Norman Vandal Book in print again

M

maskws

Well-known member
Lee Valley has reprinted Vandal's "Queen Anne Furniture" for $26...figures as I paid a lot more a few months ago to get a used one...
 
Ahhh you're killing me.  I had to go look to see just how much I paid.  $51 on eBay about 2 months ago.

oh well  -  LOL

Chris
 
I have always wondered what became of Norm Vandal.  That is the book that got me started and hooked on building period furniture about 15 years ago.  I often wonder where he went and why he never wrote another book like it.  It is a wonderful book when you are just getted started because it tells you everything about a particular piece.  Anyone know??
 
I've often wondered the same thing.  He wrote for FW in the late 80's as well and then just seemed to drop out of sight.  It's a mystery worth investigating.  Is he still making furniture?
 
I heard that he was teaching English.  Great book.  I used the tea table project as a reference for building mine.  His bench is in one of the bench books out there too.

Tony
 
The last time I  I heard about Norman Vandal's was from his brother  he informed me that Norm isn't doing so well health wise.  

It must have been a real bad health issue because Mike Vandal (I think that was his name) was selling off a lot of Norman's tools.  

I will agree with you all regarding this book got me hooked in Period Furniture.  

Fred  
 
Interesting to hear about Vandal. His book is a great one but the one that got me hooked on building period furniture was Andy Marlow's Fine Furniture for the Amateur Cabinetmaker. His sequential photographs are excellent. This was my Bible for quite a few years when I first started. It came out some years before Vandal's.  As a matter of fact I came out some years before most of you! I think Marlow's book is still available. John McAlister
 
John brought up  the Marlow book, which was great and I have an early copy. My parents bought a jigsaw (they are now called scrollsaws) for me when I was 13 years old. This would have been in 1949. A year later, a family friend, who had learned cabinetmaking in the seabees and had opened a cabinet shop in Reidsville after WWII, offered me a summer and afterschool job in his cabinet shop. Made 25c per hour. The real treasure for me was his collection of Home Cratsman Magazines. I started buying them and still have some. They carried articles by Lester Margon, which opened my eyes to the wonderful world of FINE WOODWORKING and CRAFTSMANSHIP. Bought a copy of his masterpiece book, Construction of American Furniture Treasures. It was printed in 1949 and I still have it along with some of the other books mentioned. I hope with the electronic age  in which we live the forum and information that is being provided by SAPFM, young people will be exposed to our furniture heritage as I was by those magazines and books at an early age.
Oh, my job at age 14 was sanding doors. They were made of gum plywood with a douglas fir veneer surface. Probably learned at an early age how important the final stages of woodworking are. Do not dislike sanding, scraping, etc to this day. May be the most important single lesson I learned at an early age.

Bob
 
It was Fine Woodworking Magazine that got me dreaming about building period furniture many years ago, but it was Norman Vandal's book that finally launch the effort about five years ago.
I've said many times (jokingly?) that my goal is to build at least one of every project in his book.

I have no idea how old Norman may be, but I wish him good health.

-Chuck
 
This discussion of formative books has been a great trip down memory lane.  I have all the titles mentioned and they are all great, but my first book was "Colonial Furniture" by Wenger and Shea, initial copyright 1935.  I treasure the copy my dad used as a text when he taught industrial arts.  I was fortunate enough to get started working beside him in his shop.  I wish more kids had a similar opportunity today.
 
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