Glossary of woodworking
This glossary of woodworking lists a number of specialized terms and concepts used in woodworking, carpentry, and related disciplines.
A
B
- backsaw
- A hand saw that has a steel reinforced spine to add rigidity and strength to the saw plate. Typically used in a miter(mitre) box, this saw is used for cross cuts.
- bandsaw
- A powered saw which utilizes a band of steel that has been joined at the ends to create a loop and has teeth cut into one edge. The workpiece is placed on a small table through which the blade runs and pushed into the blade in order to make a cut. Bandsaws can be used to make every type of cut in woodworking.
- batten
- A strip of solid material, historically of wood, used for various construction purposes, including providing the fixing point for roofing or siding materials such as shingles or tiles.
- bead
- A typically rounded or semicircular decorative treatment cut into a square edge of a moulding or a piece of wooden furniture.
- bench dog
- A peg standing proud of the bench surface.
- bench hook
- A tool that is clamped to a workbench and is used for easy cutting.
- bevel
- billet
- 1. A short piece of a log, especially one used for fuel.
- 2. A split-out piece of a bolt of wood.
- blind
- Joinery with mating surfaces not protruding through the face or end grain of the pieces being joined. An example is a "blind" mortise and tenon joint.
- bolster
- 1. A shoulder.
- 2. A timber situated between a post and a beam to increase the bearing or shorten the span.
- bolt
- A piece of log cut to a specific length, usually a short length from which products such as shingles are split or cut. Sometimes also called a billet or round.
- bow saw
- brace
- A hand tool used to drill holes, having a knobbed handle on the top to which pressure is applied and a U-shaped grip in the middle which is used to rotate the drill bit.
- bucksaw
- burl
- A knotty, often rounded outgrowth on a tree, in which the grain has grown in a deformed and convoluted manner.
- burnisher
- A hand tool used for creating a burr on a card scraper.
- butterfly joint
C
- cannel
- The concavity of a gouge blade.
- carcass
- The frame or main parts of an unfinished workpiece before they are completed with coverings.
- card scraper
- A flat blade with a burred edge used for smoothing.
- carpentry
- caul
- A strip or block of wood used to distribute or direct clamping force. See batten.
- chainsaw
- chamfer
- chatoyance
- The effect seen in dramatic wood grain direction changes, as in flame figured maple.
- chip carving
- An incised surface decoration, usually geometric.
- chisel
- Any tool with a characteristically shaped cutting edge used for carving or cutting a hard material such as wood, stone, or metal by hand, with a mallet, or with mechanical power. Chiselling involves forcing the blade or cutting edge into the material in order to cut it.
- chop saw
- chops
- A type of vise.
- circular saw
- clamp
- climb cut
- On a table saw or router, cutting against the normal feed direction at the end of the cut to prevent tearout.
- close grain
- Any wood grain with very fine fibers of cells that are not visibly porous.
- compass saw
- conversion
- The reduction of a whole log into pieces suitable for working. Conversion can be done in three basic ways: sawn, hewn, or split.
- coping saw
- crook
- Longitudinal bending to one side, caused by uneven seasoning or grain. See wood warping.
- crotch
- The section of a tree where a branch divides from the trunk, or the trunk divides in two; typically an area of convoluted grain.
- crossgrain
- Working perpendicular to the wood grain.
- crosscut
- A cut made perpendicular to the wood grain.
- crown of thorns
- A system of self-supporting and interlocking pieces.
- cruck
- A pair of crooked, structural timbers in a timber frame building. Crucks act as both posts and rafters like an A-frame.
- cup
- Transverse bending, convex or concave, usually predictable, considering grain orientation. See wood warping.
D
- dado
- A slot made across the grain. Typically, the slot is made by milling, chiseled, or sawed.
- doatiness
- A disease of timber that gives a spotted or speckled appearance to the wood.
- dovetail joint
- A joint technique most commonly used in woodworking joinery. Noted for its resistance to being pulled apart (tensile strength), the dovetail joint is commonly used to join the sides of a drawer to the front.
- dowel
- A cylindrical piece of wood used as a pin for securing a joint.
- drawknife
- A cutting tool with two handles used for cutting large chamfers.
- drill
- 1. (v.) The process of making holes in a material.
- 2. (n.) Any tool used for drilling holes, such as a chisel used in combination with a mallet.
- dry rot
- Decay in timber caused by fungal growth, usually in a moist, stagnant, poorly ventilated atmosphere.
- dust collection
- A system used to capture wood dust from woodworking machines such as a table saw, miter saw, router, planer, or jointer. A shop vacuum or a dust collector captures wood dust using a high volume of air flow.
F
- face
- 1. The wider side of a board or other piece of wood with sides of unequal sizes; the narrower side is referred to as the edge.
- 2. The side that is meant to be visible in the finished item.
- fence
- A flat and straight length of some material, usually wood, steel or aluminium, which provides a reference for tools to work against, or which prevents the work from sliding.
- fiber
- The fine tube-like structure of wood which is hollow and determines the grain direction.
- figure
- Naturally occurring decorative patterns in wood, caused either by growth increments or tissue orientation.
- finger joint
- finishing
- firmer
- A strong chisel for general work or mortising; may have square sides or bevels on both sides.
- fishtail chisel
- A chisel or gouge with a splayed end.
- flat gouge
- A gouge with minimal curvature used for finishing and smoothing.
- flitch
- A rough-cut board in which the round of the tree trunk is still visible.
- float
- flute
- 1. A deep channel cut in wood.
- 2. The cannel of a gouge.
- foxing
- A yellow-brown discoloration of wood caused by fungal infection.
- frame and panel
- frame saw
- French cleat
- A molding used to hang cabinets.
- fretsaw
- A type of saw with a very fine-toothed blade used for delicate cuts in thin material.
- frosting
- Regular indented patterns created with a special-purpose punch called a froster.
G
- gimlet
- gouge
- A chisel-like tool with a curved cutting edge.
- grain
- The longitudinal fibers in wood.
- green wood
- Unseasoned wood or freshly harvested timber, usually with a high moisture content.
- grit
- The grade of particles in sandpaper or sharpening stones which determines the aggressiveness of the cut.
- groove
- A slot or channel made with the grain, usually on the end-grain in preparation for a tongue and groove joint.
- grooving
- A rectangular sinking in the surface of any material.
H
- hand plane
- See plane.
- hand saw
- hardwood
- Wood from an angiosperm tree, i.e. a tree in the division Magnoliophyta that bears flowers and fruits. Despite the name, hardwood is not necessarily hard or dense (e.g. balsa is a hardwood), although it is generally harder than most softwoods.
- heart shake
- A shake (i.e. crack or split) radiating out from the heartwood.
- heel
- The corner of a chisel, knife, or gouge bevel which meets the back of the blade and polishes the cut.
- holdfast
- A hold-down iron fitting into a hole in a bench and tightened or loosened by hammer taps.
- hollow grind
- A concave bevel on a chisel, gouge, or knife.
I
- incannel
- The concave surface of a gouge, or a gouge sharpened on the concave surface.
- interlocked grain
- A type of wood grain which has multiple longitudinal directions in alternating layers, typical of many tropical hardwoods, and very difficult to work and to produce smooth surfaces.
J
- jamb
- Janka hardness test
- jigsaw
- A type of saw that can form circular cuts by moving the workpiece past a blade which moves rapidly up and down.
- joiner
- A woodworker who does finer work than a framing carpenter.
- joint
- The connection between two pieces of timber.
- jointer
- 1. A power plane used to straighten boards and square edges.
- 2. An intermediate-length hand plane; a jointer plane.
- joist
K
- kerf
- The gap left when material is removed by a saw. The width of the kerf is equal to the set of the saw.
- keyhole saw
- knee
- knot
- A circular pattern in timber caused by a dead branch that was not fully integrated into the tree before it was cut down. A loose knot is one that cannot be relied upon to remain in place in the piece. A tight knot, on the other hand, is fixed by growth or position in the wood structure so that it firmly retains its place in the surrounding wood even after working.
L
- lap joint
- lead
- The tendency for wood that is being cut to direct the saw parallel to its grain.
- lath
- A thin, narrow strip of straight-grained wood, typically arranged side-by-side with others and used to support roof shingles or tiles, as a backing material for plaster or stucco in walls and ceilings, or in lattice and trellis frameworks.
- LathArt
- A type of folk art that uses lath from old lath and plaster walls.
- lathe
- lumber
M
- mandrel
- marquetry
- moulding
- A strip of material with various profiles used to cover transitions between surfaces or for decoration.
- moulding plane
- mortise
- A cavity or hole, generally rectangular, in a piece of wood, meant to receive a tenon or a hinge.
- mitre
- Any joint made by fastening together pieces with the ends cut at an angle.
- mitre box
- A box used for making mitre joints by having slots to guide a saw at the desired angle for the joint.
- mitre saw
N
- nosing
- The rounded edge to a flat face or other surface.
P
- panel saw
- See hand saw.
- plane
- 1. (v.) The process of removing material from an object in thin shavings in order to make it flat.
- 2. (n.) Any tool used for planing.
- plane iron
- The cutting part of a hand plane.
- planer
- A machine used to reduce the thickness of boards.
- plank
- Any piece of timber that is flat, elongated, and rectangular with parallel faces that are higher and longer than they are wide.
Q
- quarter-sawn
- A plank with tree growth rings perpendicular to the wider face. See wood grain.
R
- rabbet
- A recess or groove cut parallel to, and at the edge of, a board.
- rail
- A horizontal member of a frame on a door, window or panel. Contrast stile.
- rail and stile
- See frame and panel.
- rasp
- A long and flat steel tool with raised teeth for shaping wood.
- reed
- A series of beads arranged in a row.
- relief cut
- A short, straight cut made at a right angle to a curved layout so that sharper-than-normal curves can be cut with a jig saw or band saw.
- riffler
- A paddle-shaped rasp.
- rift sawn
- Rip-sawing of lumber perpendicular to the grain, often confused with quarter-sawn.
- ring shake
- A natural type of split (shake) occurring between the annual growth rings.
- rip
- Any cut made parallel to the grain.
- rip saw
- route
- To cut a channel or groove.
- router
S
- S2S
- A type of lumber, usually furniture-grade hardwood, with two sides planed.
- sanding
- sandpaper
- saw
- saw rasp
- A rasp with saw teeth.
- scorp
- A drawknife with a curved, sometimes completely circular blade, often used for hollowing out objects such as bowls.
- scratch awl
- A sharp-pointed hand tool used to mark wood for cutting, usually used in joinery or when a more precise mark is needed beyond that provided by a pencil or other method of marking the cut.
- scribing
- The technique of shaping the end of a moulding or frame component to neatly fit the contours of an abutting member.
- scroll saw
- A motorized fretsaw.
- seasoning
- The process of reducing the moisture content of wood before working to prevent cracking, splitting, and other damage often caused by drying.
- shake
- 1. A crack or split in wood caused by damage or drying.
- 2. A split (as opposed to sawn) shingle.
- shim
- A slender, usually tapered, piece of material used to temporarily adjust the angle of a joint or support; sometimes used permanently as an easy but unsightly way to, for example, correct the plumb of a freestanding piece of furniture.
- shooting
- The technique of planing an edge straight or square.
- shooting board
- shore
- A heavy timber used to support a wall.
- skew
- Out of square or in an oblique position.
- slab
- 1. A partially round cut from a log.
- 2. Another name for a plank.
- slab-cut
- A plank with growth rings roughly parallel to the wider face.
- slick
- A giant chisel used in framing and traditional building construction.
- slip
- A shaped stone used for sharpening non-flat blades such as gouges.
- snib
- A wooden toggle used to hold the work on a table.
- softwood
- Wood from a gymnosperm tree, i.e. trees in the divisions Pinophyta and Ginkgophyta. Despite the name, softwood is not necessarily soft or lightweight (e.g. douglas-fir is a softwood). Contrast hardwood.
- spalting
- A change in the texture, strength and color of wood caused by colonies of fungus growing within the dead wood. Where colonies of fungus meet, fine black lines, often considered a desirable feature, are visible.
- splay
- See bevel.
- split
- To longitudinally separate wood along grain layers.
- spokeshave
- A tool used to shape and smooth wooden rods and shafts, often for use as wheel spokes and chair legs.
- square
- 1. A tool such as a steel square, try square, or combination square.
- 2. A right angle.
- 3. A unit of area equivalent to 100 square feet (9.3 m2).
- sticker
- A small block of wood used to separate boards that are in the process of drying.
- sticking
- A type of moulding that is part of a larger piece of wood such as a frame (as opposed to being applied independently).
- stile
- A vertical member of a frame on a door, window or panel. Contrast rail.
- stringer
- A timber, usually 2 by 12 inches (5.1 cm × 30.5 cm), that supports the treads and rises in a staircase.
- sweep
- 1. The curvature of a gouge, ranging from very little curvature (but not actually flat else it would be a chisel) to deep or quick.
- 2. A warping defect in a piece of wood.
T
- table saw
- tear out
- Broken or torn fibers resulting from damage as the blade of a tool exits a cut.
- tenon
- A projection on the end of a piece of wood for insertion into a mortise.
- termite barrier
- A physical barrier used in construction which blocks subterranean termites from reaching wood.
- timber
- tongue and groove
- tread
- The part of a stair that is stepped on.
- treen
- Made entirely of wood, usually referring to small objects like bowls or utensils.
- true
- Something which is accurately placed, shaped, or sized. To "true up" two pieces of wood is to make them align.
- twist
- A longitudinal twisting of wood due to uneven seasoning or grain. See wood warping.
U
- undercutting
- Cutting away from an edge to increase the sense of relief or thinness.
V
- veiner
- A small, deep gouge.
- veneer
- Very thin slices of wood used for inlay or to cover surfaces.
- veneer saw
- A specialty tool used for trimming veneer.
- vise
- A mechanical apparatus with two parallel jaws, one fixed and the other movable, used to secure an object to allow work to be performed on it.
W
- wane
- An edge of a sawn board where the bark or surface of the trunk remains.
- warp
- A distortion in a piece of lumber, such as a twist, cup or bow.
- warping
- waste
- Wood that will be removed in the finished work. It is often retained during working as a handle to conveniently hold and manipulate the portion being worked.
- wasting
- Quickly removing wood during carving, usually with an adze, knife, or rasp.
- wood
- A porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and woody plants. Wood is an organic material consisting of a natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension embedded in a matrix of lignin that resists compression.
- wood carving
- wood glue
- woodturning
- woodworking
- The activity or skill of making items from wood. It includes many categories and sub-disciplines, such as cabinetry and furniture making, wood carving, joinery, carpentry, and woodturning.
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