what would a couple of books you all would suggest be?

The $50. Knife shop is a good basic info. book for a  starter.

Larry

Yep. That's a good one.

Another book is "Handles and Guards" by Joe Keeslar. As you may be able to tell, it covers everything but the blade itself. It goes into great detail yet covers a variety of handle constructions. This is a valuable book in my opinion. This is available through the ABS website for $30.

You can go to Knife World Magazine and click on their "books" tab and look around there too. Lin

I agree. you can learn a TON from Joe Keeslar's book about actual knife construction.

There's also a couple decent videos out..you can also view Lin's tagged thread up top of this forum for construction of a hidden tang knife.