Turning Toys with Richard Raffan

I liked the general design and general information at the beginning of the book that is very useful to beginning turners. There is a good ratio of text to pictures, making it easy to understand what needs to be done to make the to;, while at the same time, giving the reader enough design license to add his/her own unique features to the toy. I used the book as a guide for making some holiday toys to give away.

Mr. Raffan's book is meticulosly written. He provides clear succint instriuction. Satety is is stressed in lathe operation and creating toys that do not present choking hazzards.As a general pedicitrician ,I need my hands and sight intact to work. Further, I must first do no harm to thechildren I take care of. I purchased this book to create age appropriate safe toys."Turning Toys" instructions are clear and images are excellent. The project selection is good, but ,does not offer as many projects as I would have liked. for older children:. I would have appreciated an emphasis onkinetic or spining toys, especially thrown tops: "Duncan " type,of various sizes,hollow centured, tops that flipover when spun, ones with hollow centers., creating ones which from multiple hardwoods. .A section forturning dazzling yo-yos would have been great. These were the rugged toys from my childhood Mr. Raffan 's toy plans are selected to allow progressive skill development. I suggest reading the entire book, (with careful emphasis on the illustrations) and completing all the projects as well.as well. This would provide the skills and criterion to create design and create safe new toys. Animprovement for future issues or an addendum to this one would be oneline accessto a video to use with the text. Finally a web site for students of this book to show their creations would be very nice

Good book with plenty of pictures and instructions. Would recommend it for someone who wanted to make toy figures to fit in wood toys like I do

This was a gift for my friend who turns wood. She loved it!

Our woodworking club makes toys for distribution to children's service agencies at Christmas and I was looking for new suggestions. In addition, there are several that I am sure my grandsons will enjoy. The text is clearly written and the illustrations are clear. Expert turners may find the text simplistic but beginner and intermediate turners such as myself will learn several techniques.

Grandchild on the way and as usual Richard Raffin has presented everything you need to know carefully and clearly. Great if you intend to get into toy making.

Turners know that Raffan's books are clear, complete, well written and very well worth the money. This new book falls in the tradition. All of the projects shown are interesting, complete and carefully presented with good pictures that are well explained in the text. I believe I have every book he has written and have seen him demonstrate twice so arguably am a bit of a junky.

Great book for turners and toy making

Arrived on time,and now that I have been able to attempt one of the projects on the lathe,I look forward to continuing with the other projects.I have now made eight of the racing cars for my grandsons improving all the time utilizing the off centre turning required for this toy.I am really happy with the results and look forward to learning more from this book. Really pleased with it.

Excellent guude to making some simple but fun toys. Would have liked more toys to be shown but at the cover orice not bad value. The author gives clear directions and the camera shows his tool techniques clearly. A decent buy for a relative newcomer turner like myself

Full of techniques and ideas, this book is not designed to be slavishly followed (ie Overall dimensions are suggested, and the pictures give a good idea of proportions, without constraining one to hunt for an exact piece of timber.). It is a good book to browse and let the inspiration come to you. Highly recommended.

Interesting ideas and tips although sometimes I had to read several times to work out exactly what he was doing. Would recommend to other novice turners with children/grandchildren or, in my case, great grandchildren.

raffan is always the best and so are this book too.