Woodworking
Woodworking is the process of building, making or carving something using wood.
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History
Along with stone, mud, and animal parts, wood was certainly one of the first materials worked by primitive human beings. Microwear analysis of the Mousterian stone tools used by the Neanderthals show that many were used to work wood. 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 a considerable amount of ancient Egyptian furniture (such as stools, chairs, tables, beds, chests) has been preserved in tombs. As well, the inner coffins found in the tombs were also made of wood. The metal used by the Egyptians for woodworking tools was originally copper and eventually, after 2000 BC bronze as ironworking was unknown until much later.[1] Commonly used woodworking tools included axes, adzes, chisels, pull saws, and bow drills. Mortise and tenon joints are attested from the earliest Presynastic period. These joints were strengthened using pegs, dowels and leather or cord lashings. Animal glue came to be used only in the New Kingdom period.[2] Ancient Egyptians invented the art of veneering and used varnishes whose composition is not known as finishes. Although different native acacias were used, as was the wood from the local sycomore and tamarisk trees, deforestation in the Nile valley resulted in the need for importation of wood, notably cedar, but also Aleppo pine, boxwood and oak, starting from the Second Dynasty.[3]
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.
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. Segmented turning is a combination of parquetry and turning.
- 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.
Some of these refer to special techniques such as marquetry or turning, while others refer to a specialized product such as the cooper or wheelwright.
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), band saw and scroll 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
- Alvar Aalto
- Norm Abram
- Chris Becksvoort
- John Boson
- Mike Dunbar
- Tage Frid
- Eileen Gray
- Garrett Hack
- R. Bruce Hoadley
- James Krenov
- John Makepeace
- Sam Maloof
- David J. Marks
- Joseph Moxon
- George Nakashima
- Thomas Nixon
- Alan Peters
- Scott Phillips
- H. J. Rigsby
- Roy Underhill
- Sir Neville Wilkinson
See also
Notes
- ^ Enrichetta Leospo (2001), "Woodworking in Ancient Egypt", The Art of Woodworking, Turin: Museo Egizio, p.20
- ^ Ibid., pp.20-21
- ^ Ibid., pp. 17-19
References
Feirer, John L. (1988). Cabinetmaking and Millwork. Mission Hills California: Glencoe Publishing. ISBN 0-02-675950-0.
Frid, Tage (1979). Tage Frid Teaches Woodworking. Newton, Connecticut: Taunton Press. ISBN 0-918804-03-5.
Joyce, Edward, revised and expanded by Alan Peters (1987). Encyclopedia of Furniture Making. New York: Sterling Publishing Co.. ISBN 0-8609-6440-5 (ISBN 0-8069-7142-8 Paperback).
Roubo, André Jacob (1769-1784). The Art of the Joiner. Paris: Académie des Sciences.
Categories
Skills | Wood | Woodworking | Manufacturing