Joinery

Joinery is generally defined as being different from carpentry, in that a joiner is a woodworker who constructs wooden objects without the use of nails, i.e. specialist joints are used in joinery, together with wood glue, to form a joint. Hence the name: joinery.

Why make the distinction between joinery and carpentry?

Whilst the skills involved in carpentry are just as demanding, joinery skills are far more specialist. Joinery takes the older, more traditional, techniques to create the strength of the piece being created. A carpenter would normally work on site. Cabinet makers, who specialise in fabricating pieces of high quality furniture, are looked upon as making fine joinery.

Why not just use nails?

There are several advantages in using joinery to construct furniture. When using a solid hardwood, for example when making oak furniture, there is inherent strength within the timber. This can be utilised by constructing with joinery techniques. A joinery style joint will be many times stronger than pinning two pieces of hardwood with nails.

Other advantages of joinery.

Another advantage of joinery include aesthetics. In joinery, the joints can either be hidden, leaving them virtually invisible, or made a feature. Nail heads will always be visible. Well constructed joinery will leave attractive joints such as dovetail joints and box joints. The joinery techniques leave a feature in the wood which look like a dove’s tail, or, in the case of a box joint, the effect of you can replicate by simply interlocking the fingers of your hands at a ninety degree angle. If the joinery is of a high quality, these will look stunning. If the joinery is poor, it will be instantly obvious, so the joints of solid hardwood furniture will give you a good idea of the quality of the furniture, making the joinery skills of the cabinet maker crucial.

Joinery and the quality of the wood are the two major factors when looking at solid hardwood furniture. These are related, because the joinery will suffer if the hardwood is of poor quality. So, in summary, if you make sure the joinery is of a high standard, you can be sure you are buying high quality furniture.

As well as this article we also have articles providing information on Oak furniture, Ash furniture, Mahogany furniture, Birch furniture, Pine Furniture,and Indian Furniture. If you like these articles you may also find our article on the characteristics of hardwood furniture article invaluable.

If you already have a range of hardwood furniture in your home, our articles on treating hardwood furniture, repairing hardwood furniture, joinery and specifically dove tailed joints will help you get the most out of your furniture, and spot quality when shopping in furniture.

Other articles on offer at Oak Furniture Land include our rustic furniture, teak furniture, wood and hardwood furniture, classic traditional furniture and contemporary modern furniture will also help you differentiate between the different styles of hardwood furniture available.