Wood working is the process of tampering with wood, taking it to form different shapes and items for human consumption such as furniture and toys. The art of wood working has been used since ancient times along with the utilization of clay, stones and animal parts. The earliest humans have used wooden sticks to make spears, flints and carved vessels. In the Neolithic era, wooden pottery was widely used. Around the time of Bronze Age, wood carving on coffins and chairs became common. Ever since then, wood has been processed in various forms to make beautiful gear used by humans for various purposes.

With the changing time, modern technology has been deployed in all walks of life. This has brought on a change in the wood work industry too. Computer Numeric Controlled Machines have been developed aiding wood workers to produce large amounts of items in much less time with as less waste as possible. The designs are complex more than ever and have a fineness of a human hand. Hand crafted wooden items are still high in demand, but due to labor intensive time, is much cheaper than those produced by Computer Numeric Controlled Machines (Killen, 1994).

Handcrafted wood work is by far the most expensive and most neat. Despite the preciseness of a computer aided machines, the correctness and finesse of the human hand is unmatched. Wood working is a long sequential process that eventually leads to a masterpiece. Wood working has various steps, the first being the inception of an idea. As soon as the artist has an idea, concept drawings are made. The drawings are made in several stages, with each stage alterations, additions or deletions may be seen till a final draft is perfectly formed. The final product needs not only cutting and joining of parts but also the cleaning, polishing and fine tuning of each of the pieces (Frid, 1979).

 The artist needs to understand whether while making a furniture piece or a toy that the item needs to be sturdy, strong and durable. The item needs to follow certain parameters so the human kind may benefit from it. For example in case of furniture it needs to be optimized in such a way that its dimension is a perfect fit for a body. Moreover, the furniture needs to be able to bear heavy weighs. It must be stable when being under use and must be durable for long use purposes. The furniture must be made in such a way that it does not slip (Editors, 2015).

The toys too are made in the same fashion. Toys may include something handy which may be used by children while holding in hand. This includes cars, toys and small wooden pieces for painting. Toy may be of a wooden board game nature and even a Lego sort of toy. The nature of the toy entirely depends on the artist creating it. It is important to know that wooden toys are not suitable for toddlers due to hardness since it may injure them (Process, 2015).

Free Woodworking Plans

In accordance to the type of item being created from the wood, the material needs to be adjusted. The material will be chosen depending on the use of the item and the domain it will serve. If the item is of merely one time use purpose, the quality used may be substandard. While if a bed is to be formed, the wood quality needs to be high so customer does not face any trouble. The wood work process needs to pass a certain quality assessment if the company is of a good quality, the assurance certificate must be presented to the customer at time of purchase (Frid, 1979).

• References

  Editors, P. (2015). Furniture Design by Foot, Hand & Eye. Popular Woodworking Magazine. Retrieved 12 December 2015, from http://www.popularwoodworking.com/article/designing-by-foot-hand-eye-2

  Frid, T. (1979). Tage Frid teaches woodworking. Newtown, Conn.: Taunton Press.

  Killen, G. (1994). Egyptian woodworking and furniture. Princes Risborough: Shire.

  Process, S. (2015). Steps in the Woodworking Process - For Dummies. Dummies.com. Retrieved 12 December 2015, from http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/steps-in-the-woodworking-process.html