The supplements provide key information about wood and man-made board materials, wood finishing, abrasives (including tool sharpening processes), adhesives, British and European standards for adhesives, metals, metalworking techniques, plastics, a detailed design for a cabinetmaker's workbench, and an introduction to beam deflection calculations.

The bibliography gives a list of books for further reading, most of them with a brief appraisal. Readers with no experience of woodworking will also need to access popular 'lavishly illustrated' books on woodworking.

The text is supported by 66 CAD (computer aided draughting) files. Each file contains one or more plain line technical drawings.

Practical experience is critically important to the improvement of manual skills, but this should be complemented by technical knowledge and good workshop organisation. The Modern Cabinetmaker is intended to exemplify such a philosophy. It does not comprise a resource on complete cabinet designs, but it treats many aspects of the work that are often omitted or glossed over in popular books.