Woodworking &
Joinery Fundamentals

Wood was part of a living tree and still behaves like one: it takes up and gives off moisture, swells and shrinks unevenly, and is strong along its fibres but weak across them. Every joint and finish depends on this.

1.1 How a Tree Makes Wood

A tree thickens from a thin layer of dividing cells under the bark, the cambium, which lays down a new sheath of wood each season. In British trees the open spring growth (earlywood) and denser summer growth (latewood) show as growth rings.

Most wood cells are long hollow fibres lying along the trunk. That is what grain means: the direction the fibres run. Wood is strong along the grain and weak across it, like a bundle of straws glued together. A leg with the grain running diagonally across it (short grain) can snap without warning. Rays run outwards from the centre like wheel spokes; in oak they show as silvery fleck on quarter-sawn boards.

• Sapwood, the outer, younger wood, is usually paler and far less resistant to decay and woodworm. Cut it away from oak and sweet chestnut work.
• Heartwood is the older inner wood. When a species is called "durable", the heartwood is meant.
• The pith is the soft core. Boards containing it almost always split as they dry.

Reaction wood (from leaning trees) and juvenile wood (near the pith) misbehave. The USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Wood Handbook notes both can shrink up to 2% along the grain, against about 0.1–0.2% for normal wood, which is why such boards bow and twist when ripped.

1.2 Softwoods and Hardwoods

The names are botanical, not a measure of hardness. Softwoods come from conifers (pine, spruce, fir, larch, cedar, yew); hardwoods from broadleaved trees (oak, ash, beech, walnut, cherry). Balsa is a hardwood; yew is a softwood harder than many hardwoods.

• Structure. Hardwoods have pores (vessels). Ring-porous woods such as oak and ash have large pores in the earlywood, giving a coarse texture that stains unevenly. Diffuse-porous woods such as beech, maple and cherry are fine and even.
• Dust. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) sets a lower exposure limit for hardwood dust because it can cause nasal cancer (Section 3.5).

1.3 Grain, Texture and Figure

Grain direction is the way the fibres run relative to the surface. They rise and dip, so on any face they run out at a shallow angle. Planing "with the grain" means cutting in the direction in which the fibres rise towards the surface, so any split ahead of the blade runs up and out harmlessly, like stroking a cat from head to tail. Against the grain, the split runs down into the wood and tears fibres out. Interlocked grain (sapele and many tropical woods) spirals in alternate layers and tears out whichever way you plane. Runout, where fibres leave the surface steeply, makes weak, short-grained parts.

Texture is the size of the pores: coarse (oak, ash, elm) or fine (beech, maple, cherry). Figure is the surface pattern (ray fleck, ripple, burr); highly figured wood is harder to plane and often less stable.

1.4 Plain, Quarter and Rift Sawn

How a board was cut from the log decides how it looks, how much it moves and how it distorts. The end grain tells you: look at the angle at which the rings meet the face.

• Plain sawn (flat sawn). Cheapest, widest, with arched figure. It moves most in width and cups, the hollow forming on the side that faced away from the heart.
• Quarter sawn. Cut along a radius; straight stripes and, in oak, ray figure. It moves roughly half as much in width and stays flat, so it is preferred for panels, tops and drawer sides. It costs more.
• Rift sawn. Rings at about 45°; straight grain on face and edge, ideal for legs seen on all four sides.

1.5 Moisture Content and Seasoning

Moisture content (MC) is the weight of water in wood as a percentage of its oven-dry weight. Green wood holds free water in its cell cavities and bound water in its cell walls. Free water leaves first with no change in size. Below the fibre saturation point (about 30% MC on average, per the Wood Handbook) water leaves the cell walls and the wood shrinks. All movement that matters to a furniture maker happens below this point.

Equilibrium moisture content

Dry wood settles at an equilibrium moisture content (EMC) set mainly by the relative humidity (RH) of the air. Values from the Wood Handbook equation at 20°C:

British outdoor air is damp: coatings maker Teknos publishes typical figures for High Wycombe showing exterior joinery ranging from about 14% MC in August to about 20% in winter. Heating cold air lowers its RH sharply, so a heated house in winter is far drier. A cheap hygrometer tells you what your rooms run at.

Air and kiln drying

For air drying, boards are stacked under cover on thin stickers laid directly above one another, and the ends are sealed, since water leaves end grain far faster than the faces and unsealed ends split. The old rule of "a year per inch" of thickness is only a rough guide. Air-dried timber in Britain can only reach the outdoor EMC, typically the mid to high teens, so it needs further drying indoors. A kiln controls heat and humidity to reach the low moisture contents needed indoors; most furniture hardwood is kiln dried (KD). Poor kilning causes checks and case hardening, where stressed outer layers make a board spring open or pinch the saw when ripped.

How dry is dry enough?

Use timber at the MC it will settle at in service. BS EN 942 gives recommended values in its Annex B, summarised by the British Woodworking Federation:

Furniture in a centrally heated home spends its winters at the dry end of this range or below, so many furniture makers aim for roughly 8–10%. A pin-type moisture meter gives a quick check: read across the middle of the board, not the end, and apply the species corrections in its instructions.

Wood movement is the commonest cause of failure in home-made furniture, and it is entirely predictable.

2.1 Why Wood Moves, and in Which Direction

Below the fibre saturation point wood shrinks as it dries and swells as it takes up moisture, by very different amounts in three directions (Diagram 2):

• Tangential (T), along the rings: the largest. This is the width movement of a plain-sawn board.
• Radial (R), across the rings: typically about half of T. This is the width movement of a quarter-sawn board.
• Longitudinal (L), along the grain: 0.1–0.2% from green to oven-dry for normal wood, according to the Wood Handbook.

The difference between T and R makes boards distort: plain-sawn boards cup, square legs with diagonal rings go diamond-shaped, and uneven grain causes bow (along the face), spring (along the edge) and twist.

2.2 Worked Movement Calculations

For changes within about 6–14% MC, the Wood Handbook uses a dimensional change coefficient for each species:

Coefficients for timbers sold in the UK are in Section 14.3. The tables cover North American species; for European timbers, use the nearest relative as a guide and allow a margin.

Example 1: a solid oak top

A 300 mm top in plain-sawn American white oak (C_T = 0.00376) is made at 12% MC in late summer and dries to 8% in a heated room in winter:

A 600 mm top would move about 9 mm. Quarter sawn (C_R = 0.00194), the same 300 mm top moves 300 × 0.00194 × 4 = 2.3 mm: half as much, but not zero.

Example 2: a panel in a frame

A plain-sawn American cherry panel (C_T = 0.00248) is made at 8% and may reach 12% in a damp summer. Over a 400 mm width:

So the panel needs about 2 mm clearance each side in its grooves, or it will push the frame joints apart. A panel made in summer will shrink in winter and show bare edges unless finished before assembly.

Example 3: along the grain and from green

Along the grain the change is negligible: about 0.2 mm on a 1,000 mm rail for the same 4-point change. From green, the Wood Handbook estimates shrinkage to a moisture content x as the total shrinkage S₀ × (1 − x/30). White oak's total tangential shrinkage is 10.5%, so a 200 mm green plain-sawn board dried to 10% shrinks 10.5 × (1 − 10/30) = 7.0%, finishing about 186 mm wide.

2.3 Designing for Movement

The rule: never fix wood rigidly across its width to anything that will not move with it. The standard solutions are:

• Frame and panel. The panel floats unglued in grooves in a frame of narrow rails and stiles; a spot of glue at the centre of each end keeps it centred.
• Buttons. Small wooden blocks screwed under a top, with a tongue that hooks into a groove in the apron and slides as the top moves (Project 3). Slotted metal plates and figure-of-eight fasteners do the same.
• Slotted screw holes across the grain, with a washer, wherever a screw must cross a wide board.
• Breadboard ends glued or pegged only at the centre, with elongated peg holes towards the edges.
• Long grain to long grain for all glue joints, with the grain running the same way.
• Finish both faces of tops and panels so moisture moves evenly. Finish slows moisture exchange; it does not stop it.

Narrow parts (a 50 mm rail moves a fraction of a millimetre) can be joined any way. Think hard about anything wider than about 100 mm.

2.4 Buying Solid Timber in the UK

• Sawn timber is rough and slightly oversize: cheaper, and you plane it to exactly the size you need.
• PAR (planed all round) and PSE (planed square edge) are machined on all faces, but only as flat as the merchant's machine and storage left them.
• Nominal and finished sizes. Planed softwood is often described by the sawn size it came from. Wickes, for example, lists a whitewood PSE batten as nominal 22 × 50 mm, finished 18 × 44 mm. Always plan joints on the finished size.

Volume. Multiply length × width × thickness in metres: a board 2.4 m × 200 mm × 27 mm is 0.013 m³. One cubic metre is about 35.3 cubic feet. Yards charge on sawn size, often over the full width of a waney board, so many makers buy a third to a half more hardwood than the cutting list needs.

Choosing boards. Read the end grain (Diagram 1) and avoid the pith; sight along each board for bow, spring and twist; allow for end splits plus 50 mm; reject loose knots, shakes and soft or discoloured patches.

Reclaimed timber is often dense and stable: pull every nail and scan with a metal detector. Treat old paint as possibly containing lead (the Restoration & Repair handbook, Section 4.5, covers testing). Fresh pale dust (frass) and clean holes mean active woodworm.

2.5 Sheet Materials

Cross-bonded boards barely move with humidity, which makes them ideal for carcasses, drawer bottoms and jigs. Standard UK sheets are 2440 × 1220 mm; Baltic birch plywood also comes 1525 × 1525 mm. Measure actual thickness before cutting grooves: it often differs a little from nominal.

2.6 Storing and Acclimatising Timber

• Garages and sheds are damp. Bring a project's timber into the house, or the driest space you have, for a couple of weeks before final machining.
• Rough out, then rest. Cut parts over-length and a few millimetres oversize, leave them a few days to release stress, then plane to size.
• Plane both faces equally, then keep finished parts stacked flat under weight until glue-up.

You need a solid bench, a way to hold work still, good light and a plan for dust. For recommended hand tools, clamps and power tools at different budgets, see the Restoration & Repair handbook, Chapter 2.

3.1 Space, Light and Power

• Space. A single garage or a shed of about 3 × 2.4 m takes a bench, storage and a few power tools. You need a way to pass long boards in.
• Light. Strong overhead light plus a movable task lamp. Low, raking light shows plane tracks and glue smears.
• Power. RCD-protected sockets, enough to avoid trailing extension leads. A new circuit to an outbuilding is notifiable work under Part P of the Building Regulations in England and Wales; use a registered electrician.
• Damp rusts tools and wets timber; a dehumidifier or background heat helps.

3.2 The Workbench

The bench must be heavy and rigid enough not to shift when you plane, flat enough to check work on, and fitted with a vice and a way to hold boards flat.

• Height. A common starting point is about knuckle height with arms hanging, which lets you lean over a plane; many people settle between 800 and 950 mm. Higher suits fine joint work.
• Mass. A thick top (laminated softwood 70–100 mm thick works well) on a base braced against racking. Bolting a light bench to the wall helps.

The English joiner's bench and the heavy French "Roubo" style both work well.

3.3 Vices, Holdfasts and the Planing Stop

• Front vice with wooden jaw linings, top flush with the bench. Holds work for sawing, edge planing and chopping.
• Tail vice and bench dogs: pegs in holes in the top that clamp a board flat between them.
• Holdfast: an iron bar in a hole in the top; a mallet tap wedges it down on the work, a tap on its back releases it.
• Planing stop: a batten or toothed stop at the end of the bench to push a board against while face planing. Set it lower than the board's thickness.
• Clamps hold anything else to the top.

3.4 Bench Hook and Shooting Board

A bench hook hooks over the front of the bench and has a fence to hold work for crosscutting; sawing pressure pushes it against the bench so it cannot slide. A shooting board guides a plane on its side to trim end grain dead square. Both are built in Project 1 (Section 11.2).

3.5 Wood Dust and Your Health

Dust is the most serious long-term health risk in woodworking, and the harmful part is the fine dust you cannot see. HSE's information sheet WIS23, Wood dust: Controlling the risks, and its woodworking pages state that:

• wood dust can cause asthma, and carpenters and joiners are four times more likely to get asthma than other UK workers;
• hardwood dust can cause cancer, particularly a rare cancer of the nose;
• wood dust also causes dermatitis and eye, nose and throat irritation, and is flammable.

At work, wood dust is controlled under the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (COSHH), with these GB workplace exposure limits (8-hour time-weighted averages):

Because wood dust can cause cancer and asthma, HSE also requires exposure at work to be reduced as low as reasonably practicable. COSHH does not cover a private hobby workshop, but your lungs do not know the difference: treat HSE's guidance as the standard.

1. Make less dust. Planes and scrapers make shavings, not dust.
2. Capture it at source with an extractor on sanders, saws and routers. HSE advises clean-up vacuums of at least dust class M.
3. Never dry sweep or blow dust off with compressed air; HSE is explicit that both put fine dust back into the air.
4. Wear a fitted respirator for sanding, routing and emptying extractors. HSE says it should have an assigned protection factor of at least 20, which disposable masks described as FFP3 provide if they fit. Beards prevent a seal; a powered hood is the alternative.
5. Do not use "nuisance dust" masks: HSE states they give no protection against wood dust.

3.6 Noise, Eyes, Hands and Fire

HSE's WIS13 gives typical noise levels at woodworking machines without noise reduction, including portable tools 101 dB, bench saws 102 dB, high-speed routers 103 dB and thicknessers 104 dB. For comparison, the Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005 require employers to act at a daily exposure of 80 dB(A), require hearing protection at 85 dB(A), and set a limit of 87 dB(A). HSE's simple test is whether you must raise your voice to talk to someone about 2 m away. Wear ear defenders or properly fitted plugs whenever a machine or router runs.

• Eyes. Safety glasses for all machine work and chopping; a face shield at a grinder.
• Hands. Keep both hands behind a sharp edge. No gloves, loose sleeves, jewellery or loose long hair near rotating cutters: they can be caught and pull your hand in.
• Fire. Empty extractor bags regularly. Rags soaked in drying oils can ignite on their own as they cure (Section 12.2). Keep an extinguisher, a first aid kit and a phone to hand.

Accurate joints come from measuring off trusted reference surfaces and cutting to fine knife lines rather than broad pencil ones.

4.1 Reference Faces: Face Side and Face Edge

Before marking joints, make one wide face of each part flat and out of twist (the face side) and one edge straight and square to it (the face edge). Mark them in pencil: traditionally a looped squiggle on the face side running to the face edge, and a V on the face edge with its point on the shared arris. Every gauge line and square line is then taken from these two surfaces.

Arrange parts so face sides go to the show face and face edges consistently inwards or upwards. Small errors in thickness then end up on hidden faces. Record where each part goes with a cabinetmaker's triangle: one large triangle drawn across a group of parts, so each carries a piece of it.

4.2 Measuring and Marking Tools

For makes at different budgets, see the Restoration & Repair handbook, Section 2.1.

4.3 Knife Lines and Gauge Lines

1. Hold the stock firmly against a reference face, never an unprepared one.
2. Knife across the grain with the flat of the knife against the square, bevel towards the waste, in two or three light strokes.
3. Carry lines round a part, always working the square from the face side or face edge. If the line meets itself, the part is square.
4. Gauge along the grain with the pin or wheel trailing, the fence pressed to the reference face, in several light passes.
5. Mark the waste on every line. Cutting on the wrong side of a line is a classic mistake.

For a clean shoulder, pare a small V-groove on the waste side of the knife line. The saw drops into it with its face exactly on the line. This knife wall also locates a chisel for the final paring cut.

4.4 Checking Flat, Square and Out of Wind

• Flat: a straightedge along, across and diagonally; light underneath shows hollows, rocking shows high spots.
• Twist: lay two identical straight winding sticks across the ends and sight over them. If they are not parallel the board is in wind, with the high corners diagonally opposite.
• Square: square stock on the face side, blade on the edge, held to the light at several points.
• Testing a square: knife a line from a straight edge, flip the square, and knife again from the same point. If the lines diverge, the error is half the angle between them.
• Frames: equal diagonals mean square.

4.5 Story Sticks, Rods and Cutting Lists

Measuring each part separately adds a small error each time. Transfer sizes instead:

• A story stick is a batten marked once with the key positions (shelf heights, rail positions) and laid against each part, so matching parts are identical.
• A rod is a full-size drawing of a section through the job; sizes are taken off it, not calculated.
• Wherever possible mark one part from another: a rail from the opening, pins from the tails, the gauge from the chisel.

A cutting list gives every part's finished length × width × thickness in millimetres, with material and grain direction. When cutting from rough stock, add about 25 mm to length and 3–5 mm to width and thickness, and cut the longest, widest parts first from the best boards.

Nothing improves hand-tool work faster than learning to sharpen: a blunt edge needs force, and force makes tools slip.

5.1 What "Sharp" Means

A sharp edge is the line where two flat, polished surfaces meet: the back and the bevel. Sharpening means flattening and polishing the back (once, thoroughly), abrading the bevel until a fine burr can be felt along the whole back (proof you have reached the edge), refining the bevel on finer abrasives, and removing the burr on the finest stone. Look straight at the edge under a bright light: a sharp edge reflects nothing. It should pare a clean, shiny shaving from softwood end grain.

5.2 Edge Geometry: Bevels, Secondary Bevels and Angles

A low bevel angle cuts easily but crumbles in hard wood or under a mallet; a steeper one lasts longer but needs more force. Lie-Nielsen, for example, supplies bench plane blades with a flat-ground 25° bevel and suggests honing a small secondary bevel (microbevel) of up to 30° or 35° for longer edge life in hard or abrasive woods. A 25° primary with a 30° secondary is the most widely used setting for bench chisels and bevel-down plane irons, and the default here (Section 14.1).

The secondary bevel makes sharpening quicker, not better: only a narrow strip is honed each time. After several honings it grows wide, and you regrind the 25° primary.

In a bevel-down Bailey-pattern bench plane (No. 4 smoothing, No. 5 jack), the blade sits on the frog at 45° (common pitch), so the cutting angle is 45° whatever the bevel; the bevel only sets the clearance. In a bevel-up block or low-angle plane the cutting angle is the bed angle plus the bevel: a 12° bed with a 25° bevel cuts at 37°, excellent on end grain. A spare blade with a steeper bevel turns the same plane into a tool for difficult grain.

5.3 Sharpening Media Compared

A sensible starting kit is a coarse diamond plate, a medium stone around 1000 grit, a finishing stone around 4000–8000 grit and a honing guide. Grit numbers are not comparable between systems, so compare by stated particle size if it matters.

5.4 Flattening Backs and Keeping Stones Flat

Only the first 25 mm or so of a plane iron's back needs to be flat, a little more on a chisel, whose back guides paring cuts. Rub it dead flat on the coarse plate, fingertips near the edge, until the scratch pattern reaches right across the edge, then work through the grits to a polish.

Waterstones wear hollow and then round the edge. Flatten them often by rubbing on a coarse diamond plate or wet-and-dry paper on glass until a pencil grid on the face disappears evenly, and use the whole surface.

5.5 Grinding, Honing and Stropping, Step by Step

Grind only to remove a chip, square a skewed edge, or reset the primary bevel. A high-speed grinder overheats thin edges: if the steel turns straw or blue it has lost its hardness there and must be ground back. Use a light touch and dip in water every couple of passes, or use a slow water-cooled grinder or a coarse diamond plate.

1. Set the angle. Clamp the blade square in the honing guide. Projection sets the angle; mark a stop block with the projections for 25° and 30° on your guide.
2. Primary bevel (if needed): hone at 25° on the medium stone until a burr forms right across the back.
3. Secondary bevel: reset for 30° and take a few strokes on the medium, then the fine stone, until a narrow even bevel shows and a fine burr forms.
4. Remove the burr: lay the back flat on the finest stone and draw it back a few times; alternate lightly with the bevel.
5. Strop (optional), edge trailing, then test.

Freehand honing is quicker once learned: rock the bevel flat on the stone, lock your wrists and move from the shoulders. The slightly convex bevel this gives is no handicap.

5.6 Plane Irons, Chisels and Scrapers

• Jack plane: a pronounced camber across the edge for fast stock removal without digging in at the corners.
• Smoothing plane: a very slight camber or eased corners, to avoid tracks.
• Try plane, shoulder and rebate planes: straight and square; a shoulder plane blade flush with both sides of the body.
• Chisels: flat back, square edge, 25°/30° for general work; mortise chisels last better at 30–35°.
• Spokeshaves: hone freehand or in a holding block.

A card scraper cuts with a burr. File the long edges straight and square, hone edges and faces flat on a fine stone, stroke a hard polished burnisher firmly along each face at the edge, then run it along the edge, square at first and then tilted a few degrees, to roll a hook on each corner. It should make fine shavings, not dust.

5.7 Saw Sharpening Basics

Most cheap modern handsaws have hardpoint (induction-hardened) teeth that stay sharp a long time but cannot be filed; recycle them when dull. Traditional saws and good backsaws can be refiled many times.

• Rip teeth are filed straight across, so each acts like a tiny chisel.
• Crosscut teeth are filed at an angle across the blade (the fleam), giving knife-like points that sever fibres.
• Set bends alternate teeth outwards so the kerf is wider than the blade. Too little binds; too much cuts roughly and wanders.

Resharpening runs jointing (levelling the tips), shaping, setting and sharpening with a saw vice and triangular file. Many people send fine backsaws to a saw doctor.

Hand tools are quiet, make little fine dust, and teach you how wood behaves.

6.1 Sawing: Rip, Crosscut and Starting the Cut

Ripping is sawing along the grain, crosscutting across it; saws are filed for one or the other (Section 5.7). Backsaws (tenon and dovetail saws) have a stiffening back and fine teeth for joints; a dovetail saw is mainly a rip saw. Japanese pull saws cut on the pull stroke with a very thin blade, and many beginners find them easier to control.

• Stance: saw, forearm and shoulder in one line, eye above the blade.
• Grip: three fingers round the handle, index finger pointing along it, held lightly.

1. Mark the line and the waste. The kerf goes on the waste side, just touching the line. Knife a knife wall (Section 4.3) for precise shoulders.
2. Start on the far corner with your free thumb beside the blade, using a few short, light strokes.
3. Lower the angle and use the full length of the blade. Let the saw's weight do the work; if you must push hard, it is blunt or binding.
4. Where you can, follow two lines at once (the end and the visible edge), which keeps the cut square.
5. Support the offcut at the end of a crosscut so it does not splinter off.

6.2 Setting Up a Bench Plane

A Bailey-pattern plane has a sole with a mouth, an adjustable frog, the blade, a cap iron screwed to it, a lever cap, a depth wheel and a lateral lever.

1. Sharpen the blade (Chapter 5).
2. Fit the cap iron so its edge seats on the blade with no light showing. Set it back a fraction of a millimetre for fine work on difficult grain (it breaks the shaving before it can tear out), further back for heavy cuts.
3. Set the frog for a narrow mouth on a smoother, wider on a jack.
4. Set the depth: sight along the inverted sole and advance the blade until it shows as a thin black line; level it with the lateral lever.
5. Test on a softwood edge and adjust for a thin, even, full-width shaving. Finish every adjustment on a forward turn of the wheel to take up backlash.

6.3 Reading Grain and Avoiding Tear-out

Look at the board's edge: the grain lines show which way the fibres run out of the face. Plane in the direction in which those lines rise towards the surface you are planing. Where the grain reverses (knots, interlocked or figured wood), sharpen, set the cap iron very close, take a very thin cut, skew the plane to slice, use a higher cutting angle (Section 5.2), or finish with a card scraper.

6.4 Flattening, Squaring and Thicknessing a Board by Hand

1. Face side. Against the planing stop, check with winding sticks and straightedge. Take the high corners down with a jack plane worked across and diagonally, then plane along the grain until flat and out of wind. Mark it.
2. Face edge. In the vice, plane one edge straight and square to the face side, keeping the plane centred. Mark it.
3. Width. Gauge the width from the face edge on both faces; saw or plane to the lines.
4. Thickness. Gauge from the face side round both edges; plane the second face to the lines.
5. Length. Knife the ends square, saw just outside, and trim on the shooting board.

Machines (Section 7.6) do steps 1 to 4 faster on the same principle: flat face, square edge, everything else from those.

6.5 Edge Jointing and Shooting End Grain

Edges for gluing must meet along their whole length. Match planing makes this easy: clamp the two boards face to face, edges flush, and plane both edges at once; any error in squareness cancels out when they are opened like a book. Many makers plane a very slight hollow (a sprung joint) so the ends close first under one central clamp; keep it to about a paper's thickness. A good pair stood one on the other does not rock and shows no light. Glue-up is in Section 9.7.

To shoot end grain, hold the work against the shooting board's fence with its end just over the platform edge, and push a sharp, finely set plane along the track on its side. Check with a square and repeat. A low-angle plane works best.

6.6 Chisels: Paring and Chopping

Paring is removing thin slivers by hand pressure, the finishing cut for joints. The dominant hand pushes the handle; the other hand holds the blade near the edge, knuckles on the work, as a brake and guide. Push with your body, take small bites, and for the final cut put the edge in the knife line. For vertical paring, stand over the work and lean down. To pare a wide surface flat, use the chisel bevel up with its back on the work.

Chopping drives the chisel with a wooden or soft-faced mallet, never a steel hammer on a wooden handle. Hold it vertical, bevel towards the waste, and work towards the line in stages; a huge first blow drives the edge past the line as the bevel wedges it back.

6.7 Spokeshaves and Scrapers

A spokeshave is a short-soled plane with side handles for curves: flat-soled for straight and convex shapes, round-soled for concave. Set it fine and always cut "downhill", from the high point of a curve towards the low point, which keeps you cutting with the grain.

A card scraper (Section 5.6), flexed by the thumbs and tilted forward until it cuts, takes fine shavings from wild grain without tear-out and removes plane tracks and glue spots. It heats up in use; let it cool. A cabinet scraper holds the same blade in a handled body, easier on the thumbs for larger areas.

Power tools save hours but do not forgive mistakes. This chapter does not replace the manufacturer's manual or hands-on training.

7.1 General Safety Principles

• Read the manual: guard settings, minimum workpiece sizes, maximum cutter speeds.
• Unplug or remove the battery before changing or adjusting a cutter.
• Clamp the work; a portable tool needs both your hands.
• Sharp, correct, undamaged cutters, rated for the tool's speed. Blunt cutters need force and cause kickback.
• Guards and riving knives fitted; never wedge a guard open. Cables behind the tool, RCD protection.
• Eye and hearing protection, a mask for dusty work, and no gloves or loose clothing near cutters.
• Plan the cut: if it kicks back or slips, where do your hands go? Wait for the cutter to stop before reaching in.

7.2 Circular Saws and Track Saws

Kickback happens when the back of the blade, rising out of the cut, catches the wood. A handheld saw is driven up and back towards you; a table saw throws the work back at you. Causes include the kerf closing on the blade (stress in the board or a sagging offcut), twisting the saw, a blunt or resin-coated blade, and starting with the blade touching the work.

• Keep the riving knife fitted and set; it holds the kerf open.
• Support both sides of the cut so the kerf opens rather than closes, for example on a sheet of rigid insulation foam or several battens.
• Set the blade to project only a little below the work, as the manual describes.
• Stand to one side of the line, reach full speed before cutting, and if the saw binds, release the trigger and hold it still until it stops.

Cut sheets good face down with a handheld saw (the teeth splinter the top face on exit) unless it has a splinter guard or runs on a track.

7.3 The Router: Bits, Feed Direction and Climb Cuts

The router cuts rebates, grooves, housings, mortises, profiles and flush trims, and copies templates. It is loud (HSE's typical figure for high-speed routers is 103 dB) and dusty.

• Shanks sold in the UK are 1/4", 8 mm, 1/2" and 12 mm; use the exactly matching collet. Insert the shank as far as the bit maker advises, but not so far that the cutter's base bottoms in the collet.
• Bits: straight for grooves and housings; spiral for cleaner cuts (up-cut clears chips, down-cut leaves a crisp top edge); bearing-guided for rebates, roundovers, chamfers and flush trimming.
• Speed: large bits run slower. Never exceed the maximum speed marked for the bit.

Feed direction

Seen from above, a handheld router's bit turns clockwise. Feed so the cutting edges meet the wood head on and the cutting force pulls the router against its guide:

• On an outside edge, move anticlockwise around the work; on an edge in front of you, that is left to right.
• Inside an opening, move clockwise.
• On a router table the bit turns anticlockwise seen from above, so feed the work right to left against the fence. Never trap work between bit and fence.

A climb cut, feeding with the rotation, lets the bit pull itself along like a wheel; the router can snatch out of your hands. It is never safe on a router table and is not for beginners.

Take several shallow passes, and rout end grain before long grain so the long-grain passes remove corner breakout. A labouring motor means too fast or too deep; burn marks mean too slow.

7.4 Jigsaws and Drills

A jigsaw cuts curves and openings but wanders in thick timber, so it is not for precise joinery. Use fine or down-cutting blades for clean cuts, cut just outside the line and finish with a spokeshave or sander.

• Drill bits: brad-point for clean, accurate holes; Forstner for flat bottoms; spade bits for fast rough holes; combination bits for screw pilots and countersinks.
• Clamp work on a pillar drill (a large bit that catches can spin it) and use a backing block to stop breakout.

7.5 Table Saws: Kickback, Riving Knives and Push Sticks

HSE's information sheet WIS16 states that circular saw benches cause the most woodworking accidents, many resulting in amputated fingers, and that kickback has caused serious and even fatal accidents. Its key points, written for workplaces but equally valid at home:

• Riving knife and top guard fitted and adjusted for each job. The knife should be thicker than the blade body but thinner than the kerf, and set no more than 8 mm from the teeth at table level. The guard should sit as close as possible to the work.
• Blade height: teeth projecting through the work, but no higher than necessary.
• Push stick for cuts under 300 mm long and for the last 300 mm of longer cuts; at least 450 mm long with a "bird's mouth". Use it to remove the piece between blade and fence unless it is wider than 150 mm. Never have your hands in line with the blade.
• Rip fence: its front end set no further than the base of the blade gullet at table level, so wood is not pinched against the rising teeth.
• No stopped grooving, and no rebating or grooving without guards designed for it.

Crosscut with a sliding table, mitre gauge or sled, never using the rip fence as a length stop: the trapped offcut can be thrown back. For repeat lengths, clamp a stop block to the fence ahead of the blade.

7.6 Planer-Thicknessers

The surface planer flattens one face and squares an edge; the thicknesser then planes the other face parallel. HSE's WIS17 on surface planers says:

• Guard the cutter block with a bridge guard in front of the fence and a guard behind it, adjusted as close as possible to the work and fence each time.
• When flattening stock less than 75 mm thick, the bridge guard goes over the work; for edging or thicker stock it goes to the side.
• Keep hands on top of the work, and do not pass them over the block unless using a push block. Always use one for short pieces, which can dip into the table gap and kick back.
• Never do stopped work on a surface planer. CE-marked planers made after 1995 should be designed so rebating with the end of the block is impossible; rebate by router or hand.

For thicknessing, always surface one face first, respect the manufacturer's minimum length, take light cuts, support long boards level to reduce snipe, and never look or reach into the machine while it runs.

7.7 Training, PUWER and Getting Started Safely

The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER) require work equipment to be suitable, maintained, guarded and used only by people with adequate training. HSE's guidance names woodworking machinery as equipment whose use should be restricted to people trained and appointed to use it, and its Approved Code of Practice L114, Safe use of woodworking machinery, applies PUWER to these machines. WIS17 adds that no one should use a surface planer unless they have demonstrated competence.

PUWER applies to work, not to a private hobby workshop, but the machines are no less dangerous at home, where you often work alone. So:

• take an introductory machine course first; adult education colleges, community workshops, makerspaces and some tool retailers run them;
• ask whether you need the machine: a track saw and a bandsaw cover much of what beginners want a table saw for;
• never run a machine without its guards, a sharp cutter and a push stick or block to hand;
• tell someone when you are using machines, and keep a phone within reach.

A joint must hold parts in position and carry the loads the piece will see. Two principles decide how well it does both:

• Glue needs long grain. Long grain glued to long grain is usually stronger than the wood. End grain soaks up glue and bonds poorly.
• Shape resists racking. Shoulders, tenons, housings and dovetails lock parts against load even if the glue fails.

A joint selection chart is in Section 14.4.

8.1 Butt Joints and Reinforcements

A butt joint is two square-cut parts simply placed together. Glued alone, an end-grain butt is weak, so reinforce it with:

• screws into long grain where possible (they hold poorly in end grain), counterbored and plugged for neatness;
• glue blocks rubbed into an inside corner, long grain to long grain, kept short so movement does not crack them off;
• dowels, biscuits or Dominoes (Section 9.5), or pocket screws (Section 9.6);
• nails driven at alternating angles (dovetail nailing).

Use butt joints where loads are light or a back or top stiffens the structure: sheet carcasses, simple boxes, shop furniture.

8.2 Rebates

A rebate is an L-shaped step along an edge or end. It locates backs and glass and makes a stronger corner than a plain butt.

• Rebate plane: gauge width and depth from the reference faces, set the plane's fence and depth stop (and its spur for cross-grain work), and work from the far end backwards with lengthening strokes until it stops cutting.
• Saw and chisel for short rebates: saw the shoulder to depth, split or saw out the waste, pare to the lines, and clean the corner with a shoulder plane.
• Router: a bearing-guided rebate bit in two or three passes, feeding left to right on an edge facing you (Section 7.3), or on a router table for narrow stock.

8.3 Housing (Dado) Joints

A housing is a groove across the grain that takes the end of a shelf. It supports the shelf along its whole width but does little to stop the sides spreading, so combine it with a fixed top, a back or screws. A through housing shows at the front; a stopped housing is hidden; a dovetail housing locks the sides together. Depth is commonly about a third of the side's thickness.

Cutting a stopped housing by hand

1. Knife one wall, lay the shelf on it and knife the other wall against the shelf. Gauge the depth and mark the stop.
2. Chop a recess about 25 mm long at the stopped end, to full depth, so the saw has room to work.
3. Pare knife walls, then saw both walls to depth with short strokes; a clamped batten helps keep the saw upright.
4. Chisel out the waste from both sides towards the middle, and level the bottom with a router plane.
5. Fit the shelf: firm hand pressure, no mallet.

With a router, clamp a straightedge or T-square jig across the side, rout one wall then the other (or use a jig with two fences spaced by the actual shelf), and stop at a clamped block. Square the rounded end with a chisel or hide it.

8.4 Halving and Lap Joints

In a halving, half the thickness is removed from each part so the faces finish flush, giving a large long-grain glue area. Variants are the cross halving (lattices, stretchers), corner halving (frames; pin or screw it against twisting), T-halving and dovetail halving.

1. Mark each housing's width directly from the other part, and knife the shoulders.
2. Gauge half the thickness from the face side of both parts, so the faces finish flush even if the stock differs slightly.
3. Cross halving: saw the shoulders to depth, add a few cuts in the waste, chop out from both sides and pare flat. Corner halving: rip down the cheek, then saw the shoulder.
4. Fit for a snug push fit and flush faces.

8.5 Bridle Joints

A bridle is an open mortise and tenon: a slot in the end of one part takes a tenon on the other. It is quick to saw accurately, has large glue faces and resists racking; use it for frame corners, legs meeting top rails (the T-bridle) and jigs. Divide the thickness into thirds, with the tenon the middle third, and cut it with the same saw and chisel methods as a tenon (Section 9.2), removing the slot waste with a coping saw. Pin a corner bridle with a dowel if wanted.

The mortise and tenon and the dovetail are the two great joints of cabinetmaking: one for frames, one for boxes. This chapter covers both, then dowels, biscuits, loose tenons, pocket screws and edge-jointed panels.

9.1 Mortise and Tenon: Anatomy and Proportions

A tenon is a tongue on the end of a rail; the mortise is the hole it fits. The tenon's cheeks carry the glue, its shoulders bear against the leg and resist racking, and a haunch may fill a groove at one edge. These traditional proportions are conventions, not rules:

• Thickness: about a third of the rail, adjusted to a chisel width you own.
• Width: the rail width less the shoulders. Very wide tenons are split into twin tenons or reduced with a haunch.
• Length: for a blind tenon, commonly two-thirds to three-quarters of the leg's width. Where two tenons meet inside a leg, mitre their ends.
• Set-back: rails are often set a few millimetres back from the leg face, which hides small differences.
• Horns: leave the leg 20–25 mm long at the top while chopping and gluing, and saw it off afterwards.

9.2 Cutting a Mortise and Tenon by Hand

Cut the mortise first, then fit the tenon to it: a tenon is easy to pare thinner, a mortise hard to make narrower.

1. Mark out. Square the mortise length on the leg and knife the shoulders round the rail. Set the mortise gauge pins to the actual chisel and gauge mortise and tenon with the fence always on the face side. If rails are set back, move only the fence for the rails.
2. Chop the mortise with the leg clamped over a bench leg. Start a few millimetres in, bevel towards the middle, and work back 3–5 mm at a time, levering out chips, in layers to depth (tape on the chisel marks it). Cut the end walls exactly on the lines last. Alternatively, bore out most of the waste and pare the walls, or use a plunge router with a fence and stop blocks, squaring the round ends with a chisel.
3. Saw the cheeks with the rail angled in the vice, sawing diagonally to the lines on the end and visible edge; turn it round, then saw straight down to the shoulder.
4. Saw the shoulders on the bench hook in the knife wall, then remove the haunch and edge waste.
5. Fit. The tenon should go in with firm hand pressure. Pare or plane the cheeks evenly (a shoulder plane or router plane is precise) until it does.

9.3 Through, Blind, Haunched and Wedged Tenons

• Blind (stub): stops inside the leg; the usual furniture choice.
• Through: shows on the far face; chop from both faces to meet in the middle so neither breaks out.
• Haunched: a short stub fills a groove, at the top of a leg (Diagram 4) or the end of a panel groove in a door frame.
• Wedged: glued wedges in saw kerfs across the tenon end spread it into a slightly flared mortise so it cannot pull out. Wedges must press towards the mortise ends (end grain), not its long-grain walls, or they split the leg.

9.4 Dovetails: Through and Lapped

Dovetails interlock tails and pins so the tail board cannot be pulled away in one direction even without glue. Put the tails on the part that would pull away: on a drawer, tails on the sides, pins on the front. Through dovetails show on both faces (boxes, chests, carcasses); lapped (half-blind) dovetails are hidden from the front (drawer fronts).

• Slope: traditionally about 1 in 6 for softwood and 1 in 8 for hardwood. Too shallow locks poorly; too steep leaves weak short grain.
• Spacing: start and finish with a half pin; pins can be much narrower than tails.
• Baseline: gauge round each board at the thickness of the other, with a cutting gauge set from the actual board.

Cutting through dovetails, tails first

1. Mark the tails with a bevel and square the lines across the end. Mark the waste.
2. Saw on the waste side down to the baseline, square across the end.
3. Saw out the half sockets; remove the waste between tails with a coping saw, then chop to the baseline from both faces, halfway each time.
4. Stand the pin board in the vice, lay the tail board on it with its baseline on the pin board's inside face, and knife round the tails. Square the marks down to the baseline.
5. Saw the pins with each kerf on the waste side of its knife line, that is, in the socket where a tail will go. Mark the waste first.
6. Chop out the waste from both faces, test part-way (dovetails loosen each time they go fully home), and pare the shiny burnished spots.

Lapped dovetails follow the same sequence, but the pin board is sawn diagonally only to the lap and baseline and the rest is chopped out. Practise through dovetails first.

9.5 Dowels, Biscuits and Dominoes

• Dowels: fluted dowels glued into matching holes. Strength depends on accurate, square holes, so use a dowelling jig that references from a face.
• Biscuits: compressed beech wafers in slots cut by a biscuit jointer; they swell with water-based glue. Excellent for aligning edge joints and sheet carcasses, but not a substitute for a tenon in a load-bearing frame.
• Dominoes: flat loose tenons in mortises cut by Festool's Domino jointer: a fast, accurate loose mortise and tenon, strong enough for tables and chairs, but an expensive machine.

9.6 Pocket Screws

A pocket-hole jig (Kreg is the best-known make) guides a stepped drill to bore an angled hole through one part into the edge of the other, so a screw draws them together. Pocket screws are fast, need no clamping time and hide on the back. Use coarse-thread screws in softwood and sheet material, fine-thread in hardwood, and clamp the parts flush while driving. Avoid them on show faces and across wide boards that must move.

9.7 Edge Joints and Panel Glue-ups

A well-made long-grain edge joint is usually stronger than the wood and needs no dowels or biscuits, though these help alignment.

1. Arrange the boards for colour and figure, with the grain running the same way so the panel can be planed in one direction. Dry, preferably quarter-sawn stock is the best insurance for a flat top.
2. Joint the edges (Section 6.5).
3. Dry-clamp with clamps every 200–300 mm, alternately above and below the panel, and waxed cauls across it to keep it level.
4. Glue an even film on the edges, assemble, align and tighten until a small even bead of squeeze-out appears. Check flat with a straightedge.
5. Scrape off squeeze-out once rubbery rather than smearing it into the grain.
6. Wait a few days before final flattening: planing while the joint is still swollen with water from the glue leaves a sunken line.

Modern glues are stronger than the wood they join, provided the joint fits, the surfaces are clean and freshly cut, and the glue is used within its working time. For adhesives in antique repair, where reversibility matters most, see the Restoration & Repair handbook, Section 4.2.

10.1 PVA Glues and Their Classes

The white and yellow water-based wood glues are cheap, clean up with water while wet, and bond more strongly than the wood. They need a close fit (they do not fill gaps), creep slightly under constant load, and do not reverse like hide glue. Water resistance is classified under BS EN 204:

Open assembly time is how long glue can sit exposed before the parts go together; total assembly time is how long you have from spreading to full clamping. Both shorten in warm, dry air. Titebond, widely available in the UK, publishes these figures at 21°C and 50% RH:

Other brands differ, so check the data sheet. For a complex glue-up, total assembly time matters most: use a slower glue or glue in stages. Titebond's guidance is 30 to 60 minutes in clamps for an unstressed joint and 24 hours before the joint is stressed. Below the minimum temperature the glue may dry chalky and weak.

10.2 Hide Glue

Animal glue softens with heat and moisture, so joints can be taken apart cleanly decades later, and new hide glue bonds to old. That makes it the correct choice for antique restoration. It does not creep. Hot hide glue is made from granules soaked and heated in a thermostatic glue pot (follow the supplier's instructions; never boil it); it gels as it cools, so its open time is short, which suits rubbed joints. Liquid hide glue stays liquid at room temperature with a longer open time; Titebond gives a storage life of 24 months, and old stock may never set, so check the date. Hide glue is not for damp or exterior work.

10.3 Epoxy and Polyurethane Glues

Epoxy is mixed from resin and hardener in an exact ratio. It fills gaps, bonds oily timbers and dissimilar materials, and is waterproof. As an example, West System quotes a pot life of 9–12 minutes for its 105 resin with 205 fast hardener and 20–25 minutes with 206 slow hardener at about 22°C. A large mixed batch heats up and sets faster than a thin film.

Polyurethane glues cure by reacting with moisture. Gorilla Glue Original's instructions are to dampen one surface lightly, apply a thin layer, and clamp for 1–2 hours; it expands three to four times as it cures. The foam has little strength, so it does not fill gaps structurally. Waterproof; wear gloves, as it stains skin.

10.4 Clamping Technique

1. Dry run every glue-up with all clamps, cauls and pads ready.
2. Stage large assemblies: two end frames one day, the long rails the next.
3. Protect the work with pads, with paper or tape where squeeze-out could glue them on.
4. Moderate pressure: enough to close the joints with a thin even bead of squeeze-out. Fix a poor fit rather than forcing it.
5. Clamp in line with each rail; an off-centre clamp pulls the frame out of square.
6. Check square by the diagonals; angle the clamps slightly along the longer diagonal to correct it. Check for twist.

For the clamps worth owning, see the Restoration & Repair handbook, Section 2.1.

10.5 Screws

• Traditional wood screws have a plain shank below the head and a tapered thread, usually with slotted heads, sized by gauge (a No. 8 is roughly 4 mm) and length. The plain shank turns freely in the top piece, so the screw pulls the parts together.
• Modern screws are hardened, with Pozidriv (PZ) or Torx (TX) recesses, sharp deep threads and metric sizes such as 4.0 × 40 mm. They drive into softwood without pilots, but a fully threaded screw can jack parts apart unless the top piece has a clearance hole.

Drill a clearance hole in the top piece the size of the shank, a pilot hole in the bottom piece about the size of the screw's core in hardwood (smaller or none in softwood), and countersink or counterbore for a plug cut from matching timber. Drive a steel screw first to cut the thread for a soft brass one. Across a wide board, slot the clearance hole (Section 2.3).

10.6 Nails and Pins

Round wire nails are strong but split thin stock; oval wire nails split less if driven with the oval along the grain; lost head nails punch below the surface; panel pins fix thin panels and mouldings. Near an end, blunt the point or drill a pilot to avoid splitting, and drive nails at alternating angles so the joint cannot pull straight apart.

Each project builds on the last: Project 1 makes the jigs you need, Project 2 introduces housings, and Project 3 brings together mortise and tenons, an edge-jointed top and designing for movement.

11.1 Before You Start

• Cutting lists give finished sizes (length × width × thickness, mm); add allowances for rough stock (Section 4.5).
• Merchant stock may differ by a millimetre or two: where a joint depends on a thickness, mark it from the actual part.
• Directions assume a right-handed worker; mirror the jigs if you are left-handed.
• Prepare every part flat, square and to size, with face marks, before marking joints, and practise each joint on offcuts first.

11.2 Project 1 (Beginner): Bench Hook and Shooting Board

11.3 Project 2 (Intermediate): Wall Shelf with Stopped Housings

11.4 Project 3 (Advanced): Oak Side Table with Haunched Mortise and Tenons

A short approach to finishing new work, and a troubleshooting guide. For stains and dyes, colour matching, French polishing and a fuller comparison of finishes, see the Restoration & Repair handbook, Sections 4.6 to 4.10.

12.1 Surface Preparation and Sanding

A finish magnifies every scratch, plane track and glue smear underneath it.

1. Plane and scrape first. A finely set smoothing plane and a card scraper leave little to sand.
2. Remove all glue. Glue seals the wood and leaves pale patches under the finish; wiping with white spirit shows hidden smears.
3. Sand in sequence, typically 120, then 150 or 180, finishing at about 180 to 220 with the grain, without skipping more than one grade. The grit table in the Restoration & Repair handbook (Section 4.6) applies equally to new work. Use a block on flat surfaces; keep a random orbital sander flat and unforced.
4. Raise the grain before water-based finishes: dampen, dry, and cut back lightly with the final grit.
5. Ease every arris with fine paper or a block plane; sharp corners dent and hold little finish.

12.2 Oil, Wax and Water-based Finishes

Test any finish on an offcut sanded to the same grit, and finish both sides of panels and tops (Section 2.3).

Oil: flood the surface, keep it wet for the time stated on the tin, then wipe off all the surplus (oil left on top goes gummy). Let it dry (often overnight), de-nib with a fine abrasive pad, and repeat for three or more coats. Water-based varnish: raise the grain first, brush thin coats quickly with a synthetic brush without overbrushing, and de-nib between coats; three coats is a usual minimum on a top.

12.3 Troubleshooting

Quick-reference tables for the bench. Figures are starting points or typical values: individual boards vary, and manufacturers' instructions take priority for any product.

14.1 Sharpening Angles

Bench plane figures follow Lie-Nielsen's guidance (Section 5.2); the rest are common workshop practice.

14.2 Timber Properties: Common UK Species

Density, movement and durability figures are as published by UK timber suppliers in their species data (Logie Timber and Timbersource). Density can vary by 20% or more within a species. Durability ratings refer to heartwood in ground or weather exposure; sapwood of all these species is perishable.

14.3 Movement Coefficients for Imported Hardwoods

Dimensional change per 1% change in moisture content, within the range 6–14% MC, from the Wood Handbook (FPL-GTR-282, Table 13–5). Use C_T for plain-sawn width and C_R for quarter-sawn width (Section 2.2).

For equilibrium moisture content at different humidities, see the table in Section 1.5.

14.4 Joint Selection Chart

14.5 Checklists

Before switching on a power tool or machine

• Read the manual and set guards, fence and riving knife for this cut.
• Cutter sharp, correct type, correct way round, tight, and rated for the speed.
• Work clamped or properly supported; push stick or push block to hand.
• Hands, body and cable clear of the line of cut and any kickback path.
• Eye and hearing protection on; no gloves, loose sleeves or jewellery near the cutter; mask and extraction on for dusty work.
• Floor clear, light good, and nobody standing in line with the cut.