Joinery
Joinery is the part of woodworking that involves the joining together of parts of wood.
Some types of joints used include:
Styles of Joinery
Two of the most common traditions of joinery are Chinese and European. Chinese in particular developed hundreds of types of joints and their furniture was often held together without glue or nails. There are also different types of joinery for different structures, for example the joinery used to build a house is different from that used to make puzzle toys, although elements overlap
Design of Wood Joints
Traditional wood joinery techniques address the distinctive material properties of wood without resorting to mechanical fasteners.
Wood is an anisotropic: its material properties are different along different dimensions. It is strong when stressed along the grain (longitudinally), but weak across it (radially and tangentially). It expands and contracts in response to humidity. This change is very small longitudinally. It is considerable, but unequal, in the radial and tangential directions. The frame and panel constructions of doors and cabinets is not decorative. When properly constructed, the panel is free to expand horizontally with environmental changes, while the top and bottom, or rails, do not.
Glue is highly effective for joining wood when both surfaces of the joint are edge grain. A properly glued joint may be as strong as a single piece of wood. However, glue is ineffective on end-grain surfaces. Compared to a mortise and tenon, a dowel joint is a poor joint because it does not address these properties. Much of the surface of the hole of a dowel joint is end-grain, to which glue adheres poorly. In a mortise and tennon, most of the surface of the joint is edge-grain.
see also woodworking
References
- The Complete Woodworker. Bernard Jones (Ed.) (1980) ISBN:0-89815-022-1
- Working with Wood. Peter Korn. (1993) ISBN: 1-56158-041-4