Woodworking
The slower cousin of carpentry. Done for its own sake. Often in a garage.
Overview
Woodworking is, in this wiki's usage, the discipline of making things with wood for their own sake — furniture, cabinets, boxes, small shop projects — as distinct from carpentry, which is a trade done on a schedule. Woodworking is woodwork without the job site or the client. It is what carpentry becomes when the clock is off.
Differences From Carpentry
- Tolerance. Framing tolerates 1/8". Woodworking reaches for 1/64" — and complains about it.
- Material selection. Framing takes what's on the truck. Woodworking picks each board.
- Joinery. Framing fastens with nails. Woodworking fastens with joints — mortise and tenon, dovetail, half-lap.
- Finish. Framing hides. Woodworking shows.
- Pace. Framing is a sprint. Woodworking is a slow conversation.
Why Burbridge Does It
Woodworking is, in Burbridge's case, mostly a way to work slowly. A job-site schedule does not permit care beyond the practical; a garage shop does. The work that results — shop furniture, a box for a friend, a replacement drawer — is the part of building that doesn't need to be fast to be correct.
"Good framing is wall-speed. Good joinery is thinking-speed." — Burbridge