From the Inside Flap
The only step-by-step guide to building log cabins and log furniture—Pioneer styleThere are other manuals on building cabins, but W. Ben Hunt's is the only one to show you how to build and furnish an authentic pioneer cabin-the easy, natural way, using only hand tools and the woods around you. Our ancestors used logs and hand tools to build durable, dry, windproof, and protective dwellings; and they fashioned chairs, tables, branches, and bushes. In this day of power saws, lumberyards, and high prices, it's good to know that you can build in the same way.
How to Build a Log Cabin
Part One provides complete directions for building cabins of three sizes: one-room, one-room and lean-to, and three-room. Just follow the clear instructions on every step of construction from choosing the site, clearing the tract, and building the foundation to installing fixtures, heating, and lighting.
How to Furnish a Log Cabin
If you're not ready to build an entire cabin, you can try your hand at some of the small furnishings such as lamps, fences, and candlesticks. Part Two tells all you need to know to build and finish rustic furniture for an entire home: benches, tables, chairs, beds, cots, shelves, candelabras, gates, arbors, wayside stands, even road signs and birdhouses.
"Two Books in One"
There are really two books in one here: Building a Log Cabin, published in 1947, and Rustic Construction, published in 1939. These two classics have been reproduced exactly as they first appeared, with the drawings and photographs that W. Ben Hunt selected and produced for the original editions.
From the Back Cover
The only step-by-step guide to building log cabins and log furniture―Pioneer styleThere are other manuals on building cabins, but W. Ben Hunt's is the only one to show you how to build and furnish an authentic pioneer cabin-the easy, natural way, using only hand tools and the woods around you. Our ancestors used logs and hand tools to build durable, dry, windproof, and protective dwellings; and they fashioned chairs, tables, branches, and bushes. In this day of power saws, lumberyards, and high prices, it's good to know that you can build in the same way.
How to Build a Log Cabin
Part One provides complete directions for building cabins of three sizes: one-room, one-room and lean-to, and three-room. Just follow the clear instructions on every step of construction from choosing the site, clearing the tract, and building the foundation to installing fixtures, heating, and lighting.
How to Furnish a Log Cabin
If you're not ready to build an entire cabin, you can try your hand at some of the small furnishings such as lamps, fences, and candlesticks. Part Two tells all you need to know to build and finish rustic furniture for an entire home: benches, tables, chairs, beds, cots, shelves, candelabras, gates, arbors, wayside stands, even road signs and birdhouses.
"Two Books in One"
There are really two books in one here: Building a Log Cabin, published in 1947, and Rustic Construction, published in 1939. These two classics have been reproduced exactly as they first appeared, with the drawings and photographs that W. Ben Hunt selected and produced for the original editions.
About the Author
W. BEN HUNT, a self-taught expert on the crafts of the Plains and Woodland Indians, was born in Wisconsin in 1888. Most of his life was spent teaching, creating artwork, building cabins and furniture, and lecturing about the out-of-doors. He is the author of many books, including Macmillan's The Complete How-to Book of Indiancraft.
