Cambium complete dovetail furniture handbook handmade joint signature

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If within 30 days of purchase you are not satisfied for any reason, you may return your purchase for a full refund excluding postage. Or we can arrange an exchange for a new product. We can only accept returned products that are in good condition. Ship returns to Linden Publishing, S. Mary St. Since building the table, I have continued to explore craftsmanship through the making of objects that relate to the table.

My intention was to maintain coherence to the overall undertaking of this thesis, while continuing to develop my manual skills. I built four chairs to accompany the table, pottery to sit on the table and to carry food , and a paper lamp that would be suspended above the table.

Like the various parts of a building, my intention was to create objects that would constitute a space. In this thesis, I argue for the importance of direct bodily engagement in design education. Part I of this document is composed of four written essays that summarize my thoughts on the importance of developing a relationship with the materials we choose to work with.

Although the photographs only document a fraction of the work, I found that they communicate a sense of slowness, patience, and intensity better than text. Part III emphasizes the importance of listening in craftwork, and serves as a conclusion to this thesis.

In the writing of this thesis, I briefly discuss the inner properties of wood, clay and paper. However, I recognize that woodworking, pottery, and papermaking are lifelong journeys in themselves, and I am merely a beginner.

After seven years of architectural education as both an undergraduate and graduate student , I believe that the act of making is one of the best ways to gain insight into material and craftsmanship. Therefore, I encourage students to engage the design process through their hands and to work with real materials.

Build something that is of functional use: a bench, a side table, a box. Make the object with an eye toward quality; make it last a hundred years.

There are many lessons to be discovered in the making of an object, however, there is one that resonates with me: we are imbued in everything we make. When we decide to make something, our entire being is reflected in the work.

The aim of this thesis, is to share what I have learned through the making of material objects and as a reminder of the profound potential of our man-made world. They may live to the degree that they not only served utilitarian ends, in the life they served but expressed the nature of that service in the form they took as things. That was the beauty in them [ Only the joy of that love gives life to the making of things Far from being opposites, the body is our most primal means to reach out into the world.

Craftwork, when practiced wholeheartedly, allows a maker to contemplate and develop his relationship to the cosmos. The craftsman who works with wood also works with the soul of a tree. Paper is made from the flesh of plants. The craftsman knows that all materials—natural and synthetic—first come from the earth, the life force of our world.

By developing an intimate relationship with the material being worked, the act of making things by hand reveals the sacred nature of materials, and compels us to appreciate a much larger continuum of time.

The act of making, as understood by many traditional craftsmen throughout human history, is a way of bridging the material and spiritual worlds. Take, for example, the Bambara craftsmen of Mali. In ancient times, not only was a trade or art considered to be the embodiment of a particular aspect of the cosmic forces, but it was also a means of making contact with them Rather, the craftsman acted as the medium through which the Supreme Being expressed Himself.

In another example, ancient Japanese papermakers were highly respected by Shinto priests. Paper, cherished for its physical purity, was a mediator between man and the spiritual world.

Formed using purified water in the hands of devoted papermakers, paper Washi, which was both strong and delicate, was regarded as a noble element and a metaphor for life itself. In an era where materialism has come to represent a spiritless relationship to the things around us, traditions of craft can teach students of architecture how to develop a symbiotic relationship with the materials they work.

The making process, as practiced by ancient African and Japanese craftsmen, is approached wholeheartedly. In fact, it cannot be truly approached in any other way. The benefits of making, are revealed to those who are open to listening and who approach the making process by their own volition.

A student of architecture, entering an increasingly virtual profession, stands to learn much about material and construction through the time-honoured lessons that come with direct bodily engagement. They learn to develop their ideas with material and its natural laws, and embodies the spirit of craftsmanship over time.

The relationship between material and spirit is not an abstract theory conceived in the armchairs of great thinkers; it is an embodied, tangible reality. Man, material, and the cosmos are brought together in the process of making. The white pine timbers my partner and I used to construct a table—inanimate as they may seem—continue to expand, contract, and produce sap a century after the trees were cut down from the forest. When designing with wood, knowing its inner properties can determine the success or failure of the constructed thing.

To understand the properties of wood, it is first necessary to gain an understanding of trees. After all, the essence of wood is found in the living organism. The bole or trunk of a growing tree is primarily composed of bark, wood, and the pith see Figure All parts are critical for the survival of the tree. For example, the outer bark the rough outer layer that we see is made up of dead tissues that protect the tree from external threats.

The inner bark is hidden behind the outer bark and transports food from the leaves. Between the inner bark and the wood is the microscopic cambium layer, which forms both wood and bark cells. Finally, the pith is at the centre of these layers and are the base of new twigs and branches.

When constructing the table, my partner and I foresaw the possibility of movement in wood. In August eight months after we applied the final coat of tung oil finish , we noticed that the wood had expanded to fill the joints. It is rewarding and educational to see the expansion joints at play. When we see a knot on a sawn surface, we are looking at the basal stump of a branch emerging from the pith. Understanding the nature of knots is important when choosing wood for a specific purpose.

For instance, when selecting wood for an aesthetic purpose, one must account for the fact that loose knots are encased branches that may dislodge over time and leave a knothole in the surface. Live embedded knots, as its name implies, are intergrown and will not dislodge from the wood. A live embedded knot has fibres that are continuous see Figure This type of knot tells us that there was continuous growth between the limbs and the bole of the tree and that the branch remained alive at the time the tree was cut down.

In the latter instance, the cambium layer is able to heal over the wound Joyce A loose knot is a branch that has broken off, leaving a partial limb with a ragged, uneven edge. The cambium layer is unable to cleanly heal around the dead branch, so the stump dies resulting in a loose knot. We can recognize a loose knot by the dark ring of bark and the discontinuous fibres that surround it see Figure If wood is required for structural purposes, timbers with minimal knots are the most suitable.

Regardless of the type, knots reduce the structural integrity of wood due to the severe distortion of the grain that surround it. To develop an intuitive understanding of wood, we must go into the forest. We will see that all tree branches grow in an upward direction see Figure We will also see that the roots and trunk of a tree, resist the gravity of its crown.

Through these basic observations, we already know more about wood than we might actively comprehend. By understanding the upward growth of branches, we can determine which end of a wood board was closer to the crown and which end was closer to the roots by examining the growth rings around a knot.

This distinction becomes important when we are orienting the vertical members of a chair, table, or timber-frame building. Wood, therefore, should maintain this vertical orientation to maximize its structural strength Brown Trees endure various environmental conditions throughout their lifespans that naturally affect the strength of their wood. Evidence of floods, droughts, fire, infestation, and even airborne chemical pollutants can be seen in their annual growth rings Nakashima All these factors determine the unique character of every piece of wood.

The craftsman uses the wood wisely, makes well-informed decisions, and prevents waste. As designers of the man-made environment, these are admirable goals to work toward. The life of a tree is written on wood surfaces. By cultivating our sensitivities toward it, we can better harness its potential. A hand-thrown pottery cup, a beautifully made wood box, an old stone cottage: these are things that recall the touch of other human beings—things that allow us to gain a palpable sense of the human spirit.

For the craftsman, the material world is the most effective means of expressing qualities of the human spirit, their ambitions, and thought processes. Language cannot fully account for the intuitive thinking and care behind the making of an object nor can it replace the sensual and sacred experience of working with a tactile substance. The breadth of knowledge that come from the physical act of making can only be understood through direct contact as learning begins from the body.

Two years ago, a local carpenter came into the school workshop while my partner and I were hand-planing wood boards. The carpenter—taking a handful of shavings to his nose and without hesitation—identified for us the genus of wood in this case, eastern white pine.

Every genus of wood has a distinct scent and taste that is recognizable. The craftsman uses his entire body to perceive the world, and it is inspiring to see this happen. In the few years that I have spent working directly with wood, clay, and paper, I can attest to the lessons that come from manual pursuits. Craftwork is a mutual exchange: I give shape to the material and in turn, the process of making changes the way I think, design, and construct.

Meanwhile, failures in the making process forced me to re-evaluate my methodology and to make better design decisions. My first attempt at making paper from those wood shavings was unsuccessful. The resulting paper was incredibly weak. In fact, most sheets did not form well on my paper screen; the fibres had trouble bonding see Figure Making paper by hand requires cooking and beating the raw material in this case, wood shavings in order to remove the non- cellulose material from the cellulose see Figure Once removed, the pure cellulose fibres can physically and chemically bond with other fibres to make strong, lasting paper.

I had mistakenly assumed that paper is best made from wood. While industrial paper mills do use wood pulp in the manufacturing process, wood is almost never used for handmade paper, due to the difficultly in removing the non-cellulose material, specifically lignin. Lignin is the binding agent between the cellulose and cell walls: it is physically and chemically weaker than cellulose fibers, and it is very difficult to separate.

Newspapers that discolour and deteriorate from prolonged exposure to the sun, is a result of residual lignin in paper Hiebert Handmade paper, on the other hand, is generally made using the inner bark of tree branches or the stalks of annual and perennial shrubs see Figure Paper is also made from other raw materials such as hemp, cotton, and flax. These raw materials are fleshy in nature see Figure ; have long cellulose chains, and can create archival quality paper that lasts for centuries.

Over the two-thousand- year evolution of the craft, papermakers have proved that the aforementioned raw materials are well suited for use. After more failed attempts at making strong paper with wood shavings, I surrendered to the material. Wood naturally does not want to become paper and though we have the technology to overcome its physical limitations, this technology does not come without a heavy environmental burden.

When we have a creative vision, it is sometimes difficult to accept that materials have a life of their own. However discouraging, it is important to remember that the road to success often begins with failure. When I eventually decided to take the traditional route, a successful batch of paper was made from combining the fibres of kozo paper mulberry with cornhusks see Figure This is a rather large misunderstanding. Take, for example, the field of Japanese temple carpentry, where many woodworkers will choose to use hand tools even though power tools are readily available.

In addition to the invaluable knowledge gained from learning to use hand tools, Japanese carpenters acquire the widest range of skills possible by learning to use both hand and power tools and are therefore well equipped to take on any woodworking task. More than a means to an end, the tool also shapes the carpenter.

In an age where the relevance of hand skills is questioned, we must be reminded that, like the woodworker, architects too are shaped by the manner in which they work and the tools they use. Sennett continues to argue that simulations cannot take the place of direct, tactile experience. The making process shares the same concerns as the drawings process. When planing a wood board by hand, the body experiences immediate sensual feedback: wood tears out when planed against the grain, a continuous shaving indicates the flatness of the board, and the scent of freshly cut fibres signal the genus of wood.

Knowledge is gained as the senses are refined. You get to know a material by working and re-working it, not by letting a tool do the work for you. In any making process, there lies the dilemma of tool choice. Although hand-tools are conducive to meditative work, these tools are rather slow. When building my chairs, I reduced many weeks of preparation work by hand to only a few days by harnessing the speed and efficiency of power tools. The bandsaw rip cuts in a matter of seconds; on a dense hardwood plank, this task could take hours with a handsaw.

Likewise, the drill press is useful for quickly wasting out wood in the initial stages of cutting a mortise see Figure Therefore, power tools are useful in the earlier stages of roughing out and dressing timbers, and allows me to divert more energy into cutting precise joints and shaping chair parts.

All of the chair joints are cut by hand using mainly chisels and a handsaw. Chisels excel at cleaning out wood on the inside corners of a joint. I shape and smooth every member of the chair with a drawknife or spokeshave see Figure , Figure Additionally, a spokeshave allows for an incomparable level of precision when shaving wood at a smaller scale.

Some of the details in my chairs are carved with knives; this allows the form to be gradually discovered see Figure Although the chairs are primarily built by hand, the full process involved a synthesis of hand and power tools. Every tool had its place and was used for a specific purpose.