a lot of you been asking for this so today is
part one of covering the absolute basics in both woodworking and carpentry terminology not only
will today's video cover the terms but i'll also intertwine some tools as well because it plays
such a huge part in understanding the terminology now if i zoom out a bit on the video
and hover over the timeline below you can see that it's actually broken up into
four major sections lumber plywood measuring and marking which is a combined section and hand tools
now i've laid this video out in this way to make it easier for you to navigate around especially
in the future when you need a quick refresher one of the most important groups of terms to
learn right out of the gate is to learn about the material in which you'll be using to build
all your stuff so for the purpose of this video both lumber or wood will refer to construction
material material that's used to build houses and material that's used to
build furniture so with that let's dive into learning about some of
the basic terms used for lumber or wood in its raw's form wood can be broken up into two
categories hardwoods and soft woods hardwoods come from deciduous trees that is trees that drop
their leaves like oak cherry or maple so the poplar i have here is considered a hardwood but
by no means is this actually hard like maple so why is it a hardwood simply because it came from a
tree that drops its leaves another important thing to know about hardwoods is that they grow slower
and the wood fibers are more dense making the wood much stronger soft softwoods on the other hand
come from conifer trees trees like pine fur cedar and of course they have needles and not
leaves softwood trees grow faster and produce wood that is less dense and in general weaker than
hardwood rough cut lumber rgh is lumber that is well rough and in most cases you can still see
the saw marks from the mill rough lumber is sold by the quarter inch in its thickness and its
width can vary just depending on what's available in your area for example a four quarter board
measures around one inch thick a six quarter inch and a half an eight quarter two inches and
twelve quarter three inches lumber like this can be used for rustic projects or it could be sized
down by using a jointer and a planer for furniture moving on the term face is used to describe
the large flat part of the board while the edge is used to describe the smaller edge of the board
end grain refers to the end of the board where the end of the grain is most visible grain or grain
pattern is a visual look that the grain makes as it runs through the board it's what makes wood
so beautiful once the lumber does get sized down it's called dressed lumber that is lumber that has
been sized and shaped and smoothed to a nice flat surface for example s4s which stands for surfaced
on four sides is lumber that is found at most big box stores it's dimensioned and finished on four
sides ready to use there's also s2s lumber which is surfaced on two sides both faces are planed but
as you can see the edges are still raw and rough dimensional lumber is lumber that is sized
to a standard final dimension like framing lumber like a two by four two by six or two by
eight and it also refers to a one by four or one by six and so on but don't be tricked with
these numbers because dimensional lumber is sold using its rough size not its actual size so for
example when you buy a two by four at the store it doesn't measure two inches by four inches but
measures an inch and a half by three and a half inches and a one by four doesn't measure one
inch by four inch but measures three quarters of an inch by three and a half inches most often
the lumber that we've been discussing has been kiln dried meaning that it's been put inside of a
kiln a kiln is basically a big oven to reduce the moisture content of the lumber wood that is wet
will eventually dry out and shrink on its own but by using a kiln that does it in a more controlled
environment that's slower producing a much better product at the end however in the carpentry world
there is a product called pt lumber or pressure treated lumber which is really wet this lumber
is treated with chemicals that resist rot and insects which makes it a great choice for outdoor
projects no matter what wood you buy there are six common defects to look out for number one is a cup
a cup is when the board or the lumber is curved up in this direction on the face of the wood number
two is a twist a twist is when the board twists this way and one end in the opposite direction in
the other number three is a crook a crook is when the board or lumber bends to the right or to the
left in the direction of the edge of the material number four is a bow a bow is similar to a crook
but this time the board bends in the direction of the face five is a check a check is when the board
or lumber has a crack but the crack doesn't go all the way through the thickness of the material
and number six similar to a check the split is when the crack goes all the way through the
material plywood is a man-made wood product that is made from multiple layers or plies of thin wood
veneer these veneers are then glued together at 90 degree angles to each other to produce a flat
large stable sheet of material plywood is often graded by its surface and how many plies it has
so for example the fewer the plies the weaker the plywood or the less stable it is the more plies it
has the more stable it is the stronger it is for example this half inch construction grade plywood
has four plies sold in four by eight sheets and has a pretty rough surface even after it's
been sanded the next type to look at is finished plywood finished plywood has one or two outside
thin veneers oftentimes hardwood that produces a really good smooth surface for example this
sheet of finished plywood came from home depot and it has two thin outer veneers of birch and
five interior plies for a total of seven plies the last type of plywood to look at
is baltic birch and here in the u.s baltic birch might be the highest level or quality
of plywood that you can buy for example this piece of 13 millimeter or three quarter inch here in the
united states has two thin outside veneers and 11 interior plies for a total of 13 plies making
this a very strong and very stable material all plywood no matter what it is comes in multiple
thicknesses so just know that the examples that i just showed you is just the tip of the iceberg of
what's out there the first term to explore here is the term square in carpentry and woodworking it
refers to checking the squareness of the faces edges or the ends of boards it also refers to
checking if something you're building has equal diagonal measurements which verifies that it is
indeed square the term square is also used to label a group of tools that are specifically
designed to mark and check for squareness let's look at four of them the first is a
precision square these squares are made out of metal with little to no moving parts that's
what makes them so precise the second is the speed square this tool is used mainly in carpentry
but it also can be used in woodworking as well third is the combination square this tool is great
at so many things around the shop and it provides very accurate angles and it can be used to set and
measure depth as well lastly is the framing square the framing square is used for well you guessed
it for framing houses and it's also really good at checking cabinets for square before nailing the
next term or tool to look at is a sliding bevel sliding bevels are great for laying out different
angles or for transferring those angles from one piece to another a straight edge refers to any
straight material used to mark measure or cut straight lines so for example here i have two
metal straight edges that are great for small layout tasks and small projects and here i have a
larger straight edge that can actually be clamped to something like plywood to help cut a straight
line now when it comes to measuring larger items the metal tape measure is a good choice and
as you can see it comes in different sizes and different shapes when it comes to actually making
the marks a good old number two pencil works great so does a carpenter's pencil and when you're
working with rough lumber these white charcoal pencils work fantastic too the last term i want
to cover in this section is the term layout layout simply means to measure mark and arrange all the
needed components to complete a project this term can also be used as a verb so for example someone
might say i'm going to go and lay out that window let's start this section off by talking about
handsaws handsaws is a general term and can be used to describe many different types of saws the
first type is what i'll call a traditional saw these are the classic looking handsaws that most
people can easily recognize nowadays these saws come in all different shapes and sizes and most of
them though still cut on the push stroke meaning that they cut mostly in the forward direction next
are pool saws also known as japanese saws they are absolutely fantastic saws great for control
flexibility and require less effort because they cut on the pull stroke the last saw to look at is
the back saw the back saw again is a general term it's used to describe any saw that has a stiffened
rib along the back of the saw this rib greatly reduces any flexing that the blade may encounter
while in use because the less flex the straighter the cut let's shift gears real quick and talk
about two terms as it pertains to cutting wood the first term is kerf the curve of the blade is
how wide the blade is and ultimately how wide of a cut it leaves behind in the wood the second term
is off cut the offcut is any piece of material that you don't want or the waste after the cut is
finished the offcut isn't necessarily always waste though it may simply mean the piece that you're
not intending to use after the cut is complete all right let's finish this video off by talking about
a few terms and tools used for shaping wood first up is the wood chisel there are many different
sizes and shapes available and they're all great tools for shaping wood next is the hand plane
hand planes again is a general term so for example i have a block plane here that is used to shape
edges of stock and to remove material where needed the other plane i have is a jack plane and as you
can see it's much larger than the previous one and this one's great for general purpose planning and
for shaping and flattening one term that's used often around things that need sharpen like
chisels and planes is the word hone hone simply means to sharpen something the last
tip we're going to look at today is this the wood rasp wood rasps like all tools come in
many different sizes and shapes but they're all great for quickly roughing out and shaping edges
and the faces of stock well that does it for part one next week in part two we're going to be
covering power tools types of cuts types of trim and molding and window and cabinet parts i hope
this video has been helpful for you thank you so much for watching and subscribing to the channel
i look forward to seeing everybody next week bye
