What makes a high quality woodworking project? There are, of course, many answers to this question. One obvious answer is that the craftsperson must have the necessary joinery and tool skills and attention to detail needed to create a top notch piece. The less obvious answer is that he or she also needs to have a deep understanding of the materials needed to build the project; in this case, wood (also called lumber).

Wood is unlike other materials, such as metal, in that it shrinks and expands due to humidity in the air, sometimes significantly and it does this throughout it’s entire life. While it’s possible to build projects without the knowledge of how wood moves and reacts over time, this can be a recipe for disaster in that over time the joinery can fail due the failure to consider wood movement when designing and building a project. The most skilled woodworkers fully understand the properties of wood and how to design joinery to accommodate that movement. When designed and built properly, there’s no reason your projects can’t last for generations.

The good news is that woodworkers have understood the properties of wood for thousands of years and have developed many techniques to accommodate wood movement, so no need to re-invent the wheel. The best part is that you don’t need to memorize hundreds of joinery options. Once you understand a few simple rules regarding wood movement, you will easily recognize problematic situations allowing you to research the best way to solve the problem.

Preparation

Peter Korn said it best in his book, “Why We Make Things and Why it Matters – The Education of a Craftsman

“In furniture (and cabinet) making, beginnings are critical.  For a simple frame-and-panel door to stay flat over the long haul and not become too tight in summer or overly gapped in winter, success starts with the choice of timber.  Not just what species or which plank, but also from which part of the board one saws the stiles and rails, how dry the wood is, the method by which it was dried, and how it was stored and handled.  All this before the actual work of milling the timber flat and square, laying out and cutting the joinery, making and fitting the panel, assembling, trimming, fitting, hinging, latching, and finishing.  

Throughout the entire process, the quality achievable at each stage is utterly dependent on the care with which the craftsman has accomplished every previous step of the way.”  

— Peter Korn, longtime woodworking educator and furniture maker

The last quote is particularly important; when building anything, every step matters and problems can cascade if care is not taken at each stage. In our case, it all starts with wood and it’s preparation, so let’s dive in…

Some notes about the course: Each lesson consists of outside reading from Understanding Wood and/or Modern Cabinetmaking, a video, and a quiz. You must progress through each lesson in order and pass the quiz before moving on; you may take each quiz up to three times to obtain a passing grade of 80%. It is strongly recommended to do the outside reading before watching the videos.