[.uk] Sharpening With Waterstones: A Perfect Edge in 60 ... (ISBN 0964399938)

60 seconds?:
Here's the whole book- Buy a grinder. Sharpen your blade. Use a waterstone, and make it sharper. Here's some illustrations. Not very helpful. It didn't really cover anything for amatuers, but it didn't give much to a pro either. 2/3rds of the book is his view on how to set up a bench grinder.

Not bad...:
I purchased this book to learn to get a keen edge on my tools in a minimum amount of time. This book offers a number of good pointers, although much of the advice is also to be taken with a grain of salt (the uselessness of sharpening guides, for example). Overall, a good book. The size and readability make it perfect for the workshop shelf as opposed to the office library.

Not the least bit dull..:
If you want sharp tools and don't give two hoots about all the theory and gab most books offer on the subject, this is a good read. The text is clear and the drawings are very useful. Plain and simple, it guides you toward all it takes to get your chisels and plane blades sharp and keep them that way.

Sharpening this way works, it's quick and it's almost fun:
One of the unfortunate facts about cutting tools is that they need to have a sharp edge to work well but using them takes away that edge. This is a wonderful little book by an expert woodworker explaining how he puts back the edge quickly so he can go back to work right away. It describes every detail including inconvertible facts as well as the author's many opinions. It's a complete system; it doesn't leave out any steps. Even though not every technique is useful to me I wouldn't leave anything out because that would inevitably leave out techniques that were useful. With the help of this book I learned to hand sharpen chisels and plane irons. (I didn't try setting up a grinder the way he suggests.) Rather than trust my skill completely I used a honing guide from Lee Valley. I spent a very pleasant summer afternoon in the backyard learning how to sharpen with waterstones, a stack of dull chisels and plane irons, a bucket of water and a yapping puppy. I got wet and the yard got messy but I don't think anybody minded. A very rewarding afternoon, except when the puppy ran off with one of the pages. I don't know if the chisels came out sharp enough to shave with but they slice softwood like butter. This book does an excellent job as a teacher for three reasons: It is written by somebody who knows what he is doing. It explains all the steps clearly and it doesn't leave out any. And I came out of the process fairly skillful at something I didn't know how to do before.

Kirby knows:
This book will disappoint you if you don't buy it with the right frame of reference. It isn't a chatty book that starts out with pictures of a trip to a Japanese quarry, etc... Nor is it a dithering book that gives you every method know to man to do something. Nor is it a book by a master Japanese woodworker with a real understanding of waterstones. This series of books is designed to give in-depth coverage of one person's way of doing one thing. So if you have no interest in taking a master's advice, and just want to be entertained, not the best read. But if you want a practical and fast way of getting your tools to the level of a master studio craftsman and teacher, then this is a possible path. A lot of top craftsmen, at least those who write etc... actually do a lot of tool reviewing, promoting and such. So it is natural to fall into the assumption that expert craftsman have a thousand opinions about tools with no fixed technical adress. Really good workers, find something that works, and then get on with the work. Kirby mostly wrote for Fine Woodworking when it wasn't a magazine that catered to beginers