Woodworking
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Woodworking is the process of building, making or carving something using wood.
Contents
History
Along with stone, mud, and animal parts, wood was certainly one of the first materials worked by primitive human beings. Indeed, the development of civilization was closely tied to the development of increasingly greater degrees of skill in working these materials.Among early finds of wooden tools are the worked sticks from Kalambo Falls, Clacton-on-Sea and Lehringen. The spears from Schöningen (Germany) provide some of the first examples of wooden hunting gear. Flint tools were used for carving. Since neolithic times, carved wooden vessels are known, for example from the Linear Pottery culture wells at Kückhofen and Eythra. Examples of Bronze Age wood-carving include trees worked into coffins from northern Germany and Denmark, and wooden folding-chairs. The site of Fellbach-Schmieden in Germany has provided fine examples of wooden animal statues from the Iron Age. Wooden idols from the La Tène period are known from a sanctuary at the source of the Seine in France.
Two ancient civilizations that used woodworking were the Egyptians and the Chinese. Woodworking is depicted in many ancient Egyptian drawings, and some ancient Egyptian furniture (such as chairs) has been preserved in tombs. The metal used by the Egyptians for woodworking tools was probably bronze or even copper, as ironworking was unknown until much later.
The progenitors of Chinese woodworking are considered to be Lu Ban (魯班) and his wife Lady Yun, from the Spring and Autumn Period. Lu Ban is said to have brought the plane, chalkline, and other tools to China. His teachings are supposedly left behind in the book Lu Ban Jing (魯班經, "Manuscript of Lu Ban"), although it was written some 1500 years after his death. This book is filled largely with descriptions of dimensions for use in building various items—such as flower pots, tables, altars, etc.—and also contains extensive instructions concerning Feng Shui, the ancient Chinese practice of geomancy. It mentions almost nothing of the intricate glueless and nailless joinery for which Chinese furniture was so famous.
Terminology
Woodworking, due to its long history, has developed extensive jargon and has preserved many archaic terms that are otherwise out of use.
- applied carving: background which is worked separately and then applied, rather than being worked in place
- bead: a semicircular piece of moulding
- bolster: shoulder
- burl: wood with a convoluted, complex grain, usually taken from cancerous growths on trees
- cannel, channel: the concavity of a gouge blade
- chip carving: incised surface decoration, usually geometric
- chops: a type of vise
- conversion: reduction of a whole log into pieces suitable for working
- crook: longitudinal bending to one side, caused by uneven seasoning or grain
- crotch: the section of a tree where a branch divides from the trunk, or the trunk divides in two; typically an area of convoluted grain
- crossgrain: working perpendicular to the grain
- cup: transverse bending, convex or concave, usually predictable, considering grain orientation
- devil stone: a coarse, hard dressing stone used in sharpening tools, grinders, and other stones
- dog: a hold-down iron, fitting into a hole in a bench, tightened or loosened by hammer taps, or a peg standing proud of the bench surface
- dressing stone: a rough sharpening stone usually used on other stones
- dutchman: a diamond-shaped patch of wood used to repair surface blemishes and knotholes
- end grain: the grain at the end of a piece of wood which is perpendicular to the surface
- fence: a piece of lath or scrap fixed to the bench surface to prevent movement of the work
- figure: naturally occurring decorative patterns in wood, usually due to medullary rays
- firmer: a chisel bevelled on both sides instead of only one
- fishtail chisel or gouge: a chisel or gouge with a splayed end
- flat gouge: a gouge with minimal curvature, used for finishing and smoothing
- flitch: a board in which the round of the trunk is still visible, a rough-cut board
- flute: a deep channel cut in wood; occasionally denotes the cannel of a gouge
- foxing: a yellow-brown discoloration of wood due to fungal infection
- fretsaw: a saw with a very fine toothed blade used for delicate cuts in thin material
- frosting: regular indented patterns created with a special-purpose punch called a froster
- grain: the longitudinal fibers in wood
- green: unseasoned wood
- hardwood: wood from an angiosperm tree, i.e. a tree in the division Magnoliophyta; Despite the name, not necessarily very hard or dense wood (e.g. balsa is a hardwood)
- heart shake: a shake radiating out from the heartwood
- heel: the corner of a chisel, knife, or gouge bevel which meets the back of the blade and polishes the cut
- hollow grinding: a concave bevel on a chisel, gouge, or knife
- incannel: the concave surface of a gouge; a gouge sharpened on the concave surface
- interlocked grain: grain which has multiple longitudinal directions in alternating layers, typical of many tropical hardwoods, and very difficult to work and to produce smooth surfaces
- outcannel: the convex surface of a gouge; a gouge sharpened on the convex surface
- quarter-sawn: describes a plank with growth rings perpendicular to the wider face [(see picture)]
- reed: a series of beads in a row
- riffler: a paddle-shaped rasp
- ring shake: a shake occurring between annual rings
- saw rasp: a rasp with saw teeth
- scorp: a drawknife with a curved, sometimes completely circular blade
- scraper: a flat blade with a burred edge used for smoothing
- scroll saw: a motorized fretsaw
- seasoning: reducing the moisture content of wood before working to prevent cracking, splitting, and other damage due to drying
- shake: a crack or split in wood, caused by damage or drying
- slab-cut: describes a plank with growth rings roughly parallel to the wider face [(see picture)]
- slip: a shaped stone used for sharpening non-flat blades such as on gouges
- snib: a wooden toggle used to hold the work on a table
- softwood: wood from a gymnosperm tree, i.e. trees in the divisions Pinophyta and Ginkgophyta; Despite the name, not necessarily very soft or light wood (e.g. douglas-fir is a softwood)
- spalting: a fungal discoloration in wood where brown spots are outlined with fine black lines &ldash; often considered a desirable feature
- split: to longitudinally separate wood along grain layers
- sweep: the curvature of a gouge, ranging from flat (little curvature, but not actually flat else it would be a chisel) to deep or quick
- tear out: small flakes and rough patches on interlocked grain in wood, usually left by tools cutting againist the grain
- twist: longitudinal twisting of wood due to uneven seasoning or grain
- undercutting: cutting away from an edge to increase the sense of relief or thinness
- veiner: a small deep gouge
- veneer (wood): very thin slices of wood used for inlay or to cover surfaces
- wane: an edge of a sawn board where the bark or surface of the trunk remains
- wasting: quickly removing wood during carving, usually with an adze, knife, or rasp
- waste: wood that will be removed in the finished work, often retained during working as a handle
Topics in Woodworking
Woodworking is now a general term covering a wide range of skills and techniques.
- carpentry – Originally a carpenter was a wagon maker but carpentry has come to mean the general working of wood. Sometimes used to cover all aspects of woodworking, at other times carpentry refers to the least-skilled level of woodworking and larger projects, such as house building.
- joinery – Either refers to (mainly in the UK) architectural woodwork or (mainly in the USA) to the joining of two or more pieces of wood together, necessary in most woodworking projects. Also used particularly to refer to the joining of wood without the use of nails, screws, or other metal fasteners.
- cabinetry, cabinet making, cabinetmaker – The practice of utilizing many woodworking skills to create cabinets, shelving and furniture; a craftsman who specializes in the making of fine furniture. Implies a very high level of skill in woodworking.
- marquetry and parquetry – The practice of creating patterns by inlaying different wood veneers; with different colours and different grains complex patterns are formed. Originally used to decorate furniture, both are now often used to produce pictures. Often regarded as a fine art form, equal to sculpture and painting. Marquetry is distinguished from parquetry by the shapes used and formed - marquetry entails the creation of organic or scenic pictures, while parquetry involves geometric shapes.
- turning – The art of turning a piece of wood on a lathe and shaping it by holding various cutting tools against it.
- Wood species – Choosing which type (species) of wood is correct for a given project.
- carving
- boat building – Professionally done by shipwrights.
- luthier – someone who builds or repairs stringed musical instruments such as guitars or violins.
- wheelwright – A maker of wooden wheels and spokes.
- cooper – A maker of casks and barrels.
- bodger – Now archaic, a wood-turner specializing making furniture and treen. Also a corruption of "botcher", a colloquial term for an incompetent workman.
- Patternmaker – a maker of wooden patterns used to create moulds for sand casting. A highly precise type of woodworking, the patternmaker must not only make the pattern to exacting standards, but also allow for metal shrinkage while cooling.
Woodworking Tools
A variety of tools are used for woodworking. These may be divided into hand tools and power tools or woodworking machinery, or they may be divided into rough groups based on their function in the woodworking process.
Measuring and marking tools
- rulers, tape measures, and protractors
- straightedges, combination squares, try squares,
- scratch awls, marking gauges, marking knives
- levels
- plane gauges used to determine the flatness of a surface
- hygrometers used to determine the water content of wood before and during working
- winding sticks used to assist when flattening boards
Cutting tools
- hand saws such as the crosscut saw, rip saw, various backsaws (tenon saw, dovetail saw, gent's saw), coping saw, keyhole saw, bow saw, and various Japanese saws
- power saws such as the circular saw, chainsaw, table saw, radial arm saw, jigsaw, miter saw, hole saw (actually a form of drill bit), and band saw
Shaping tools
- hand planes such as the jointer plane, smoothing plane, block plane, shoulder plane, scrub plane, spear plane, and rabbet plane
- thickness planer and jointer
- router and router bits
- rotary tools, often known by the trade name 'Dremel'
- chisel and gouge
- lathe
- drill press and hollow chisel mortiser
- rasp
- knife
- Other hand shaping tools, such as the axe, adze, froe, spokeshave, and drawknife.
Assembly tools
- screwdriver
- hammer and mallet
- hand or power drills along with drill bits
- clamps including the C-clamp, F-clamp, G-clamp, bar clamp, mitre clamp, sash clamp and band clamp
Finishing tools
- sandpaper, used alone or with sanding blocks or power sanders such as the belt sander, palm sander, disc sander, and random orbit sander
- steel wool or bronze wool, used for polishing or applying stain or liquid finishing compounds
- file
- scraper
- brushes mainly for applying varnish, wood stain
- spray guns for applying lacquer
Accessory tools and furniture
- Workbench or just bench is a high table at which one usually stands or sits on a high stool, and on which wood is worked
- * dog hole, a square or round hole made in the top surface of a bench to allow the attachment of various clamping and holding devices.
- * bench dog, a peg which, when fitted into a dog hole allows clamping pressure to be applied to a wooden item being worked.
- * hold fast, a simple bent rod with a foot which when placed in a dog hole in a bench can be used to position and hold boards.
- * vise, or vice, a stable clamping apparatus used to hold wood in different positions while being worked
- * bench hook, a bench top stop against which wood can be pushed whilst being worked.
- Sawhorse, a four-legged stand usually used in pairs to support large pieces of wood such as panels, long boards, and sheets.
- Horse, also known as a shave horse, a tool upon which one sits, with a foot activated clamp to hold shingles, spokes, or short boards, upon which one shaves wood with a drawknife or spokeshave.
- shooting board, used in combination with a hand plane to trim end grain or to straighten edges of boards.
Tool Sharpening
The cutting and some of the shaping woodworking tools rely upon sharp cutting edges to produce a satisfactory finish. Keeping these tools sharp is an important aspect of woodworking. There are a large number of machine powered and hand powered sharpening methods in use by woodworkers, the selection of which is in part determined by the tool being sharpened and part personal preference. Some tools, such as chisels and plane blades, are commonly sharpened by the owner, others, such as saw blades and machinery knives, are more often sent to a sharpening specialist.Sharpening Paraphernalia
Sharpening Methods
Scary sharp - a method using paper-backed coated abrasives or sandpaper and a flat surface, such as plate glass.Woodworkers
- Alvan Aalto
- Norm Abram
- Chris Becksvoort
- John Boson
- Mike Dunbar
- Tage Frid
- Eileen Gray
- Garrett Hack
- R. Bruce Hoadley
- James Krenov
- Sam Maloof
- David J. Marks
- Joseph Moxon
- George Nakashima
- Thomas Nixon
- Roy Underhill
- Sir Neville Wilkinson
- H. J. Rigsby
See also
External links
- [inside-woodworking.com] - Inside Woodworking Magazine
- [Woodworkers Website Association] - A worldwide association of professional and hobbyist woodworkers
- [Woodworking & Carving Resource] Discover info, articles, tips, and more on woodworking.
- [Professional and amateur woodworking projects for viewing and sharing]
- [Woodworking and carpentry resources]
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