Woodworking & Joinery

This workbook turns the course into bench time. Each section pairs hands-on exercises with worksheets and checklists you can clip to your bench, plus editable templates for cut lists, a wood-movement reference, and a sharpening log. Work through it with scrap wood at your side; the goal is calloused hands and completed joints, not just notes.

Get your material knowledge, shop safety, and starter kit set up before any joint is cut.

Take three different boards (ideally one flatsawn, one quartersawn, and a piece of pine) and examine each in good light. For every board, identify the reference face, the likely grain direction for planing, and how you expect it to move with the seasons. Write your reasoning, then take a light plane or chisel pass to test your grain-direction guess.

Walk your workspace and fill in each field honestly. Anything you cannot complete becomes the top of your shopping or setup list before you run a machine.

Build the three invisible skills under every joint: a keen edge, an accurate layout, and a sawn line you can hit.

Take one chisel through the full sharpening routine: flatten the back, hone the bevel at 25 to 30 degrees through your grit progression, and remove the burr. Then prove the edge by paring a clean curl of end grain from a pine block and slicing through a sheet of paper held in the air. Log the result in your sharpening log template.

On scrap pine or poplar, knife and square twenty crosscut lines. Saw each on the waste side down to a scribed baseline, then check each cut with a square for square across the face and the edge. Grade each cut pass or fail and watch your accuracy climb across the twenty.

Before cutting any real joint, complete this layout sheet for the part so every measurement traces back to a single reference.

Cut and fit the two joints that build most fine furniture, and learn to choose the right joint for the job.

In practice stock around 21 mm thick, cut a single mortise-and-tenon. Mark and cut the mortise first, set the tenon roughly one-third the stock thickness, then mark the tenon directly from the finished mortise and fit it. Aim for a firm hand-press fit with tight shoulders.

Cut five through-dovetail joints in poplar, tails first. Set your slope (try 1:8 for the hardwood feel), scribe baselines to board thickness, saw the tails, trace them onto the pin board, then cut and pare the pins to fit. Compare your fifth joint to your first.

For each joint in a planned piece, work through the questions and record the joint you will use, so every choice is deliberate.

Four-square your stock, apply the right finish, and carry a complete piece from cut list to signed bottom.

Take one rough or cupped board and bring it to four flat, square, parallel faces of consistent thickness, by machine or by hand with winding sticks and three planes. Reference every operation off your first flattened face. Verify flat and square with a straightedge and square at each stage.

Prepare a scrap panel through 120, 180, and 220 grit (no skipped grades), then apply a wiping-oil finish in two to four thin coats, scuffing lightly between coats. Compare a sanded-only half to a finished half, and dispose of the oily rag safely.

Plan your first complete piece end to end. Fill every field before milling so the build has no surprises.