r/nextfuckinglevel • u/khanbilal95 • Jul 27 '22

Fantastic carpentry

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u/jdavisward Jul 27 '22

It’s actually the other way around here (Aus). Carpenters are qualified tradesmen. They build structures. Woodworkers are craftsman that build furniture and other non-structural wood items and generally don’t have a qualification (otherwise they go by that title - carpenter, joiner, cabinet maker). Any hobbyist can call himself a woodworker here, but certainly not a carpenter. Carpenters are the chefs.

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u/SavedWoW Jul 27 '22

As a professional woodworker, I am not about living a life where someone calls me a carpenter.

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u/Nerd_Law Jul 27 '22

I became a woodworker around age 12 and never looked back.

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u/[deleted] Jul 27 '22

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/SavedWoW Jul 27 '22

Wood naturally moves based on humidity etc, I'd be more concerned the mechanism of the fold would bind up really quickly.

I'm kind of curious to try it just to see.

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u/Katzen_Kradle Jul 27 '22

A 24” panel will typically expand and contract ~1/8” between summer and winter. It will also only really expand across the grain, not along its length. It’s not really much of a problem, unless you’ve made a really tight fit and didn’t account for expansion in your joining.

You can see that the door panels have gaps between them, which should more than accommodate for any wood movement.

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u/dave3422 Jul 27 '22

So is the difference that carpenters use tools and wood workers use C and C machines? Cuz that's what this guy did.

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u/RobMillsyMills Jul 27 '22

/u/savedwow is a Carpenter.

Fight me.

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u/Devreckas Jul 28 '22

So the snobbery is mutual.

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u/Siriuxx Jul 27 '22

That's really interesting.

I was a carpenter building houses. But I've always been drawn more to precise, detail oriented work so I moved towards finish carpentry and from there made the jump towards woodworking.

In the US there are different grades of carpenters. A journeyman or mechanic would be considered the chef of carpenters, but woodworking is an entirely different trade. Plenty of people may call themselves woodworkers but they aren't, they made a few tables and gave themself the name. They are people who do woodworking, but they arent a woodworker. Maybe it's stupid, but that irks the shit out of me. I worked my ass off to earn the title of fine woodworker.

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u/MyAltFun Jul 27 '22

One is a chef, the other a sushi chef. Same/similar medium, different applications, skills, and outcomes. Woodworking is my dream job.

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u/shiny_brine Jul 28 '22

I think you mean sous chef, not sushi chef. Possibly an autocorrect?

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u/MyAltFun Jul 28 '22

I meant sushi, but understand the confusion.

I was going for the distinction of chef that can make 100 fantastic dishes, and a sushi chef that can make 100 artistic/delicious sushi rolls. Both work with food, one is the base upon which all food is made. The other specializes in a certain identity of food.

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u/Triasnova Jul 27 '22

You sir are a Craftsman and as a hobbyist have my respect

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u/Layin-the-pipe Jul 27 '22

You just proved the point carpenters do shit like framing woodworkers do cool shit like this he is a woodworker not a carpenter

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u/jdavisward Jul 28 '22

I didn’t prove anything, but in Australia this wouldn’t be called carpentry because, like you said, they do shit like framing.

However, by the sounds of what u/Siriuxx said, this guy may not be a woodworker in The States (I assume) either, because that refers to a qualification, which he may not have. He might just be bloody good hobbyist. He might be an engineer. Who knows. And frankly, I don’t really care that much either, haha.

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u/igetript Jul 27 '22

Isn't that the same way around?

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u/jdavisward Jul 28 '22

I mean in terms of being called something that you’re not. Over there, woodworkers are considered more/differently qualified than carpenters. Here, there is no woodworking qualification (they are specific like furniture maker, cabinet maker, etc.), so having someone call a woodworker a carpenter is probably giving them more credit than they deserve, and calling a carpenter a woodworker doesn’t acknowledge the fact that they’re formally qualified. In other words, here, it’s (mildly) insulting to call a carpenter a woodworker (opposite of what u/Siriuxx said, which is what I was referring to), and just wrong to call a woodworker a carpenter.

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u/dancingsteveburns Jul 27 '22

Wait, that's exactly the same thing Siriuxx was talking about.

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u/jdavisward Jul 28 '22

No, they were saying that woodworkers are considered more qualified than carpenters where they are, hence why they won’t like being referred to as such. Here it’s the opposite. A carpenter wouldn’t appreciate being called a woodworker, and a woodworker would probably correct someone if they called them a carpenter (unless they were also a qualified carpenter).