Woodworking Vs. Carpentry...What is the Distinction to You?

[rudy de haas]

While there are clear occupational definitions in use by schools, unions, and others it seems to me that the practical difference is that carpenters, whether framers or finish guys, are professionals who implement designs originated by someone else where woodworkers are crafters in the old sense of experts who design what they make. Thus the same person can be a carpenter this week and a wood worker the next, but the roles are sufficiently different to justify two designations.

[Jim Dwight]

To me woodworker or woodworking is an all inclusive term. Carpenters build houses (buildings) and do the wood portions of the construction, generally dealing with load bearing and support of structure which may include trim, built in cabinets etc.

Cabinet makers make furniture and cabinets which generally contain more detail and more intricate joinery than what a carpenter would ordinarily use.

There are also artists who create works of art using wood that are neither carpentry nor furniture.

With that said there are individuals with skills in either or all the camps and skill levels that go from extremely rough work to exceptionally fine work they are all still woodworkers.

I agree with this and would have said it if Lee hadn't. Wood working is working with wood. Carpenters work with wood and are therefore woodworkers. I can do carpentry work but I am much slower than the carpenters who frame houses. I am also slower than the finish carpenters who put trim in houses. Not all carpenters who frame houses could make furniture I would want to use, I suspect. But nobody would want to pay me to frame their house (I'd take too long). Carpentry is just a type of woodworking.

[Jason White]

A skilled carpenter who can do everything from framing to finish work and takes a great deal of pride in his or her work is a woodworker. At least in my book. You'd be surprised how much being able to do rough framing and trim work helps you be a better woodworker.

[Brian Hale]

One works with wood, the other works wood

Carpenters have caulk guns

[Pat Barry]

If its got a lot of nails as structural elements, then its carpentry

[Rod Sheridan]

Woodworkers can be anybody. Professionals have to be categorized. Once classified as a professional, only professionals can classify your degree of skill. I really don't see how a guild can classify...

Guilds were the bodies that determined whether you were qualified to call yourself a cabinet maker and work in the area that they had jurisdiction over. ( as well as other trades of course).

As they were the regulatory body who determined who could practice the trade, their judgment of your skills carried legal authority.

regards, Rod.

[jack duren]

One works with wood, the other works wood

Carpenters have caulk guns

Woodworkers use wood putty

Furniture makers use neither

[jack duren]

Guilds were the bodies that determined whether you were qualified to call yourself a cabinet maker and work in the area that they had jurisdiction over. ( as well as other trades of course).

As they were the regulatory body who determined who could practice the trade, their judgment of your skills carried legal authority.

regards, Rod.

You use the word "were" often. I was in the last Cabinet Makers union in Kansas City. Never heard of a "Guild" other than the woodworkers guild which is for hobby woodworking..

[Michael Moscicki]

You use the word "were" often. I was in the last Cabinet Makers union in Kansas City. Never heard of a "Guild" other than the woodworkers guild which is for hobby woodworking..

The term guild stems from the medieval ages. Here is a Wikipedia article with more information:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guild

"A guild is an association of artisans or merchants who control the practice of their craft in a particular town. The earliest types of guild were formed as confraternities of tradesmen. They were organized in a manner something between a professional association, trade union, a cartel, and a secret society. They often depended on grants of letters patent by a monarch or other authority to enforce the flow of trade to their self-employed members, and to retain ownership of tools and the supply of materials. A lasting legacy of traditional guilds are the guildhalls constructed and used as meeting places."

[Rod Sheridan]

You use the word "were" often. I was in the last Cabinet Makers union in Kansas City. Never heard of a "Guild" other than the woodworkers guild which is for hobby woodworking..

Makes sense Jack, you're not old enough and you're in the wrong country :-)

Regards, Rod.

[Michael Dye]

My old pappy had many good sayings that he passed on to me over the years. The best........while working on building a house in Alaska, he hollered at me for taking too long on one particular rafter. "Son, you ain't buildin' a piano". Followed by the fabrication of an elaborate staircase in the same house. "Remember what I said about not building a piano.............forget it". That, to me, summed up the difference between a carpenter and a woodworker. Just my opinion.

[Rich Riddle]

Makes sense Jack, you're not old enough and you're in the wrong country :-)

Regards, Rod.

Wrong country? Our Canadian brothers will be burning inordinate amounts of wood just to stay warm this winter. Rod, some members here don't like to be reminded of their ages. I do recall hearing the word "guild" more often in Europe.

[Charles Palmer]

To me, a carpenter builds and remodels things related to structures (houses, porches, frames rooms, etc...) and a woodworker makes things (tables, sconces, furniture etc...)

I'd almost consider carpentry a trade and woodworking a hobby. I'd love to do both and neither is better - but that's how I'd answer the question...

[Lornie McCullough]

I enjoyed reading this quote from an earlier post:

""As a young finish carpenter starting an apprenticeship in a cabinet shop, I asked the foreman that very same question. I've never forgotten his answer: "If you took everything that a carpenter knows about woodworking and jammed it up the rear end of a flea, it would bounce around like a BB in a boxcar.""

For my part: If I pick up my wormdrive on a job-site I feel like a carpenter. If I pick it up in my cabinet shop, I feel like a woodworker.

Lornie