The Carpentry Resource Page

Carpentry is one of the oldest trades known to mankind. Every culture uses carpentry to construct homes and buildings of all kinds. Within those structures, carpenters design and build all sorts of items to make life easier, more comfortable, and more efficient. Carpenters bring us cabinets and countertops, furniture, dinnerware, toys, and decorative objects of every kind. The one element that unites all carpenters is his or her expertise with wood.

Carpentry History

• The Coming of the Maori / The Passing of the Stone Age: As New Zealand’s Maori tribesmen encountered European explorers and adapted their Stone Age tools for use with more modern, man-made materials, their carpentry skills changed, too.
• Noah’s Ark Rebuilt to Show Climate Change Threat: Noah saved humanity when he channeled his exquisite carpentry skills into the building of an ark and modern-day scientists and carpenters followed his lead in an effort to demonstrate the dire consequences of global warming on humanity today.
• The History of Joseph the Carpenter: The Bible gives evidence that both Jesus and his father, Joseph, were carpenters thousands of years ago.
• Carpentry and Stonework / Smithsonian Folklife Festival: In Wales, where timber is scarce because trees were virtually eliminated centuries ago to make way for agriculture, restoration projects in operation today are combining old and new techniques and materials to repair historic buildings that include small cottages and mighty castles.
• Grant of a Gild to the Carpenters, 1180: One lasting effect of the Middle Ages was the building of towns and cities across a wide swath of Europe; this urban population explosion created such a demand for carpenters that guilds such as this one in Germany were established in most major cities.
• Medieval Carpentry / An Introduction: Students at Columbia University explore the structural carpentry skills, tools, and techniques in use during the Medieval Period, with particular emphasis paid to famous buildings still standing today.
• History of Apprenticeship: From indentured servant in the 1600s to apprenticeships today, on-the-job training has been the best way to become a skilled carpenter.
• Carpenter Shop, London, 1730: The excavation of this carpenter shop, operational from about 1730 until 1780, revealed quite a startling find.
• Carpenters’ Hall, Philadelphia: Although it’s a perfect example of architecture and carpentry of 1774, when it was completed, this headquarters of the first trade guild in the US made history in many other ways, too.
• Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve: At this National Park Service facility, visitors can see exactly how American settlers on the prairie used carpentry to build homes, farms, and fences.
• Rough Carpentry: Vermont’s Colchester Historical Society uses materials and techniques true to the period whenever possible when restoring historic buildings and other structures in the area.
• Carpentry in Colonial Williamsburg: This multimedia, online tour of the carpentry trade in historic Williamsburg, Virginia, begins by saying “no tradesman was more useful than the carpenter.”
• Creole Carpentry in 1800: Download this publication that describes the carpentry practices and tools used to build a plantation in Alexandria, Louisiana.

Carpentry Training and Education

• The Bridges of Adams County: Education starts early for carpenters in Ohio. This high-school class project focuses on the wooden bridges constructed in the county, with a link to carpentry assignments that challenge students to build their own bridges from glue and balsa wood.
• Carpentry Apprentice Program, New York City: The New York City District Council of Carpenters establishes and regulates the city’s program for apprentice carpenters.
• Choose Construction / Carpenters: Find out what pay scales, benefits, and working conditions can be expected in this trade, described as one of the oldest in the world.
• Carpentry Shop Student Manual: Download just one page or the entire manual from this technical college course on carpentry.
• Construction Technology / Carpentry Technology: Hands-on training is a vital part of learning the trade at the community colleges and universities that offer such courses.

Carpentry Careers

• American Association of Community Theatre: Carpenters may never be seen on stage during a performance but every stage production and motion picture relies heavily on set designers and their carpentry staff to create the perfect background and props the actors will rely on.
• Carpenter Mark Freeland Finds Himself at the South Pole During An Historic Moment: Many carpenters must come to terms with the need to go where the jobs are but this one took his travels to the extreme.
• Carpenter Supervisor Job Description: This job description for a fourth-level carpentry supervisor in Virginia provides a good look at the expectations of the job.
• Carpenters Occupational Outlook in the US: The Bureau of Labor Statistics describes training and skills needed to become a carpenter in the US as well as expected earnings and job outlook in the coming years.
• Carpentry Types: Carpenters work from the ground up, inside and out, and on land, sea, and in the air.

Carpentry Magazines and Newsgroups

• BuildingTradesDir.com: This forum for the building trades provides a place for carpenters from everywhere to discuss projects and work-related issues.
• Contractor Talk: This online forum brings together carpentry professionals in the construction and remodeling industry.
• Furniture & Cabinet Making: Published every month in the United Kingdom, carpenters the world over enjoy this magazine for the new and innovative projects it discusses as well as many time-honored projects and techniques.
• Woodcarving Illustrated: Find decorative projects to make all year long, in this magazine devoted to the ornamental aspects of the craft.
• Woodturning: Read by woodturning enthusiasts in 60 countries, this magazine features projects plans, reviews, tests of equipment and much more.
• Woodworking Plans & Projects: This magazine has been bringing project ideas to professionals and amateurs for years; back issues are available.
• WoodworkingTalk.com: Woodworkers looking for shop talk turn to this website for answers, ideas, and shared experiences.

Carpentry Tools

• Carpenter Apprentice Tool List: This list of tools required of the Greater Pennsylvania Carpenters Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee will help establish a working tool box for all beginner carpenters.
• Carpenter Tools: Carpentry tools are as specialized as the type carpentry a craftsman does.
• The Carpenter’s Square in Ancient Egypt: During rejuvenation rituals to honor the god, Osiris, pharaohs of Ancient Egypt used a carpenter’s square to demonstrate their physical ability to rule.
• Carpentry Buys Ultra-Efficient Saw: The carpentry shop at Michigan State University houses a Swiss-made vertical saw that does in one step what was a four-step process before the Striebig saw’s installation.
• Man with Carpentry Tools, 1848: This daguerrotype of a carpenter shows some of the tools he would have relied on in 1848.
• ToolBank USA: This nationwide organization, based on the Atlanta Community ToolBank, serves as a tool lending library to nonprofit organizations providing carpentry services to communities, schools, neighborhoods, gardens, and similar projects.

Carpentry Guides

• Glossary of Carpentry Terms: Carpentry is a complex trade with many sub-specialties, each calling for different tools, techniques, and materials. An understanding of the terms of the trade is crucial to success.
• OSHA Dictionary of Construction Industry Terms in English and Spanish: This A to Z dictionary provides translations for hundreds of terms important to the carpentry industry.
• The Institute of Carpenters: At this “natural home for professionals working in wood,” the mission is to promote skilled craftsmen and women while encouraging the highest standards in the industry and maintaining historic traditions.
• United Brotherhood of Carpenters (UBC): This trade organization is the largest construction industry trade union in the United States.

Additional Carpentry Resources

• Bringing History Home: This introduction for history teachers uses carpentry and a carpenter’s professional evolution as a good example of how to teach history to children.
• Carpenter Eyes European Markets: With assistance from the USAID program, this carpenter from Kosovo was able to reduce production costs, improve skills and techniques, and expand his market into Europe.
• The Carpenter and Moby Dick: In chapter CVII, Herman Melville describes the carpenter of the Pequod as being “singularly efficient in those thousand nameless mechanical emergencies continually recurring in a large ship.”
• Carpentry Safety: Whether working at home as a hobbyist or on the job, safety must always come first when working with carpentry.
• Celebrity Carpenters: Bob Vila: Find plans, tools, projects, and get advice from this expert on Home improvement and remodeling.
• Celebrity Carpenters: Norm Abram: Learn more about the master carpenter behind the TV series This Old House and The New Yankee Workshop.
• Celebrity Carpenters: Ty Pennington: Go behind the scenes at Extreme Makeover Home Edition, send in your own design stories, get tips, or tell Ty what inspires you.
• Carpenters from Europe and Beyond: Find links to prominent carpenters throughout Europe, the projects they’re working on, and their favorite tools of the trade.

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