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cody
Student
Houma, Louisiana
3
Questions
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What skills did you learn in Carpentry ?
#math We have to learn power tools, how to cut wood, and math
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Isaac B.
Learning myself
4
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Isaac’s Answer
Math is essential to carpentry. But depending on your field within carpentry and what materials you end up working with, you could have to learn some science, as well as more general skills like communication, self-care and idea conception
Charles Bosse
Exhibit technician
6
Answers
Seattle, Washington
Updated
Charles’s Answer
I learned carpentry mostly from my father who was a somewhat self taught general contractor for many years. I also took high school shop classes (where I mostly focused on metal work) and worked on theater sets in high school (where I learned how to make something look good from a distance and not be a dire hazard with very little time and inadequate resources). I've had other bits through my life as well, but I've never enrolled in a formal program. Nonetheless, I am a competent builder and reasonable woodworker because I have a solid background in mathematics and enough personal experience to know how to problem solve and what when measurement error and tolerance are important to consider, things I know both because of experience and because of my undergraduate physics degree. This hasn't resulted in building/making/crafting/construction as a hobby: my last job was in exhibit maintenance and my skills were critical to my success in this position.
So what has been most important? I'll try and put these in order, but anything that makes this list would be a deficit if you skipped it:
1. Measurement - this is much more complex than simply "being able to use a ruler", and it gets into math but isn't simply math. It also involves understanding the material you are measuring, what results you need to be aware of including ways the material might change over time or how it needs to attach or meet other materials and parts, how to lay things out so that you do the least work for the most gain and what tools you can use to accomplish seemingly difficult or tedious tasks easily and quickly. If you REALLY know how to measure things, you'll probably also have every other skill on this list and a few I'll inevitably omit. At very least you'll know not to draw a 2x4 as being 2" thick and 4" wide.
2. Tools - there's a huge difference between being able to use a tool, say to make a cut, and really understanding how it works. I'm not an artisan but when I see a truly impressive artisan, one of the things that is striking is their connection to their tools. Spend an hour on TikTok if you don't know what I mean. The better you understand your tools, the safer you will be, the more flexible and capable you will be, and the more impressive your work will be. Even modern computer controlled (CNC, etc.) tools need to be operated by someone who understands them and can design and monitor tools to get good results and anticipate and prevent disasters. This goes from understanding cut rate and depth to knowing what sounds mean hitting that little emergency off (and which ones to just wait out). It also means being aware of a diversity of tools, so that you don't end up falling into the "when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail" problem, but also understanding that sometimes you can use a hammer as a prisbar even if it's not ideal.
3. Math - Hey, you knew it was coming! Normally people would nest measurement inside math, but I think you can see why I'm sort of flipping that: measurement in carpentry (and building/crafting/construction in general) is about a lot more than basic math. However, if you don't have any idea how to go from an angle to the ratio of opposite over hypotenuse, your construction ability will be pretty limited: at best you'll brute force it and only waste a little time and material on guess-and-check (or you'll lose money paying someone else to figure it out). At worst, you may never get to some of the more intriguing construction and you'll be somewhat limited to copying other people's work and ideas, not for lack of creativity but for lack of ability to work out the details. Specifically you'll want to learn trigonometry and some knowledge of tolerance can serve you well too.
4. Materials - I'm going to end on materials, but they are still critically important to your understanding of carpentry, and might rank higher on this list depending on your feelings on the topic. That said, you probably can't get a comprehensive understanding of every possible material, so you need to focus on the ones you will be working with. Understand the differences between common woods, traits like hardwood, soft wood, color, drying and warping, strength and flexibility, water and sun resistance, and then the unique properties of things like plywood, MDF, OSB etc. Also get familiar with the mechanics of nails and screws in different lengths and configurations and learn about grain, knots, and how damage and finish can change the characteristics of the material you are working with. All that is just for wood! When you get to metals, you get things like electrical corrosion. Ceramics are their own thing too (That I myself have barely touched the surface of)! Fortunately, I don't usually have to know how to fire a specific clay to build a wood table, and also fortunately, we live in the age of the internet where I can find information to at least get started with many new materials if I want to. Also fortunately, you can probably build a pretty passable set of shelves without knowing the fine details of the difference between fir and pine.
Don't stop with class, there are lots of great videos
Don't get a tool because it looks cool, and don't avoid a tool because you can probably figure it out yourself.
Learn to stay organized. Make organization of your tools, supplies, and information a part of your practice at the start.
So what has been most important? I'll try and put these in order, but anything that makes this list would be a deficit if you skipped it:
1. Measurement - this is much more complex than simply "being able to use a ruler", and it gets into math but isn't simply math. It also involves understanding the material you are measuring, what results you need to be aware of including ways the material might change over time or how it needs to attach or meet other materials and parts, how to lay things out so that you do the least work for the most gain and what tools you can use to accomplish seemingly difficult or tedious tasks easily and quickly. If you REALLY know how to measure things, you'll probably also have every other skill on this list and a few I'll inevitably omit. At very least you'll know not to draw a 2x4 as being 2" thick and 4" wide.
2. Tools - there's a huge difference between being able to use a tool, say to make a cut, and really understanding how it works. I'm not an artisan but when I see a truly impressive artisan, one of the things that is striking is their connection to their tools. Spend an hour on TikTok if you don't know what I mean. The better you understand your tools, the safer you will be, the more flexible and capable you will be, and the more impressive your work will be. Even modern computer controlled (CNC, etc.) tools need to be operated by someone who understands them and can design and monitor tools to get good results and anticipate and prevent disasters. This goes from understanding cut rate and depth to knowing what sounds mean hitting that little emergency off (and which ones to just wait out). It also means being aware of a diversity of tools, so that you don't end up falling into the "when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail" problem, but also understanding that sometimes you can use a hammer as a prisbar even if it's not ideal.
3. Math - Hey, you knew it was coming! Normally people would nest measurement inside math, but I think you can see why I'm sort of flipping that: measurement in carpentry (and building/crafting/construction in general) is about a lot more than basic math. However, if you don't have any idea how to go from an angle to the ratio of opposite over hypotenuse, your construction ability will be pretty limited: at best you'll brute force it and only waste a little time and material on guess-and-check (or you'll lose money paying someone else to figure it out). At worst, you may never get to some of the more intriguing construction and you'll be somewhat limited to copying other people's work and ideas, not for lack of creativity but for lack of ability to work out the details. Specifically you'll want to learn trigonometry and some knowledge of tolerance can serve you well too.
4. Materials - I'm going to end on materials, but they are still critically important to your understanding of carpentry, and might rank higher on this list depending on your feelings on the topic. That said, you probably can't get a comprehensive understanding of every possible material, so you need to focus on the ones you will be working with. Understand the differences between common woods, traits like hardwood, soft wood, color, drying and warping, strength and flexibility, water and sun resistance, and then the unique properties of things like plywood, MDF, OSB etc. Also get familiar with the mechanics of nails and screws in different lengths and configurations and learn about grain, knots, and how damage and finish can change the characteristics of the material you are working with. All that is just for wood! When you get to metals, you get things like electrical corrosion. Ceramics are their own thing too (That I myself have barely touched the surface of)! Fortunately, I don't usually have to know how to fire a specific clay to build a wood table, and also fortunately, we live in the age of the internet where I can find information to at least get started with many new materials if I want to. Also fortunately, you can probably build a pretty passable set of shelves without knowing the fine details of the difference between fir and pine.
Charles recommends the following next steps: