2003-08-30 Learn carved lettering with Chris Pye

Although I am an experienced woodworker, I always steered clear of carved lettering. But this book gives one the impetus to take the subject by the horns. Read Chris Pye's careful analysis of the incised roman letter and start to realise that you can do it too! This book fills you with enthusiasm and drives you out to buy the supplied list of carving tools you need to emulate the lettering in the book. It is also a valuable reference for continual use. Very soon you are incising your first trench and under Chris Pye's excellent guidance you are quickly onto curved and compass-struck letters.

Of course you will make mistakes. If you are impetuous like me, you might run before you can walk but Chris Pye will have none of this. Go back and read again his meticulous and thorough instruction. He doesn't abandon you!

Within the same month that I bought this book, I had copied one of the included projects and developed sufficient confidence to carve script on a completed item of furniture. My first house-name customer quickly followed.

If I had one criticism, it is that the book takes no account of the versatility of computors for layout, kerning and the variety of available fonts. The book is still in the land of Letraset, freehand and tracing paper. But a new edition of the book is due for publication this year. I am sure that Chris Pye will have attended to this minor point in his rewrite.