Techniques

The operations of the shop: marking out, cutting, fitting, gluing, and sharpening.

• PlaningShaving wood with a plane to flatten a surface, bring it to size, or smooth it, probably the task done most often at a workbench.
• FinishingThe last stage of working wood, treating its surface once shaping is done, from a final smoothing pass to staining, sealing or polishing.
• FramingBuilding a skeleton of jointed timber members, whether the frame around a panel in a door or the structural skeleton of a whole timber building.
• FittingAdjusting one part of a piece so it sits correctly against its neighbours, easing a door, paring a joint or recessing hardware, near the job's end.
• BoringCutting a round hole of a set size into wood, whether right through the piece or only partway, by hand brace or by powered drill.
• Setting outMarking a joinery or building job full size before any cutting starts, so the work is cut to a fixed record rather than measured afresh.
• SawingCutting wood by drawing a toothed blade through it, mostly ripping along the grain or crosscutting across it, each needing differently shaped teeth.
• Gluing upCoating separate pieces with adhesive and holding them under pressure until set, a stage with its own rules of timing, pressure and preparation.
• MouldingCutting a shaped, usually curved profile along the edge or face of wood, to decorate it or cover a joint, mostly worked in solid timber.
• SharpeningPutting a keen cutting edge back onto a dulled or chipped tool, in two stages: grinding to reset the bevel and honing to polish it fine.
• MortisingCutting a mortise, the rectangular socket that receives a tenon, one of the most common operations since most timber framing relies on it.
• ChisellingCutting or shaping wood with a chisel, worked either by pushing it with the hand or driving it with mallet blows depending on the cut.
• WedgingDriving a tapered piece of wood into a joint to lock its parts together, cutting down movement and adding strength.
• ScribingFitting wood to whatever it sits against by tracing that surface onto the piece and cutting the edge to match, instead of working to a measured line.
• GroovingCutting a rectangular channel of even width into wood, named and cut differently depending on which way it runs against the grain.
• DovetailingJoining two boards at a corner with wedge-shaped pins and matching sockets that interlock and grip against being pulled apart, by hand or machine.
• TenoningCutting a tenon, the tongue on the end of a piece shaped to fit a matching mortise, sometimes taken to cover the whole mortise and tenon job.
• GeometryThe mathematics a woodworker needs to work out shapes, angles and curves before cutting, underlying setting out and much of the trade's precise work.
• Wood bendingCurving solid wood to shape rather than cutting the curve from a thicker straight blank, by steam bending or by laminating.
• RebatingCutting a rectangular step along the edge or end of wood, called a rabbet in American usage, so another piece can seat into the space left behind.
• MitringCutting a joint that splits a corner angle exactly in half, each piece cut to the bisecting line so they meet edge to edge instead of overlapping.
• VeneeringGluing a thin sheet of fine or decorative wood onto a solid or built-up base, worked either by heated hammer or by a clamped caul press.
• HingingFitting and fixing hinges so a door swings correctly on its frame, simple to describe but not simple to get right.
• HandrailingWorking out the geometry of a continuous rail that twists and rises to follow a stair, cut correctly at every point along its curve, by named methods.