Chapter 1
The global forest of ancient builders
Chapter 2
The secret language of wood
Chapter 3
Master joinery and the physics of strength
Chapter 4
The toolbox and the modern maker
YOUR GOAL
Master of The cosmic puzzle of carpentry
Ch 1 · The global forest of ancient builders
artiteacher The Visingsö Oak Forest
Planted for ships, / turned into steel, / before they could sail!
artiteacher To assemble giant twelfth-century timber roofs on-site, European carpenters marked curved oak beams with unique Roman numeral carpenter's
artiteacher Hands slide a complex, gravity-defying wooden joint together in a warm workshop.
Fun Fact
Ancient wooden structures: The Horyu-ji temple in Japan has survived over 1,400 years of earthquakes using flexible interlocking wood joints.
Glossary
timber (noun)
Wood prepared for use in building and carpentry. In Zambia's Kalambo Falls, archaeologists discovered the oldest known structural timber, dating back 476,000 years.
Wood prepared for use in building and carpentry. In Zambia's Kalambo Falls, archaeologists discovered the oldest known structural timber, dating back 476,000 years.
Quiz
What did medieval European carpenters use to mark timber beams for on-site assembly?
Quiz
Which type of tree was most commonly used in medieval European cruck framing for its natural curves?
Quiz
What tool did Haida and Coast Salish carpenters historically use to shape massive red cedar longhouses?
Quiz
Which Japanese temple, built in 607 CE, is the world's oldest surviving wooden structure?
Quiz
Why do the interlocking joints of traditional Japanese wooden architecture help buildings survive earthquakes?
Quiz
How did the joints of the ancient Egyptian Khufu ship make the hull watertight without nails?
Quiz
How did Indigenous woodworkers of the Pacific Northwest historically harvest cedar wood without killing the trees?
Quiz
What material did ancient Egyptian shipbuilders use to build the Khufu ship around 2500 BCE?