WOODWORKING PLANS AND PROJECTS
Together with stone, mud and animal parts, wood was among the first materials worked by early humans. Microwear analysis of the Mousterian stone tools used by the Neanderthals demonstrate that many were utilized to operate wood. The creation of civilization was closely tied to the development of increasingly greater levels of skill in working these materials.
WOODWORKING PLANS
Woodworking shop in Germany in 1568, the staff member in front is applying a bow saw, the one in the shadows is planing.
Among early finds of wooden tools are the worked sticks from Kalambo Falls, Clacton-on-Sea and Lehringen. The spears from Schningen (Germany) provide a number of the first samples of wooden hunting gear. Flint tools were utilised for carving. Since Neolithic times, carved wooden vessels are known, for example, from your Linear Pottery culture wells at Kckhofen and Eythra.
Samples of Bronze Age wood-carving include tree trunks worked into coffins from northern Germany and Denmark and wooden folding-chairs. The website of Fellbach-Schmieden in Germany provides fine samples of wooden animal statues from your Iron Age. Wooden idols from your La T�ne period are known from the sanctuary on the supply of the Seine in France.
The ancient civilization that first used woodworking was the Egyptians. Woodworking is depicted in several ancient Egyptian drawings, along with a significant amount of ancient Egyptian furniture (including stools, chairs, tables, beds, chests) may be preserved in tombs. Too, the interior coffins found in the tombs were also made of wood. The metal employed by the Egyptians for woodworking tools was originally copper and eventually, after 2000 BC bronze as ironworking was unknown until much later.[1]
Popular woodworking tools included axes, adzes, chisels, pull saws, and bow drills. Mortise and tenon joints are attested from the earliest Predynastic period. These joints were strengthened using pegs, dowels and leather or cord lashings. Animal glue had become used only within the New Kingdom period.[2] Ancient Egyptians invented the ability of veneering and used varnishes for finishing, though the composition of those varnishes is unknown. Although different native acacias were used, as was the wood from the local sycamore and tamarisk trees, deforestation in the Nile valley triggered the requirement for the importation of wood, notably cedar, but additionally Aleppo pine, boxwood and oak, beginning from the 2nd Dynasty.[3]
The progenitors of Chinese woodworking are considered to be Lu Ban (??) and his wife Lady Yun, from the Spring and Autumn Period. Lu Ban is said to have introduced the plane, chalk-line, and other tools to China. His teachings were supposedly left behind in the book Lu Ban Jing (???, "Manuscript of Lu Ban"). Despite this, it is believed that the text was written some 1500 years after his death. This book is filled largely with descriptions of dimensions for use in building various items such as flower pots, tables, altars, etc., and also contains extensive instructions concerning Feng Shui. It mentions almost nothing of the intricate glue-less and nail-less joinery for which Chinese furniture was so famous.
Damascene woodworkers carving wood for hookahs, 19th century.
Materials[edit]
Historically, woodworkers relied upon the woods native to their region, until transportation and trade innovations made more exotic woods available to the craftsman. Woods are typically sorted into three basic types: hardwoods typified by tight grain and derived from broadleaf trees, softwoods from coniferous trees, and man-made materials such as plywood and MDF.
Typically furniture such as tables and chairs is made using solid stock, and cabinet/fixture makers employ the use of plywood and other man made panel products.