for my second project ever. I was able to complete it and I learned a lot in the process. Great book for beginners and lovers of simple furniture

Short: I would recommend this book for beginner woodworkers (even more advanced ones).This book is an interesting idea in that it's based of a popular Japanese DIY furniture book, published some time after WWII, to help the average person furnish their home with very basic tools and material. Most of the projects in the book can be done using lumber from the big home centers and basic hand tools, screws and nails. Some projects look very unusual (still interesting) and some of the joinery methods are very useful to learn. The book has very clear pictures and plans (actually very meticulously done). The book is well organized based on the type of furniture.

Great condition delivered quickly