Addotta Fine Woodwork!

All the links on this page are free and secure!

I'm Kip Addotta and I approve this message!

Addotta Fine Woodwork for your nicest projects

Addotta Fine Woodwork is owned and operated by Victor Addotta in the Culver City area of Los Angeles, California. Working with wood for over 25 years, Victor has become a highly talented woodworker. His forethought, attention to detail and execution of craft is apparent in all of his work. Victor personally does everything from design and drawings, to the woodwork and installation! You can't find more personal and qualified service. .

Addotta Fine Woodwork is the process of building, making or carving something using wood.

Addotta Fine Woodwork follows traditional woodworking tecneques

Wood was certainly one of the first materials worked by primitive human beings. Indeed, the development of civilization was closely tied to the development of increasingly greater degrees of skill in working these materials.

Among early finds of wooden tools are the worked sticks from Kalambo Falls, Clacton-on-Sea and Lehringen. The spears from Scheningen (Germany) provide some of the first examples of wooden hunting gear. Flint tools were used for carving. Since neolithic times, carved wooden vessels are known, for example from the Linear Pottery culture wells at Keckhofen and Eythra. Examples of Bronze Age wood-carving include trees worked into coffins from northern Germany and Denmark, and wooden folding-chairs. The site of Fellbach-Schmieden in Germany has provided fine examples of wooden animal statues from the Iron Age. Wooden idols from the La Tene period are known from a sanctuary at the source of the Seine in France.

Two ancient civilizations that used woodworking were the Egyptians and the Chinese. Woodworking is depicted in many ancient Egyptian drawings, and some ancient Egyptian furniture (such as chairs) has been preserved in tombs. The metal used by the Egyptians for woodworking tools was probably bronze or even copper, as ironworking was unknown until much later.

The progenitors of Chinese woodworking are considered to be Lu Ban and his wife Lady Yun, from the Spring and Autumn Period. Lu Ban is said to have brought the plane, chalkline, and other tools to China. His teachings are supposedly left behind in the book Lu Ban Jing, "Manuscript of Lu Ban"), although it was written some 1500 years after his death. This book is filled largely with descriptions of dimensions for use in building various items such as flower pots, tables, altars, etc. and also contains extensive instructions concerning Feng Shui, the ancient Chinese practice of geomancy. It mentions almost nothing of the intricate glueless and nailless joinery for which Chinese furniture was so famous.

Addotta Fine Woodwork Terminology

Woodworking, due to its long history, has developed extensive jargon and has preserved many archaic terms that are otherwise out of use.

Applied carving: background which is worked separately and then applied, rather than being worked in place.

Ead: a semicircular piece of moulding.

Bolster: shoulder.

Burl: wood with a convoluted, complex grain, usually taken from cancerous growths on trees.

Cannel, channel: the concavity of a gouge blade.

Chip carving: incised surface decoration, usually geometric.

Chops: a type of vise.

Conversion: reduction of a whole log into pieces suitable for working.

Crook: longitudinal bending to one side, caused by uneven seasoning or grain.

Crotch: the section of a tree where a branch divides from the trunk, or the trunk divides in two; typically an area of convoluted grain.

Crossgrain: working perpendicular to the grain.

Cup: transverse bending, convex or concave, usually predictable, considering grain orientation.

Devil stone: a coarse, hard dressing stone used in sharpening tools, grinders, and other stones.

Dog: a hold-down iron, fitting into a hole in a bench, tightened or loosened by hammer taps, or a peg standing proud of the bench surface.

Dressing stone: a rough sharpening stone usually used on other stones.

Dutchman: a diamond-shaped patch of wood used to repair surface blemishes and knotholes.

End grain: the grain at the end of a piece of wood which is perpendicular to the surface.

Fence: a piece of lath or scrap fixed to the bench surface to prevent movement of the work.

Figure: naturally occurring decorative patterns in wood, usually due to medullary rays.

Firmer: a chisel bevelled on both sides instead of only one.

Fishtail chisel or gouge: a chisel or gouge with a splayed end.

Flat gouge: a gouge with minimal curvature, used for finishing and smoothing.

Flitch: a board in which the round of the trunk is still visible, a rough-cut board.

Flute: a deep channel cut in wood; occasionally denotes the cannel of a gouge.

Foxing: a yellow-brown discoloration of wood due to fungal infection.

Fretsaw: a saw with a very fine toothed blade used for delicate cuts in thin material.

Frosting: regular indented patterns created with a special-purpose punch called a froster.

Grain: the longitudinal fibers in wood.

Green: unseasoned wood.

Hardwood: wood from an angiosperm tree, i.e. a tree in the division Magnoliophyta;

Despite the name, not necessarily very hard or dense wood (e.g. balsa is a hardwood)

Heart shake: a shake radiating out from the heartwood.

Heel: the corner of a chisel, knife, or gouge bevel which meets the back of the blade and polishes the cut.

Hollow grinding: a concave bevel on a chisel, gouge, or knife.

Incannel: the concave surface of a gouge; a gouge sharpened on the concave surface interlocked grain: grain which has multiple longitudinal directions in alternating layers, typical of many tropical hardwoods, and very difficult to work and to produce smooth surfaces.

Outcannel: the convex surface of a gouge; a gouge sharpened on the convex surface quarter-sawn: describes a plank with growth rings perpendicular to the wider face (see picture)

Reed: a series of beads in a row.

Riffler: a paddle-shaped rasp.

Ring shake: a shake occurring between annual rings

Saw rasp: a rasp with saw teeth.

Scorp: a drawknife with a curved, sometimes completely circular blade.

Scraper: a flat blade with a burred edge used for smoothing.

Scroll saw: a motorized fretsaw.

Seasoning: reducing the moisture content of wood before working to prevent cracking, splitting, and other damage due to drying.

Shake: a crack or split in wood, caused by damage or drying slab-cut: describes a plank with growth rings roughly parallel to the wider face (see picture)

Slip: a shaped stone used for sharpening non-flat blades such as on gouges.

Snib: a wooden toggle used to hold the work on a table.

Softwood: wood from a gymnosperm tree, i.e. trees in the divisions Pinophyta and Ginkgophyta; Despite the name, not necessarily very soft or light wood (e.g. douglas-fir is a softwood)

Spalting: a change in the texture, strength and color of wood caused by colonies of fungus growing within the dead wood. Where colonies of fungus meet, fine black lines - often considered a desirable feature, can be seen.

Split: to longitudinally separate wood along grain layers.

Sweep: the curvature of a gouge, ranging from flat (little curvature, but not actually flat else it would be a chisel) to deep or quick.

Tear out: small flakes and rough patches on interlocked grain in wood, usually left by tools cutting againist the grain.

Twist: longitudinal twisting of wood due to uneven seasoning or grain undercutting: cutting away from an edge to increase the sense of relief or thinness.

veiner: a small deep gouge.

Veneer (wood): very thin slices of wood used for inlay or to cover surfaces.

Wane: an edge of a sawn board where the bark or surface of the trunk remains.

Wasting: quickly removing wood during carving, usually with an adze, knife, or rasp.

Waste: wood that will be removed in the finished work, often retained during working as a handle.

Much of the content on this page was obtained from the Wikipedia, which is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License