Joinery for Dummy Woodworkers

Common wood joints

Today, students, we're going to examine a sort of stupid question and the uninformed answer provided the seeker of knowledge, courtesy of a self-appointed freelancer who knew just as little about the subject as the person asking the question. Sadly, that was pretty common in the days before Google's Panda update killed off content farms... but some of their content still remains, like the piece Lauren Vork wrote for eHow.com (now on HomeSteady.com), which was supposed to address the question "How Many Different Ways Can Wood Be Joined Together?"¹

Vork, who quite probably didn't study woodworking while getting her music degree, went the simple route. To do so, Lauren pretended to have read an offline book to compile her list, which comprises

• Nails
• Screws
• Staples
• Glue
• Wood Biscuits

We suppose that Vork's answer would be on point if the question had been "How many different ways can wood be fastened," but it's not: the question specifically says "joined." We'll get to that in a moment, but first we need to mention that Lauren missed a couple on her list, specifically camlocks (think Ikea) and dowels. Now, on to the real point...
There are many ways wood can be joined, joint types in a range of strength and complexity. Different joint types are suitable for different situations, Some don't even require fasteners! Here are just a few ways in which wood can be joined:

butt joint, miter joint, lap joint, splined miter joint, finger joint, box joint, dovetail joint, biscuit joint, tongue and groove, doweled joint, bridle joint, mortise and tenon, pinned mortise and tenon, doweled lap joint, doweled butt joint, edge joint, dado, rabbet...

In other words, Vork's ignorance of the topic means she provided not just an incomplete answer, but an incorrect answer. This, dear readers, is what you get when uninformed freelancers copy material they don't understand and uninformed "content editors" look it over for form but not accuracy. And that's exactly why Lauren can add a Dumbass of the Day award to her bio.

¹ The original has been deleted by Leaf Group, but can still be accessed using the Wayback machine at archive.org. Its URL was   ehow.com/info_8421285_many-can-wood-joined-together.html

copyright © 2017-2022 scmrak

DD - WOODWORKING