Nick Offerman - Good Clean Fun: Misadventures in Sawdust at Offerman Woodshop

H OWDY, NEIGHBOR. Here comes a good-looking book chock-full of woodworking mirth and knowledge. In this brawny tome from the fine folks at Dutton books, you will be treated to:

Many words from me, as well as some phrases, with maybe even a diatribe or two, on the topic of woodworking, plus a butt-load of punctuation.

A dozen or so how-to project chapters, featuring each member of Offerman Woodshop, including my dad (handsome, sure, but he also features the wisdom of his age); my brother, Matt; and myself.

Tomfoolery (a.k.a. grab-ass). As in any good shop or shop book, we also take the occasional break for some ribaldry, which means irreverent behavior, which means fun.

You will see a lot of really beautiful photography, so I encourage you to pace yourself, and maybe have a pot of coffee ready to hand before digging in so that you dont swoon too easily at the woodworking prowess of our Michele and our Lee and the rest of the tribe here at Offerman Woodshop. Whether you have cut a thousand dovetails or have never wielded so much as a hammer, we have projects for all levels of skill contained within this text. Theres a lot of ground to cover, so lets roll up our sleeves and get to work.

You seem pretty sharp, so you probably gleaned from the front cover that my name is Nick Offerman, and I am the author of this quality piece of bookery as well as the proprietor of Offerman Woodshop in Los Angeles, California, where most of the books action will be set. I also often work as an actor on stage, screen, and television and am perhaps best known for my role as Ron Swanson on NBCs Parks and Recreation, a fine comedy program that I can recommend for your downtime from the shopthat is, if you have run out of books to read. Ron had a large moustache and complicated relationships with his two ex-wives, both named Tammy, and the audience seemed to respond to him in a generally favorable fashion, to my great relief. Whats more, I tour as a humorist, and I have a comedy special on the channels and whatnot entitled American Ham. They probably put some of this on the book cover, but if youll excuse me, Ill cover my own fanny here, because you never can tell about what exactly these bookselling types think they should use to market a book in this bleak modern landscape of electronic tablets and delivery by drone and what-have-you (if youre reading this on a tabletfine, but please do not hold me accountable for the deleterious effects of sawdust and linseed oil upon your newfangled gewgaw).

Why am I writing this book now? you may ask. Because woodworking is one of the great passions in my life. The others are, of course, my wife, my family, my friends, our dogs, music, cheese curds, the great outdoors, bacon, eggs, my bride, the Chicago Cubs, puzzles, Beef Wellington, the theater, my canoe, my wife, Wilco, and single-malt Scotch whisky. Some of those topics may be touched upon briefly in the following pages, but well mainly be focusing upon woodworking. Welcome.

It occurs to me to lay out a quick synopsis of my own history with tools by way of illustrating the point that there are many wonderful things that can be done with wood and tools that dont require the moniker of fine woodworking. We all start with building a tree house of some sort, and then some of us are happy to just call it a day and hang out up there (a noble pursuit, no question), while others of us continue to work on building a better tree house. We dont rest until we have hung sash windows in our tree houses, which then causes us to be labeled as troubled. That is, until it begins to rain and we can close the windows and keep our comic books from getting wet, at which point we are then considered gifted. Tool skills have certainly helped me earn a living over the years, but much more importantly, they have opened me up to a way of living, often in collaboration with other tool users (a.k.a. artists), that has never stopped paying me dividends.