The Technique of Furniture Making

535 Pages·1987·31.06 MB·English

by  Ernest Joyce

Since its first publication in 1970 The Technique of
Furniture Making has established itself as the bible for all
woodworkers. However, in nearly twenty years there
have been considerable changes in the craft, and so this
book has been revised thoroughly in order for it to
continue to be as useful and relevant to today's furniture
makers.
The revision has been carried out by Alan Peters, one of
Britain's leading furniture makers, whose own training
has led him to have a ready sympathy and understanding
for Ernest Joyce's approach. In addition to a great deal of
new material, the whole book has been redesigned so
that it is now much easier to work from. The biggest
advances in the world of woodworking in recent years
have been in the range and capabilities of power tools,
and so this section of the book has been much expanded.
Adhesives and abrasives have also developed con
siderably, and the large selection of products available,
their applications and individual qualities are explained.
Looking to the future, computer controlled machinery
and computer-aided design will soon be at an affordable
price for the small workshop, so the book takes a look at
some of the machines already being used in industry.
The book is in three parts, the first part dealing with
materials, tools and techniques, the second part with
advanced construction techniques and metal fittings, and
the third part with running a workshop, draughts
manship, furniture designs and restoration. For the
first time, too, there are colour sections on wood
identification and examples of some of the best pieces of
modern furniture design.
Anyone with a serious interest in furniture making,
whether student or teacher, enthusiastic amateur or
committed professional, is guaranteed to find an answer
to most of their questions somewhere in this book, and
will understand why it has proved an invaluable work of
reference to craftsmen for so many years.
295 black and white photographs
288 line illustrations
32 colour photographs
ABATSFORDBOOK
ISBN 0'134 4407 X £35.00 net
ERNEST JOYCE
The Technique of
FURNITURE
MAKING
Fourth Edition • Revised by
ALAN PETERS
B T BATSFORD LTD LONDON
.
Acknowledgement
Many thanks to Alan Smith, of the London
College of Furniture, for checking the sections
on abrasives and plastics, and for supplying new
material on computer controlled machinery.
The first and last lesson of the useful arts is, that
Nature tyrannizes over our works. They must
be conformed to her law, or they will be ground
to powder by her omnipresent activity. Nothing
droll, nothing whimsical will endure. Nature is
ever interfering with Art. You cannot build
your house or pagoda as you will, but as you
must. There is a quick bound to your caprice.
Emerson Essay on Art, 1841
The inferior man always embellishes his
mistakes.
Tzu Hsia Analects of Confucius
First published 1970
Reprinted 1974, 1976, 1980, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997, 2000
© Ernest Joyce 1970
© Revised text, Alan Peters 1987
All rights reserved. No part of this publication
may be reproduced, in any form or by any means,
without permission from the Publisher
ISBN 0 7134 4407 X
Typeset by Tek-Art Ltd, Kent
and printed in Singapore by
Kyodo Printing Co.
for the publishers
B.T. Batsford Limited
9 Blenheim Court
Brewery Road
London N7 9NT
A member of the Chrysalis Group pic
Contents
Preface
22 Leg and frame construction 208
Introduction
23 Door construction 227
24 Drawer and tray construction 244
Part I Basic materials 25 Fall flaps, secretaires, cylinder falls
and tambours 256
1 Woods (hardwoods and softwoods) 1
2 Veneers 46
3 Manufactured boards 50
Part V Metal fittings/fasteners and
4 Plastics and leathers 58
their application
5 Metals 68
26 Screws, nails and pins 265
6 Adhesives 73
27 Hinges and hinging 267
7 Abrasives 81
28 Locks and locking actions 275
29 Stays, bookcase fittings and castors 282
Part II Tools and Equipment 30 Catches, bolts and handles 286
31 Knock-up (KU) and knock-down (KD)
8 Cabinet maker's bench and accessories 87
fittings 291
9 Hand tools 90
10 Portable power tools and accessories 118
11 Woodworking and allied machinery 129
Part VI Advanced techniques
12 Workshop layout and furnishings 141
32 Veneering, marquetry and inlay 294
33 Table lining 323
Part III Basic techniques and joint 34 Mouldings and lippings/edgings 325
construction 35 Curved work 332
13 Wood preparation 146
14 Jointing techniques and methods 150
15 Edge jointing 152 Part VII Running a professional
16 Housing/dado, halving and workshop
bridle joints 156
36 Setting out and cutting lists 348
17 Mortise and tenon joints 160
18 Dowelled joints 167
19 Dovetailing 170
Part VIII Draughtsmanship and
20 Mitre, scribed and scarf joints 182
workshop geometry
37 The drawing office 352
Part IV Advanced areas of furniture 38 Projections commonly used 355
construction 39 Perspective drawing 359
21 Carcass construction 187 40 Workshop geometry 363
Part IX Furniture designs and Part X Restoration, repairs and
constructional details wood finishing
41 Tables and desks (domestic 47 Structural repairs 500
and office) 380 48 Surface damage 503
42 Chests, cabinets and sideboards 422 49 Wood finishing 505
43 Bedroom furniture 440
44 Seating and upholstery 458
45 Church furniture 481 Appendix: Costing and estimating 512
46 Miscellaneous furniture 492 Index 515
Preface to the revised edition
It was with some trepidation that I accepted the however, is the choice available. From the
task of revising Ernest Joyce's work, for in the humblest hand tool to the most powerful
eyes of so many it had become the wood woodworking machine, we are now no longer
worker's bible, helping countless people in their restricted to what is made in our own country
search for woodworking knowledge and their but have a wide choice from all over the world.
own personal search for excellence. This Also, because power tools were relatively new
reluctance to tamper with the bible, which was fifteen years ago, it is natural that the biggest
strong, and shared by many other people, was advance in choice and technical development
tempered by the knowledge that much had should have been in this area, and consequently
changed in the world of craft furniture since this section of the book has been expanded.
1970 when this work was first published— It would be impossible to revise this book
changes that Ernest Joyce himself would well without getting involved in the question of
have approved. Writing as he did in the late furniture design, for here, too. thinking has
sixties, he could never have envisaged the changed. It was inevitable that fashions would
tremendous boom that was to take place in the change since 1970, and no craftsman can afford
crafts, nor how this was to spread so rapidly to ignore fashion, whether he wishes to follow
around the world. In particular, the craft of its dictates or not. But more important than the
furniture making as practised in small work changes in fashion has been the emergence of
shops is now more healthy, relevant and such strong influences as the American school
exciting than at any time since the turn of the of craft furniture making, led by such inter
century. national figures as Wendell Castle and James
We no longer have to apologize for working Krenov, and magazines, such as Fine
in wood, for using hand skills and traditional Woodworking in the United States; the rise,
joints, nor for stressing quality and individuality too. of the Crafts Council in Britain, and the
or any of the other qualities of the individual influence of such household names as John
craftsman. These are now so widely recognized Makepeace. Habitat and MFI; and lately in
that I have purposely shifted the emphasis in Europe, as a climax to a decade of Italian
this book even further towards the self- domination of the industrial and contract
employed craftsman and away from industry, furniture scene, the impact of Memphis design.
not from any feeling of antipathy to the latter, All these influences have combined to throw
but simply because, just as the craftsman has wider open than ever before that thorny
moved on these past fifteen years, so too has the question—what is good design? In 1970 it was
furniture industry. Streamlined and increasing somewhat easier to answer that in Britain.
ly international, so much of its technology and People tended to look to the Council of
marketing techniques is far removed from the Industrial Design and its London Design Centre
message this book has to give and Joyce himself to give us the answer. But the public was
was so anxious to impart. becoming bored with acres of clinical, flush
If much has changed in regard to the status of veneered doors and surfaces, and craftsmen too
the craftsman and the role of industry, many began to question the relevance of industrial
other things have not. Many of the skills and design to their own work, where they were using
techniques practised in workshops today vary low scale technology and designing not for a
little from those of centuries ago. The hand mass market with all the restrictions imposed by
tools we use daily differ little from those of 15 or the production line, but for individuals and for
even 150 years ago. What has changed. themselves.
Thus there has been a reaction against the gimmickry is thrown up side by side with much
anonymity of much of the industrial furniture of that excites and stimulates, and there is a sense
the early 1970s, and a greater emphasis on of expectancy in the craft field that makes
individual creative work amongst craftsmen, furniture making no longer one of our weaker
and, more generally, a wider use of colour and surviving crafts, but one of the strongest and
decoration in the furniture in our shops. most vibrant.
The result in 1987 is that furniture design is Alan Peters
very much in the melting pot. Some worthless 1987
Introduction to the first edition
Any textbook concerned with the techniques of out of hand for sooner or later we shall be forced
furniture-making must deal primarily with the to come to terms with the leisure automation
basic handcrafts for it is upon this groundwork will increasingly thrust upon us. Handwork,
that machine production is built, and in fact all whether it be sawing a piece of wood or shaping
the machine can ever do is to translate the a lump of clay, is one answer, and no apologia is
essential hand operations into rotary needed.
movements of the cutting tool. In effect,
therefore, mechanised production is no more
than a speeding up of hand production, Scope of the work
simplifying wherever possible but not radically Terms in daily use often stretch their meanings
interfering with methods which have taken over and the expression 'handmade" can no longer be
4000 years to perfect, for wood is a natural accepted as signifying only that work which is
material and imposes its own strict limitations. produced exclusively by hand-methods without
Where other forms of material are concerned recourse to the machine. Instead, it must now
techniques can of course differ, and not doubt in be taken as more descriptive of the approach
the future both plastics and metal will usurp than the means adopted, and a fair
much of the importance of wood, but it is hardly interpretation would include pure hand
likely that it will be altogether supplanted, at methods and those other methods which enlist
least in the foreseeable future, for quite apart the help of the machine without allowing it to
from aesthetic values it is still the cheapest dictate in any way. The inherent danger of mass
medium; it can be worked with the simplest production is that costly and complex
hand tools and is always easily repairable. To machinery is always greedy for output in order
those pundits, therefore, who may claim that to justify its existence, and it will tend to impose
the teaching of hand skills is no longer relevant limitations on the designer and actively
in this day and age it can be pointed out that influence his work. In the so-called 'handwork'
anyone who has only been shown how to force a no such limitation is permissible and man
piece of wood against a mechanised saw will continues to be the master, using the machine as
have learnt very little, but if he has had to saw- an extension of his hands only and not as an
that piece of wood by hand he will be more independent entity liable at any time to
likely to know that much more about it, he will question his decisions. It is with this 'handwork'
have greater respect for it and will understand in and with this 'machine-assisted work' that the
greater depth the problems that will have to be book is chiefly concerned and not with the
faced in its manipulation. mechanics of quantity production which belong
Additional to this need for all machine more properly to the theory of wood machining,
operators to know their material and how best it a subject which calls for a high degree of
can be shaped are questions of quality, not only engineering skill. Having made the point, the
in the artefact, but also of the artificer himself. term "handmade' is retained failing a more
Actuating a lever all day long is soul destroying, comprehensive description.
and modern civilisation must eventually deal The general term 'cabinet-maker' is also
with the inherent problems the machine outdated, for so-called "cabinet-work' is no
imposes. Handwork allows a man to express his longer confined to straight carcase furniture,
own individuality; it is creative, it is definitely with chair-making and other special activities as
therapeutic. The ideal of more handwork, more separate trades. Moreover, the Furniture
individual fulfilment, less automation of both Industry increasingly uses plastics, plastic
man and machine may be economically laminates, metal sections, and many other new
impracticable, but it should not be dismissed materials, all of which the cabinet-maker should
know about, and he should be prepared to is usually strong, sturdy and not so intimately
undertake any work within the general context concerned with appearance, whereas the
of 'Furniture', with the possible exception of cabinet-maker's approach is towards
deep upholstery and hand and spray polishing, compactness, lightness and delicacy of
both of which require other aptitudes and treatment. In self-contained, free-standing
training. The tendency, therefore, is to replace furniture there is no doubt as to the more
the term 'cabinet-maker' with the more suitable type of craftsman, but a good deal of
comprehensive 'furniture-maker', but custom fixed church-work, panelled work and
dies hard and both terms must be regarded as particularly built-in fitments could be done
synonymous. equally well by either and it is difficult to draw
It remains to define what precisely is meant sharp demarcations. In substance, however, the
by furniture as distinct from joiners' work. The book is concerned with furniture only, which
traditional sharp division between the two types includes chair-work and those types of built-in
of craftsmen has to some extent disappeared fitments which are designed to replace free
and is now more a matter of approach than standing furniture. It excludes such things as
anything, for each follows the same principles of shop fitting, museum- and ship-work, etc., as
construction and both have the same basic specialist trades outside its province.
skills. Joiners' work which is normally Ernest Joyce
considered to be part of the fabric of a building 1970