Woodworking Basics
Woodworking is divided into many branches, which have become, and are recognized by the unions, as being separate trades. First, there is the carpenter, who builds the hulls of wooden vessels, lays the decks, makes the wood masts and spars of all ships, etc. He is assisted by the joiner, who makes the cabins and internal fittings of vessels; the joiner also makes the floors and wood-work of houses, he builds sheds, makes garden gates and palings, etc
There is no such thing as a house-carpenter. There is also the cabinetmaker, the pattern-maker, the cooper, the millwright, etc., and, last but not least, the turner, without whose assistance all the other wood-workers would be in difficulties. Each branch of wood-worker has some tools peculiar to its trade, which are seldom or never used by the other classes of wood-worker, but there are many tools which are use4 by all, such as planes, chisels, gouges, hammers, etc. But, as the joiner probably uses the largest assortment of tools, and does the most varied description of work, and is often credited with work which is, in reality, no concern of his, but rightly belongs to other branches of the trade, this common error will be continued in these pages, because it will be more convenient to describe every kind of wood-working (except turning) under one name, and the amateur may work at all, whenever he pleases, without fear of the trades unions. He first learns how to use his tools, and then he makes a model boat, patches a hole in the floor, mends a leg of a chair, makes a pattern for a casting, etc., and calls it all joinery.
The first piece of work attempted by the young amateur upon receiving a few tools is to make a box. This is not an easy thing to make well, and it requires considerable knowledge and skill in order to succeed; it is therefore proposed to describe the process and the various methods of making a box of which the outside measurements will be 8 inches long by 5 inches wide outside, and 3 inches deep inside, the wood to be deal, inch thick, the only tools possessed by the amateur being a chisel inch or inch wide, a small plane, a small outside gouge, a hammer, a small saw, a few nails, arid a sprig bit; also, very little money to buy more tools, etc. This is the usual outfit. He, first of all, wants to make a box without caring for what he will use it when finished, he will afterwards adapt it to some purpose.