Carpentry

building · skilled trade · wood work · construction

Cutting and shaping. Carpenters use tools to carefully cut and shape building materials, especially wood, and then install them to create structures like houses, furniture, and ships.

First and last on site. Carpenters are usually the first workers to arrive on a construction job and the last ones to leave, because they do both the framing that starts a building and the finishing details at the end.

Learning through apprenticeships. To become a carpenter, you typically spend about four years as an apprentice learning from experienced carpenters while working on real jobs, then pass a competence test.

Timber framing tradition. Long ago, carpenters built buildings using a method called post-and-beam construction, which is now called timber framing and is considered an old-fashioned but impressive carpentry skill.

Many materials today. While carpenters traditionally worked only with natural wood, modern carpenters also work with many other materials and sometimes do fine work like cabinetmaking and furniture building.