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ESSENTIAL JOINERY

INTRODUCTION

Mastering joinery really isn’t about slogging

through hundreds of obscure joints and

mastering them all. It’s more about building a

strong knowledge of basic principles that can

be applied to just about any joint design you

can come up with. In this book I’ll show you the

five categories of joinery I consider essential

for fine woodworking: butt joints; rabbets,

dadoes, and grooves; mortises and tenons;

half-laps and bridles; and dovetails. With this

foundation under your belt you’ll be able to

apply that knowledge to build almost any

piece of furniture. Even the most complicated

joinery has its roots in the core techniques

presented in this book. We’ll look at the most

common joints within those five essential

categories and learn how to make them. We’ll

even repair a few mistakes along the way.

Before we dive into the cornucopia of

delectable wood joinery, let’s take a step back

and talk about our motivations for building

furniture. Is it because you’re tired of crappy

big box store furniture and think you can build

something better? Is it because you took shop

class in high school and the desire to build

things has been with you ever since? Maybe

it’s because you have memories of a parent or

grandparent who was a woodworker and the

process taps into a special nostalgic corner

of your brain. For many, the reason is even

simpler: woodworking offers relief from the

stresses of everyday life.

That certainly was the case for me when I

got started back in 2004. I had an unfulfilling

job I didn’t enjoy and a very long commute. My

job as a technical service representative for

an antibody company left me unchallenged,

uninspired, and unmotivated. Woodworking

provided a glorious microcosm of new

experiences, skill sets, problems to solve, and

tangible metrics by which I could measure my

personal development. Oddly enough, the

final product of my woodworking (furniture)

wasn’t a significant motivation for me. I

actually didn’t care much for wood furniture

and my first five or six projects found homes

with family and friends.

I grew up as a city boy in New Jersey with

a mom and step dad who didn’t think it was

weird at all to fill our home with country music

and country-style furniture: red oak as far as

the eye could see, and the sounds of George

Jones streaming through the security bars

in the windows. By the time I left the nest,

I promised myself I would only fill my home