Book1806
The Dyer's Companion
Elijah Bemiss
Compiles practical dye recipes from vegetable, animal and mineral sources for the working dyer, treating dyeing as reproducible chemistry rather than an inherited trade secret.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Applied & Practical
Craft, Trades & Making
Physical skill — knowledge that lives in the hands and cannot be acquired by reading alone.
8 fields · 78 topics · 151 curated works
Fields within Craft, Trades & Making
Woodworking
11The oldest structural craft — hand tools, joinery and finishing, and knowing what a given timber will do.
Foundations & Overviews · Hand Tools · Joinery · Furniture Making (Craft) · Wood Species & Properties
Metalwork & Fabrication
10Shaping metal by heat and force.
Foundations & Overviews · Blacksmithing · Welding · Machining (Craft) · Sheet Metal Work
Building Trades
10The skills that construct and maintain buildings.
Foundations & Overviews · Carpentry · Masonry · Concrete Work · Roofing
Electrical & Plumbing
9Systems inside the walls — domestic wiring, circuit safety, pipework and heating, where mistakes are expensive.
Foundations & Overviews · Domestic Wiring · Circuit Safety · Electrical Fault Finding · Plumbing Systems
Mechanical Repair
9Keeping machines running — engines, drivetrains and bearings, and the diagnostic habit of finding the actual fault.
Foundations & Overviews · Engine Basics · Automotive Maintenance · Small Engine Repair · Bicycle Maintenance
Electronics & Making
9Hobby electronics and personal fabrication.
Foundations & Overviews · Soldering · Breadboarding · Arduino & Microcontroller Projects · Raspberry Pi Projects
Textile & Fibre Crafts
10Cloth, thread and the crafts built on them.
Foundations & Overviews · Sewing · Pattern Making · Knitting · Crochet
Traditional & Heritage Crafts
10Skills at risk of disappearing.
Foundations & Overviews · Pottery & Wheel Throwing · Glassblowing · Leatherwork · Basketry
Reading in Craft, Trades & Making
151A way in
Start here
No prior grounding assumed.
The Dyer's Companion
Elijah Bemiss · 1806
Compiles practical dye recipes from vegetable, animal and mineral sources for the working dyer, treating dyeing as reproducible chemistry rather than…
+40 more at this level
Then
Assumes you know the vocabulary.
The Lady's Assistant for Executing Useful and Fancy Designs in Knitting, Netting and Crochet Work
Jane Gaugain · 1840
Introduces a standard notation for knitting instructions in place of prose description, making it possible to publish a pattern that different…
+69 more at this level
Go deeper
Primary sources and full treatments.
Mechanick Exercises, Volume 1: The Doctrine of Handy-Works
Joseph Moxon · 1678
Sets out smithing, joinery, carpentry and turning as trades that can be taught in print, founding the whole genre of the how-to trade manual.
+39 more at this level
12 of 151 works
Book1838
The Workwoman's Guide
A Lady
Gives cutting-out instructions by measured pattern for a household's whole wardrobe, aimed at women with no dressmaker's training who nonetheless had to clothe a family or a parish's poor.
link failing as of 17 Sept 2026Book1846
Knitting, Crochet, and Netting, with Twelve Illustrations
Eleonore Riego de la Branchardiere
Introduces a standardised, abbreviated notation for crochet and knitting instructions in place of prose description, making it possible to publish a pattern that different needleworkers would reproduce identically.
about 55 minutes to readlink checked 17 Sept 2026Book1870
Beeton's Book of Needlework
Isabella Beeton
Collects knitting patterns alongside crochet and netting in one illustrated reference, aiming to let a household reproduce any pattern from its diagram and abbreviated instructions alone.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Book1885
Bookbinding for Amateurs
W. J. E. Crane
Argues that sound binding structure — sewing, boards, the attachment between them — determines a book's working life far more than its decorative cover.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Book1892
A Manual of Wood-Carving
Charles G. Leland
Presents wood-carving as a skill any amateur can acquire through a fixed progression of cuts, adapting European trade instruction for a home audience with no workshop tradition to draw on.
about 2.5 hours to readlink checked 17 Sept 2026FreeEntry
Book1892
Leather Work: A Practical Manual for Learners
Charles Godfrey Leland
Introduces tooling, stamping and stitching leather as skills a beginner can learn from simple flat work before attempting three-dimensional pieces.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Book1899
A Manual of Mending and Repairing
Charles Godfrey Leland
Argues that mending is itself a craft with its own techniques rather than a lesser version of making, and covers cloth, china, furniture and leather repair under that single claim.
about 4.5 hours to readlink checked 17 Sept 2026Book1901
How to Make Baskets
Mary White
Teaches basketry through raffia and reed as materials cheap and forgiving enough for a beginner, building toward Indigenous American weaving techniques the author presents as the craft's most advanced forms.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Book1903
Roof Framing Made Easy
Owen B. Maginnis
Reduces common roof-framing problems to simple diagrams and steel-square settings, aimed at carpenters who want working answers without studying the geometry behind them.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Book1910
Handwork in Wood
William Noyes
Argues that manual training in wood should follow the material from tree to tool, teaching timber, joinery and finishing as one connected subject rather than isolated exercises.
about 4.5 hours to readlink checked 17 Sept 2026FreeEntry
Book1910
Farm Blacksmithing
James M. Drew
Teaches forge work through the specific jobs a farm actually needs done — tool repair, horseshoeing, wagon ironwork — rather than as a general course in smithing technique.
link checked 17 Sept 2026