Woodworking without metal or glue is of course nothing new. Colonial Americans, Japanese woodworkers and even the ancient Egyptians and Chinese developed all kinds of ways to fasten wood together using only the wood itself. Sometimes, we can discover our future in the past.
image/source: The Samurai Carpenter
Using these age old techniques, you can save on the cost of fasteners and expensive power tools.All-wood joints and fasteners allow for the wood to move with seasonal shrinkage and expansion.”I pity the fool who builds stairs with nails! Sorry, I’m just pretty proud of myself for building a set of stairs using only wood joinery.”
Nails and screws hold the wood fast, allowing little movement which eventually cracks the wood around the metal fastener.The movement of the wood, moisture, and the deterioration of glue will eventually loosen any glued wood joint.
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4-When done properly, projects made entirely of wood, can last as long as the wood, which can be more than a thousand years. If you want to build quickly for yourself, use nails, screws, and glue. If you want to build for your children and grandchildren and beyond–you might try using wood-only joinery.
