Woodworking

Welcome to the woodworking Wikibook, a collaborative textbook aimed at beginners to the trade (and art) of cabinet making and joinery. Here you will learn from 'first principles', with emphasis on technique and building your skills, not working with ready-dressed timber and shop-sharpened tools. It is vital that the beginner, tentatively embarking into this fascinating world, is lead on a path that balances their desire to make beautiful furniture with their lack of knowledge of the fundamentals. Learning the latter requires hard work and tedious repetition, which can quickly sap the enthusiasm of even the experienced and dedicated; leaping straight to the former, however, will almost certainly result in frustration and poor quality results as the learner tries to reach beyond his or her ability.

We endeavour to find this path, in this book: acknowledging that the beginner's woodworking will often be curtailed by money, time, or space, but that within these restraints he or she wished to do the best work possible. If we fail at times, please feel free to edit or add the relevant text or images (or you can just leave a note on the talk page asking someone else to do it).

Table of Contents

1. Setting up a home workshop — Acquiring the first tools, converting a garage or basement, and building a workbench are all covered in this chapter.
2. Sharpening — Shaping, tuning, honing, and buffing of all woodworking edge tools.
3. Essential Hand Tools — This chapter covers the basic hand tools found in most small woodworking shops.
4. Tool and Workshop Maintenance — Once a space has been set up, and tools acquired, all must be looked after properly.
5. …these chapters still to come (or you could help write them yourself!)…
6. Glossary

Contributors

• Sam Wilson
• Dbr4good
• SBJohnny
• …add yourself here if you've contributed to this book.