"Would you give us your thoughts on this?" said our editor, passing on to me a copy of Silas Kopf's latest DVD. "Oh, brilliant," I thought. A chance for me to indulge in constructive criticisms at last!" Unfortunately, my dreams of pronouncing judgment of a critical nature came to naught with Silas's DVD. I enjoyed it from beginning to end.

Silas has the enviable knack of getting his marquetry message across to the viewer extremely well. He has a friendly approach with his subject and communicates the techniques to his unseen audience at a good one-on-one level. He doesn't bombard you with technical theories and equations: instead, he demonstrates the tutorials in a very easy to understand manner. On a subjective note, I would say that his studies at the Ecole Boulle in Paris manifest themselves in the intricacies of the designs you will see in Silas's gallery at the end of the DVD. This is particularly true of a piece which includes lilies and flowers which he places in a curved section panel.

I was particularly amused at Silas's comment about finishing (varnishing and sanding) being the only tedious and dull part of the marquetry process. There speaks a true marquetry man! But as Silas also says, the end results are worth all the elbow grease.

Silas has managed to cram a heck of a lot of information into about one and a half hours worth of superbly produced video. Inevitably, he has had to compress a couple of the tutorials a little in order to fit them into the time constraints imposed by the DVD medium, but I would say that he has made a good compromise in the circumstances. The subjects in question are sand scorching and the finishing process. The DVD brings nicely to light the difference in thickness between the USA and UK veneer stocks, these being respectively 1/32nd of an inch USA and 1/64th UK. This difference in thickness of veneer favors saw rather than blade cutting for the USA sourced veneers. For this simple fact alone, Silas scores points with his DVD.

I was particularly pleased to see that he still works in Imperial measurements. I'm still stuck in the inches and feet world myself and I like to see other marquetarians sticking to the old standards. I prefer to have my beer in pints. I mean, "500 milliliters of bitter, please" just doesn't sound right, does it?

Turned Chessmen
For collectors, players and woodworkers (Book)
By Mike Darlow
ISBN 1-56523-259-3

Review by John English

Mike Darlow has been around a while. This is his fifth woodturning book and the subtitle hits the nail right on the head. This is indeed a book for several audiences. Even if you never turn a piece on your lathe, his 56-page history of chess and chess pieces will keep you riveted for hours. Wonderfully illustrated with lots of color plates, the section traces the roots of the game through fifteen hundred years of art and artifice.