Carpentry

Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. Carpenters traditionally worked with natural wood and did the rougher work such as framing, but today many other materials are also used and sometimes the finer trades of cabinetmaking and furniture building are considered carpentry. In the United States, 98.5% of carpenters are male, and it was the fourth most male-dominated occupation in the country in 1999. In 2006 in the United States, there were about 1.5 million carpentry positions. Carpenters are usually the first tradesmen on a job and the last to leave. Carpenters normally framed post-and-beam buildings until the end of the 19th century; now this old fashioned carpentry is called timber framing. Carpenters learn this trade by being employed through an apprenticeship training—normally 4 years—and qualify by successfully completing that country's competence test in places such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia and South Africa. It is also common that the skill can be learned by gaining work experience other than a formal training program, which may be the case in many places. Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. Carpenters traditionally worked with natural wood and did the rougher work such as framing, but today many other materials are also used and sometimes the finer trades of cabinetmaking and furniture building are considered carpentry. In the United States, 98.5% of carpenters are male, and it was the fourth most male-dominated occupation in the country in 1999. In 2006 in the United States, there were about 1.5 million carpentry positions. Carpenters are usually the first tradesmen on a job and the last to leave. Carpenters normally framed post-and-beam buildings until the end of the 19th century; now this old fashioned carpentry is called timber framing. Carpenters learn this trade by being employed through an apprenticeship training—normally 4 years—and qualify by successfully completing that country's competence test in places such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia and South Africa. It is also common that the skill can be learned by gaining work experience other than a formal training program, which may be the case in many places. The word 'carpenter' is the English rendering of the Old French word carpentier (later, charpentier) which is derived from the Latin carpentarius , '(maker) of a carriage. The Middle English and Scots word (in the sense of 'builder') was wright (from the Old English wryhta, cognate with work), which could be used in compound forms such as wheelwright or boatwright. In the UK, carpentry is more correctly used to describe the skill involved in first fixing of timber items, such as construction of roofs, floors and timber framed buildings, i.e., those areas of construction that are normally hidden in a finished building. An easy way to envisage this is that first fix work is all that is done before plastering takes place. Second fix is done after plastering takes place. Second fix work, the construction of items such as skirting boards, architraves, and doors also comes under carpentry. Carpentry is also used to construct the formwork into which concrete is poured during the building of structures such as roads and highway overpasses. In the UK, the skill of making timber formwork for poured, or in situ, concrete, is referred to as shuttering. Carpentry in the United States is historically defined similarly to the United Kingdom as the 'heavier and stronger' work distinguished from a joiner '...who does lighter and more ornamental work than that of a carpenter...' although the '...work of a carpenter and joiner are often combined.' Joiner is less common than the terms finish carpenter or cabinetmaker. The terms housewright and barnwright were used historically, now occasionally used by carpenters who work using traditional methods and materials. Someone who builds custom concrete formwork is a form carpenter. Wood is one of mankind's oldest building materials. The ability to shape wood improved with technological advances from the stone age to the bronze age to the iron age. Some of the oldest archaeological evidence of carpentry are water well casings built using split oak timbers with mortise and tenon and notched corners excavated in eastern Germany dating from about 7,000 years ago in the early neolithic period. Relatively little information about carpentry is available from pre-history (before written language) or even recent centuries because the knowledge and skills were passed down person to person, rarely in writing, until the printing press was invented in the 15th century and builders began regularly publishing guides and pattern books in the 18th and 19th centuries. The oldest surviving complete architectural text is Vitruvius' ten books collectively titled De architectura, which discuss some carpentry. Some of the oldest surviving wooden buildings in the world are temples in China such as the Nanchan Temple built in 782, the Greensted Church, parts of which are from the 11th century, and the stave churches in Norway from the 12th and 13th centuries. By the beginning of the Ming dynasty, emperor Taizu categorized people into different occupations. At this time, all the carpenters throughout the state were registered by the imperial court, and the occupation remained strictly hereditary, according to the notes from historian Klaas Ruitenbeek. In later times of the Ming dynasty, roughly in the 1560s, however, people broke such restrictions, and the path into the occupation in the case of the carpentry became less fixed. Although the restriction regarding the path into the occupation dissolved in later times of the Ming dynasty, approximately starting from 1450s. The Lu Ban Jing (鲁班经) was named after the Chinese patriarch of carpenter, Lu Ban. Lu Ban lived in the Zhou dynasty, 2,500 years from modern day and nearly 2,000 years from the beginning of the Ming dynasty. Although the Lu Ban Jing was entitled as the classic of Lu Ban, it was compiled during the Ming dynasty. One interesting fact about the Lu Ban Jing is that it included a detailed biography of Lu Ban and his wife Lady Yun(云氏). According to the biography, Lady Yun was 'blessed with heavenly skills' and she could produce products with higher quality than those produced by Lu Ban. Being a carpenter requires a set of techniques, especially for the household carpenters. From the first to the last day of the construction, sometimes even long before the beginning of construction, carpenters must treated their work with a lot of care. With their meticulousness and perseverance, their products were so sophisticated that it appeals to the untrained peoples as impossible. Moreover, in Ming times, people believed that certain behaviors bring good or bad fortunes, and the carpenters were responsible for helping their customer to make decisions. Questions like when to build the house, and which direction should the house face toward were among some of the most frequently asked. As a result, the techniques were both practical and metaphysical, include accurate calculation, using proper tools, avoiding ominous actions, singing for good fortunes, and choosing ideal locations for houses.Interestingly is that the carpenters in China will sing prayer songs for their customer to pray for good fortune. The good fortunes involve a series of good things, including wealth, reputation, social ranking, and the sustainability of families. Historian Ronald Knapp recorded one of them in his book China's Living Houses: The Phoenix does not light where there are no treasures. Today it perches at the end of the ridgepole. With one swing of my axe, the house will be solid forever. Ten thousand years solid, then thousand years prosperous, riches and position, a Number One family (凤凰不落无宝地，今日落在脊口里。我将钢斧一摇，一斧打的万年牢。万年牢万年发，富贵荣华头一家).