Design versus joinery

[Ken Fitzgerald]

What came first...the chicken or the egg........the overall design or the joinery?

When you design something, how much does joinery effect the design?

2ndly......is there a definitive joinery book you'd recommend?

3rdly.......Is there a definitive cabinetry book you'd recommend. I'm starting to plan/design cabinets for my new shop.

[Keith Christopher]

What came first...the chicken or the egg........the overall design or the joinery?

For me design. I usually figure out joinery as I go.

When you design something, how much does joinery effect the design?

It does somewhat I don't design japanese style because I haven't really studied their joinery styles.

2ndly......is there a definitive joinery book you'd recommend?

I love the taunton joinery book, VERY fundamental, and if I want to read about a more daunting joinery technique I go for a specific book on that style.

3rdly.......Is there a definitive cabinetry book you'd recommend. I'm starting to plan/design cabinets for my new shop.

Gosh, there are so many, I love the basic cabinet construction book from Taunton, but there are so many I usually pick a style book from time to time (A&C or Shaker for example. )


Keith

[Mark Singer]

Tage Frid Reaches Woodworking 1 and 2

Tautons "Joinery" Rogowski

Sam Allen "Joinery"

They are all good.
Once I have the broad strokes of a design....the shape, height. leg form etc. I sketch the joinery of each connection and consider if they will be "blind" or "expressed" to compliment the piece

Krenov's cabinets are really worth looking at...timelesss and delicate they express the cabinetmakers highest art form and are buidable for most woodworkers of moderate to higher skill. Some are more difficult of course.

[Jamie Buxton]

It varies for me. In some pieces I focus first on the design, and the construction details follow. Those pieces tend to be ones with pretty conventional design, so I'm pretty sure I can build the thing without thinking very hard about the joinery. In more unusual pieces -- the kind I like to design -- I generally must think about some aspects of the construction at the same time as I'm thinking about design. For instance, deciding I want big curves leads me to consider how to make them -- bent lamination, sawn, or whatever. These approaches have different structural characteristics as well as different construction difficulties. Those practical issues need to feed into the design consideration. Or, for another instance, dining chairs are so much of a trade-off among appearance, construction, and strength, that I find I must think about them simultaneously.

[Hank Walczak]

I liked "The Complete Book of Wood Joinery" by R.J. DeCristoforo
IBSN 0-8069-9950-0

Covers every type and when one is better served than others. How to, etc. Lots of pics & drawings.

[Jim Becker]

I think that joinery is and integral part of the design; sometimes invisible and sometimes featured. The design also dicates joinery for strength, too. A chair is a good example where you need to design the joinery in that provides the best accomodation for the unique stressed that each component faces.