WW Journal had a post today about woodworking terms that aren't common.  Every endeavor has its terminology. 

 

I am reminded that when we have a volunteer group at the furniture bank, we generally ask if anyone is familiar with a router.   A bunch of hands go up, then we say, the woodworking tool, not the wifi type.  Then most of the hands go down.

 

I'd have to add

• Finger joint (not a knuckle)
• grain (not oats or wheat)
• birdseye (not the avian kind)
• chamfer
• carcass (not a dead body)
• joint (not the 420 kind you smoke)
• jig (not the Irish dance)

Any you could add?

 

Weird Woodworking Words

Last week I used the term bodger, which is someone who turned wooden legs — typically for Windsor chairs and most often out in the forest. A friend of mine told me it was a new word for her, which got me thinking. Our craft has some odd terms that most of us take for granted. Dado comes to mind as well as rabbet (that’s rebate to our Brit friends).

Actually, bodgers were one of three craftspeople who built chairs, with benchmen and framers completing the trio (this was news to me). As I poked around for other archaic woodworking terms, I found another trio of note: nave, spokes and felloes. As I have never made a wooden cartwheel, the terms nave and felloes were new to me. Some terms that I have used but also forgotten are arris, fleam, in the white, mullion and joyner. Seems I am a bit of a word nerd.

Cooper is a barrel maker

 

gain a hinge

 

Not sure this sticks with the theme, but I've seen carcass (when referring to cabinets and casework) spelled "carcase"; and I couldn't figure out which was correct. After some searching, it seems that the carcase word is common in Britain....so I guess either spelling would be correct.

Wainscot, apron & moulding come to mind.

Tote, froe and, billet?

16 minutes ago, Gene Howe said:

Tote, froe and, billet?

 

What are you doing? Summing a demon?

4 hours ago, Gene Howe said:

Stop that! 

Yep!

Plane not the kind you fly

jointer

vise not a sin

mortise and tenon or tendon not the kind in your body

 

 

Well as the unediccated idgit here, I refer to all slots cut through wood as a dado, irregardless of which way the grain is going. (It was only recently I learned the difference between a dado and a groove)

the old Wood forum had a word checker, and would not allow certain words, as they might offend young eyes and ears.

 

so you could not talk about your bastard file.

Edited April 27, 20224 yr by DAB

4 hours ago, DAB said:

the old Wood forum had a word checker, and would not allow certain words, as they might offend young eyes and ears.

 

so you could not talk about your bastard file.

Never those others you might come across   b

biscuit...not the buttermilk kind with sausage gravy

45 minutes ago, Grandpadave52 said:

biscuit...not the buttermilk kind with sausage gravy

IMO, that's the only kind. If you can't eat 'em, what good are they? 

--- Burl...not Ives either

--- Dovetail

--- Scorp

6 hours ago, Gene Howe said:

IMO, that's the only kind. If you can't eat 'em, what good are they? 

I've told this story before, but think of it when "biscuit" comes up. Some years ago I walked into a HD looking for biscuits. Skippy Stockboy comes up to me asking if he can help. "Where are the biscuits?" sez me. With a goofy grin on his face he points to the door and says "I think Burger King over there has biscuits". (True story.)

butt joint

Moved to Patriot's Pulse, I need to have this discussion here so I can reference it and add these wonderful suggestions to our data base so the terminology is linked to an explanation, thanks Keith for starting this subject, I'll try to merge this topic into an already on going topic on this subject at:

 

Here are some new additions to our data base of auto links I entered based on your suggestions, thank you guys!

 

@Cal moulding

@kmealy bodger, butt joint

@Gene Howe tote

@Gerald plane

@Artie dado, groove

@Grandpadave52 bisquit, burl

 

the other linked words in your posts above were already in the database, thanks again for your wonderful suggestions.