Late this year, we sold out of “Cut & Dried”. Author Richard Jones had some changes he wanted to make in the third edition. This week, we sent the book, with these changes, to press.
Some of the changes were small corrections, such as moving an illustration up a bit to better match the text and a degree mark slightly lower and larger than the rest.
Other changes were more significant.
This includes an extensive rewrite of section 6.6: Measuring Wood Moisture Content. Here, Richard adds new information on how biomass fuel moisture content is assessed, which differs from the methodology used for assessing the moisture content of wood used by woodworkers.
Richard wanted to add this because it’s particularly relevant to environmental considerations, such as reducing pollution from wood smoke.
This addition added a few pages to the book, which may not seem like a big deal until you consider the table of contents, text in chapters directing readers to a particular page number, and the index. We were lucky enough to once again work with Rachel, who created the original index and was familiar with the book, to make the necessary index updates.
Another significant change is the cover. Since the book’s second printing in 2019, paper and printing costs have skyrocketed. When we received the quote for the third printing, we had two choices: Increase the retail price (by a lot) or ditch the dust jacket and switch to paper over boards for the cover. We chose to keep the retail price the same. This means the design on the dust jacket will be printed directly on the hardback cover. The 9” x 12” book will still be printed on heavy #80 matte-coated paper.
When reviewing ‘Cut & Dried’ back in 2019, J. Norman Reid of Highland Woodworking wrote: “‘Cut & Dried’ is one of the most complete and detailed works on wood and wood technology available to non-specialist cabinetmakers. For this reason, it merits a place on the reference shelves of all serious woodworkers. I highly recommend this important book.”
“Cut & Dried” should be back in stock in early 2025.
— Kara Gebhart Uhl
More of a curious question, when going to reprint, is there a process by which you explore making edits or the author rewriting bits of the book or adding something else?
Will the new text from the updated section be available in any way for those of us who already own a copy of the previous edition? While I certainly do derive distinct pleasure from purchasing beautiful and useful new books, I’m loathe to repurchase a (justifiably) expensive book I already own just for a few new paragraphs or pages. (I mean, I still gotta get that Dick Proenneke book, and those Roubo books, amd , and, amd…!)