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Cabinetmaker -- Carpenter -- Craftsman -- Joiner -- Mechanic -- Artisan
This entry jointly treats Cabinetmaker together with Carpenter, Joiner, Mechanic, Craftsman. It's age-old, evidently, the concern for defining precisely the set tasks -- are each of them an "art" or a "craft" -- of practitioners of the four five divisions of woodworking mentioned above: what is, basically, the same operation: constructing things from wood, whether buildings or furniture or collateral structures, such as outdoor garden or livestock appurtences. (Because of its over-generality in meaning, "artisan" is not treated below.) Example: The 1891 book, The Art and Craft of Cabinet-Making , by the cabinet-maker and journalist, David Denning:
The cabinet-maker fashions and forms the wood, joins the componets together, but -- except so far as they are necessary for construction -- has little or nothing to do with other materials. In this sense, he is a joiner, but to confound joinery or carpentry with cabinet-making is a mistake commonly made. For more detail about the emergence of cabinet-maker in the vocabulary of woodworking, click here.
The joiner is principally concerned with large work and with comparatively soft woods, while the cabinet-maker is, from the nature of the articles he makes, occupied principally with small constructions in the choicer and harder woods.
Cabinet-making is thus finer work, fine joinery in fact. Many joiners do make furniture; nonetheless, furniture furniture made by a joiner generally lacks the finish imparted to it by a good cabinet-maker.
A decade earlier, the cabinet-maker journalist, Francis Chilton Young, gave us his version:
Source: Charles Tomlinson, ed, in Cyclopedia of Useful Arts and Manufactures London: G. Virtue and Co., 1854, page? [not online]
When carpentry and joinery are spoken of together, it is possible that the two words may not convey a distinctive meaning to every one who hears or reads them, and it may be serviceable to point out here in what the difference really consists. A carpenter, speaking generally, is an artificer who works in timber, a framer and builder of houses and ships, as far as wood may be employed in their construction.
The chief tools of the carpenter, properly so-called, are the saw, the axe or hatchet, the adze, the hammer, and the chisel; the joiner, in addition to these, requires planes of various kinds to impart a smooth surface and relief, by mouldings of various kinds, to his work.
Carpentry, then, means the art of cutting, framing, and putting together timber in the construction of buildings, or an assemblage of pieces of timber connected by being framed together, as the pieces of a roof, partition, floor, etc.
Joinery, on the other hand, is the art or work of a joiner; and a joiner is a mechanic who does the woodwork in the covering and finishing of buildings, or whose occupation it is to construct things such as tables, chairs, boxes, etc., by joining pieces of wood together.
The artisan who makes furniture of a more elaborate description is usually called a cabinet-maker, the term "cabinet" being applied to a piece of furniture consisting of a case or box furnished with doors and drawers.
...Joinery, on the other hand, is the art or work of a joiner; and a joiner is a mechanic who does the woodwork in the covering and finishing of buildings, or whose occupation it is to construct things such as tables, chairs, boxes, etc., by joining pieces of wood together. The artisan who makes furniture of a more elaborate description is usually called a cabinet-maker, the term "cabinet" being applied to a piece of furniture consisting of a case or box furnished with doors and drawers....
It will be convenient for the purposes of this work to consider carpentry and joinery as separating naturally into two divisions, which may be described as (1) Simple Carpentry and joinery, Carpentry, (2) Ornamental Carpentry and joinery: the first corn- how divisible. prising all operations necessary for preparing pieces of wood and framing and joining them together, which may be performed by the ordinary tools of the carpenter ; the second, decorative work, and all such working in wood as may require the aid of special machinery of some kind or other to produce it....
When a man knows how to use the different tools employed in Carpentry and Joinery, and has learnt to perform the ordinary operations by means of which pieces of wood are framed together, he may be considered to have become acquainted with what may be termed the grammar of carpentry; and, as the simpler processes that come within the province of the house carpenter and joiner are now tolerably familiar to him, he may turn his attention to ornamental carpentry, which involves greater delicacy of manipulation and more careful use of the tools employed, and apply himself to the task of learning the principles of construction comprised in articles of everyday use that he sees about him ; and, having learnt how they may be made so as to be as strong and efficient as it is possible to render them, to proceed to the repairing and the making of the articles themselves....
Source: Francis Chilton-Young, Every Man His Own Mechanic London: Ward, Lock, 1881, page 14.
The Amateur Woodworker
Francis Chilton-Young, David Denning -- and another journalist, Paul Hasluck, shared the common role of popularizing amateur woodworking. The London-based publisher, Cassell, also had a role. Work, Amateur Mechanic, [other?] Home Carpentry for Handy Men. By Francis Chilton-Young, author of " Every Man His Own Mechanic," "The House and Its Furniture," etc., and editor of " Amateur Work, Illustrated." Profusely illustrated with several hundred original designs, diagrams, and working drawings, from the pen and pencil of the author. 8vo, cloth, $3.00.
Thus, today, at the dawn of the 21st century -- the Age of the Internet, cordless woodworker's tools, and "computed numerically controlled" (CNC) -- terms such as Cabinetmaker, Carpenter, Joiner, Mechanic, Craftsman obviously don't have the same meaning as, say, in the first part of 20th century or earlier. Today, Craftsman seems to be the term of choice in our woodworking magazines. Ordinarily such subtleties in the distinctions among the meanings of these terms would not get anyone's attention, but when -- in 1923 -- the writer of a woodworker's manual, Paul D Otter uses all these terms -- except Joiner -- we start to pay attention. Click here to check it out.
Below, the Historical Background on Cabinetmaker and the Related Terms Are Explored in Greater Detail
Cabinetmaker is a woodworker who makes cabinets and the finer kind of joiner's work.
In her 1982 dissertation -- Westfield College, University of London -- Patricia Anne Kirkham writes that the term cabinet-maker was used immediately after the 1660 Restoration, when Britain placed Charles I on its throne, bringing an end to the lengthy, troublesome Interregnum of Oliver Cromwell.
An Adrian Bolte applied for the post of royal cabinet-maker' and it was used in the following year to refer to certain members of the Joiners' Company.
June 18, 1660, 92. Petition of Adrian Bolte to the King, for readmission to the office of Cabinet-maker, as he held it under the late King, who committed to him the keeping of the Royal staff, which he has preserved amidst all his troubles, and done many services to His Majesty's friends.
Source: Calendar of state papers, Domestic series, Reign of Charles II ..., Volume 1, edited by Mary Anne Everett Green and F. H. Blackburne Daniell, page 58Later, in 1664, John Evelyn used the term in Sylva, while in 1667, Samuel Pepys referred to the person who made for him "a new inlaid table" as "a cabinet-maker." What spurred the "new craft" of cabinet-maker? Large numbers of foreign designers and craftsmen -- including Daniel Marot -- skilled in the new styles and techniques, not known in a Britain where the Oak tradition prevailed, emigrated from across the English Channel. (On the gradual replacement of white oak by first, walnut, then mahogany, read more here.) Christopher Wren, among other designers, helped not only restore, but to build up a class of public buildings heretofore never known in Britian.
What spurred the "new craft" of cabinet-maker?
Large numbers of foreign designers and craftsmen -- including Daniel Marot -- skilled in the new styles and techniques, not known in a Britain where the Oak tradition prevailed, emigrated from across the English Channel. Christopher Wren, among other designers, helped not only restore, but to build up a class of public buildings heretofore never known in Britian.
While considerable time past before the term cabinet-maker entered the everyday English vocabulary, its usage reflected the improved standard of British cabinet-making; for example, John Evelyn comments on the improvement in his 1680 book, The Whole Body of Antient and Modern Architecture , leading us to conclude that such a change must have come from the influence of the foreign craftsmen now working in Britain.
An example of a definite refinement of cabinet-making standards is perhaps illustrated most appropriately by singling out the work of Gerrit Jensen -- probably of Dutch or Flemish ancestry -- who, in 1680, supplied furniture to the royal household. Jensen and others who emigrated across the English Channel introduced an elaborate type of cabinet-work that -- up to that time -- was not produced by native joiners. Jensen decorated his pieces with marquetry or boulle-work,both types of inlay, using either metal and tortoise-shell. We are helped in assuming that these refinements were from "foreign" sources by the fact that -- except for a William Farmborough -- all cabinet-makers' receipts have foreign names.
Source: Adapted from, Pat Kirkham, The London Furniture Furniture Trade, 1700-1870 London Furniture History Society, 1988.
Cabinet making is one of the fine arts and is by no means to be placed among the lesser ones. Among the things most treasured by the nations and holding prominent places in the world's museums will ever be found specimens of the art of the cabinet maker.
Source: Lamont A. Warner, "Good Furniture ", Art and Industry in Education New York: Published by the Arts and Crafts Club of Teachers College, Columbia University, 1913, page 87
Cabinetmakers work in solid wood, typically Hardwood, though Veneers of highly prized wood may be used for decorative purposes.
In choosing [one case] over another, the cabinetmaker has to consider ease of construction, appearance, cost, weight, strength and durability.
Source: Bill Hylton, 1998, page 84.
Carpenter
Usually carpenters are considered to perform processes in woodworking at a level of skill lower than the cabinetmaker. However, as "finish carpenters", carpenters can work at the same level of excellence as cabinetmakers; mostly carpenters engage in the initial stages of construction, activities that lead up to the point where a construction needs finishing touches; for example, finish carpenters takeover where Moldings for ceilings and banisters for stairways are precisely cut and mounted.
The "Introduction" of my 30-year-old copy of Willis H Wagner's Modern Carpentry: Building Construction Details in Easy-to-Understand Form (South Holland, IL: Goodheart-Willcox, 1976) includes the following:
Carpentry provides detailed coverage of all aspects of light frame construction; including site layout, foundations, framing, sheathing, roofing, windows and doors, exterior finish, and interior wall, floor and ceiling finish. Special emphasis is placed on the use of modern materials and prefabricated components in the application of interior trim, and the construction of stairs and cabinetwork. Also included is basic information covering post-and-beam construction, chimney and fireplaces, and prefabricated structures.
Craftsman
A person who practices a handicraft; an artisan, basically, skilled workmanship.
In the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, the word "craft" has often been the subject of a tug of war between two groups in the United States:
(1) enthusiasts who argue for craft as a nonhierarchical, democratic activity, open to all and necessary in a world supersaturated with impersonal consumables; and
(2) sophisticates who think that "craft" is a pejorative term, too often associated with kitsch, macrame, stoneware pots, and DIY (do- it-yourselfers).
Some of the latter dismiss craft entirely. Others believe that a certain class of craft worthy of recognition as art has emerged and should be recognized as superior to "mere" craft.1
Source: Edward S. Cooke, "Modern Craft and the American Experience", American Art 21, No 1 Spring 2007, page 2.
Joiner
Not as widely used today, a joiner is an artisan who finishes woodwork in houses; the art of a joiner.
A Joiner is, as the OED shows,
A craftsman whose occupation it is to construct things by joining pieces of wood; a worker in wood who does lighter and more ornamental work than that of a carpenter, as the construction of the furniture and fittings of a house, ship.... |
The earliest use of Joiner the OED records is 1483.
Mechanic
An archaic term, Mechanic, Mechanician, bore reference to skill in artistic persuits. A practitioner of the principles of mechanics, as distinguished from the workman, is called a Mechanician.
The OED traces the etymological roots of mechanic to Old and Middle French mecanique, which dates to ca 1265. The term's roots, however, are Latin. In the box directly below, we see the erudite speculations in 1640 by the English poet, John Donne (1573-1631) about a "mechanic's" ability to use his "hands". (Donne was also involved in the politics of the religious turmoil of the era -- i.e., Protestantism vs Catholicism.)
(I found this Donne citation
-- please understand that I am not a regular reader of poetry and/or
prose of this period -- with a keyword search for "mechanic" in the JSTOR
scholarly database American Seating Furniture,
1630-1730 --subscription necessary -- and
turned up a review of Benno M. Forman's American
Seating Furniture, 1630-1730: An Interpretive Catalogue,
New York: Norton, 1988 by Philip Zea,
Winterthur Portfolio 23, no 4 Winter 1988, page
281.
Ordinarily I would find such information interesting, and record
it perfunctorily for an entry such as this on one on the evolution of
the meaning of the term, mechanic. In this particular case, however,
because Donne touches upon the notion that "work with the hand" can
often "be spiritual", but "not in a religious sense", I saw a tie-in
with my own claims about woodworking as a spiritual activity;
click here for reading these details in my memoir.
| Source: John Donne, The Sermons of John Donne ; edited, with Introductions and Critical Apparatus, by Evelyn M. Simpson and George R. Potter, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1962, volume 7, page 222. |
Mechanic Mechanic
in Webster's New Dictionary 2d
ed 1952, @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ The Oxford
English Dictionary shows Cabinetmaker
usage begins at least in 1681; the use of Carpenter
is even older, tracing back to 1381. According to my Barnhart
Dictionary of Etymology, Robert K. Barnhart,
editor (New York: H. W. Wilson, 1988), page 230,
Craftsman, one who practices some trade or manual occupation,
traces back, "probably before 1200", in Layamon's Chronicle
of Britain.
In tracing these terms back to Biblical eras -- see the box below -- one needs to use words from Greek, Latin and other languages, languages that do not use our alphabet. To abbreviate and, I hope, clarify, in the passge below from an 1869 Notes and Queries issue, I stripped out all but the essential English text. You can read the entire text here. Joseph Of Nazareth:-- Joseph and Jesus are both described as carpenters (Matthew. xiii. 55, Mark vi. 3). Nazareth, where Jesus spent the largest portion of his life, is ill provided with wood, but abounds in stone, with which the houses there are now built. The word ... as used by Homer, comprehends any craftsman: -- "Who made him a bedroom, and a dwelling-room, and a hall." "Son of the mechanic . . . who knew how to fabricate with his hands all kinds of curious works . . . who also had built for Alexander equal-sided ships." So also as shipbuilders, ... Odyssey ix. 190. Homer mentions " a horn-polishing artist"; also "makers of war-chariots and cars (sic) embellished with brass; and finally artists in wood, Odyssey xvii. 384. In the times of Plato and Xenophon the word carpenter was often opposed to "smith"; Pindar had before them still further extended its meaning to matter of any art. But the most important point is to ascertain in what sense the ancient Jews used the word; this word we find in the Septuagint to be the equivalent of "cheresh", artist, craftsman, or workman generally, to which is appended the article in which he works, as wood or stone walls. The word "cheresh" alone is translated craftsman, as distinguished from the manger. As we have no information respecting Nazareth in ancient authors, and as recent accounts represent the number of houses it contains as two hundred and fifty, we may infer that it contained still fewer before it became celebrated amongst Christians as the residence of Jesus. The answer... [is] therefore, that Joseph combined tho two arts of carpenter and stonemason, as well as those of wheelwright, joiner, cabinetmaker, &c. (I have no faith in the existing stone table as the one on which Joseph and Jesus actually worked.) Source: T. J. Buckton, Notes and Queries
, 4th series, IV, Sept 18, 1869, page 246. In his 1959 English Period Furniture, even more usefully than Russell, I think, Charles H Hayward speaks of Two tables by Charles Harold Hayward, the renowned English author of woodworking manuals, are spot on in capturing how eras of furniture styles historically reflect of the state of the art of woodwdorking technology.
In a nutshell, historically between 1500 and 1900, men who construct furniture in the English-speaking world morph from "carpenters" to "cabinet-makers" to machine operators, topics covered in Chapters 1:4 and 1:5 respectively. (Click here for a discussion of the distinction bstween carpenters and cabinet-makers.) Notice that Hayward adds the concept "Designer" to his equation, an idea that didn't occur to me as a logical entity until I thought about it contextually. Classic components of furniture design, especially the cabriole leg of Daniel Marot (1700) on chairs and tables, the Windsor Chair's majestic hooped back with elegant spindles and scooped anatomical seats (1740) bespeak of a departure from the purely pragmatic traditions of design that prevailed in ages before the Age of Enlightenment. The carpenter, from
earliest times until about 1550. Surviving pieces are naturally rare,
are mediaeval (Gothic) as a rule, and of oak. A good workman is known by his tools. A good workman may do a tolerable job with indifferent tools, but a beginner should never attempt to use any but first-class implements, or he will never become a first-class craftsman. If you use bad tools, and try to cast the blame of bad work on them, recollect that "A bad workman always complains of his tools." A really clever mechanic cherishes his reputation far too highly to allow his tools to lapse into an inefficient condition; therefore, next to his character, the honest workman prides himself, and justly so, on the superior quality of his tools. We are well aware that our apprentices cannot all afford to purchase good tools, to the extent they will require them, at a moment's notice; and, indeed, it is questionable whether it would be advantageous for them to do so under any circumstances, as increased confidence will be acquired by making any one tool serve for as many purposes as possible, before laying it aside for another. Many people imagine that when they have not a good set of carpenter's tools, the best plan is to purchase a box of so-called "Tools." Beware how you do this. Never buy a box of tools. A joiner's toolchest, if bought of a respectable manufacturer, may be all right; but we do not advocate the practice. Purchase, or, if you like, make a tool-chest, and furnish it with the best tools, carefully selected from the manufacturer's stock. A young carpenter will do well to get some friend who has the requisite experience to examine the tools before purchasing. We will quote the average price of the best tools required for "Our Workshop;" our apprentices will then be able to judge of the qualities and prices offered "by the makers with whom they may be obliged to deal. [A] misconception exists respecting the terms, carpenter, joiner, and cabinet-maker. Strictly speaking, a carpenter is the artisan whose duty it is to lay down floors, build roofs, and make other substantial frame-work, of which many examples may be found in the building trade. A thorough carpenter is a very clever fellow; in fact, he is a scientific man, an engineer in his way. Many of the most eminent builders were carpenters. Half the men who style themselves carpenters and joiners are really only the latter. A joiner begins where the carpenter leaves off. As soon as the roof, flooring, and other heavy work is finished, the joiner comes into the house, and fits the window-frames and sashes, doors, cupboards, shelves, etc., etc., which are essential to make a house habitable. All the fixtures being completed, our friends, the carpenter and joiner, leave the premises to the cabinet-maker, who supplies the furniture, without which we should not feel much tempted to make a prolonged stay in the house, however cleverly his able predecessors had accomplished their allotted tasks. Source: Edmund Routledge,
Routledge's Every Boy's Annual: An Original Miscellany of Entertaining Literature
London : Routledge, Warre & Routledge, 1867, page 37. 196
["196" is a number for paragraph in Goss's classification
schema]. It is the work of the carpenter
to raise and enclose the frame of a building, to construct its floors
and roofs, and to complete all parts which give stability to the
structure ; the joiner makes the doors and
windows, erects the stairs, and provides such interior woodwork as will
finish the building as a habitation. A single mechanic
may perform almost every kind of work required in the construction of a
building, thus eliminating this distinction of trades; but
for convenience in classification, we may imagine the work of the
carpenter and that of the joiner to be quite distinct. Source:
William Freeman Myrick Goss, Bench Work in Wood
,
Boston: Ginn, 1890, page 143. Did Sir Gordon Russell appropriate his ideas in 1964 from the 1959 book by Charles Hayward, cited above in the epochs
section? It's probably something that we'll never know, nor is it that important. At the time, both Russell and Hayward were "giants" in the British circles in which they operated. Russell had (and still does) received deserved kudos as a designer of furniture in the Arts and Crafts tradition. He started in the Cotswolds, the same workplace as Barnsley and other celebrated artisans. If Russell is correct, that "Craftsman seems to be a term that encompasses all of the other terms," he is simply reiterating what is a common understanding. In his
guide to furniture designs, Looking at Furniture
(1964), created for the neophyte and/or jaded connoisseur, the British
furniture designer, Russell, has usefully delineated for us the eras in
which the Carpenter, the Joiner,
the Cabinetmaker, and the Machinist
each flourished in Britian. True, because of America's late start, only
the last two apply in the sense implied by Russell. Sources:W F M Goss, Bench
Work in Wood, 1895, page 143: Paul
Noonan Hasluck, The Handyman's Book,
London: Cassell, 1903; R J DeCristoforo, The
Practical Handbook of Carpentry, New York: Fawcett,
1969; Willis H Wagner's Modern Carpentry
(South Holland, IL: Good heart-Willcox 1976), page 3; Sam Allen, Making
Cabinets and Built-ins: Techniques and Plans New
York: Sterling, 1986, page 9; Richard L. Lemaster, "The Balancing act
of Carbide Tools Selection" Woodshop News
21, 1 December 2006, page 30. Also Oxford English
Dictionary and Webster's New
Dictionary 2d ed. 1952; Edward S. Cooke, "Modern Craft and the American Experience", American Art Volume 21, No 1 Spring 2007 Pages 2-8.)
Another equally interesting account of the etymology of mechanic comes from the American historian Carl Bridenbaugh's Anson G Phelps Lectures, given in 1949, and subsquently published in 1950 as The Colonial Craftsman. (The Colonial Craftsman was later reprinted by Dover in 1990, the edition that I am using for this entry.)
... characterized by use of
tools and the hands, ... [a] manual worker, artisan, and mechanical,
i.e., concerning machines, or relating to machines...
... at or application of
handicraft....
History of these terms
The more deeply you investigate all these terms, the more you become convinced that -- even since ancient times -- the meanings of these terms have been confusing.
Ancient and Biblical Times
Woodworking Epochs
One of the world's oldest artforms, woodworking has prevailed since everyman -- everyman is a term frequently used to designate the ordinary or typical human being -- first attempted to improve his lot on earth by producing objects designed to increase comfort and efficiency in a world sometimes inhospitable, sometimes fearsome, and sometimes dangerous. This everyman improved his everyday lot primarily by fashioning tools and other objects designed to create a means of making life on earth easier to contend with. On the upper left is a chart that sets out woodworking epochs from 1500 to 1900.
All these
periods overlap to some extent and all these Craftsmen
exist today, although the work they are now doing is often very
different from what it was in the past.
1867
1890
1964
Nonetheless,
Russell's definitions are interesting, especially the
Machinist, because it is the impact of the machinist's operations, i.e,
mass produced furniture, that is such a driver of amateur woodworking:
The carpenter, from
earliest times until about 1550. Surviving pieces are naturally rare,
are mediaeval (Gothic) as a rule, and of oak.
The joiner,
from 1550 to 1660. Includes Elizabethan and Jacobean examples, mostly
oak. The cabinetmaker (including
the chairmaker, upholsterer, turner, carver, etc.), from 1660 to 1850.
William and Mary, Queen Anne, Georgian, Regency, and Victorian, using
oak, walnut, mahogany, rosewood, satinwood, and many rare woods as
veneers. All come within his compass and fortunately he survives in our
own age of the machinist (including the
cabinetmaker and others tending to become assemblers of machined
parts), 1850 to date, thus including late Victorian and Edwardian
pieces, using a greatly increased range of woods, mainly in the form of
veneers. (But, of course, there are still small workshops where it is
possible to have a single piece made by hand.)
All these
periods overlap to some extent and all these Craftsmen
exist today, although the work they are now doing is often very
different from what it was in the past.