183 – Advanced Joinery With Darrell Peart and William Ng

Note: This video was recorded in 2009 and was released to Wood Whisperer Guild members. The new structure of the Guild doesn’t really allow for videos on random topics such as this so I am posting it here on the free site. I’ll be releasing numerous videos like this over the next few months. This will be deja vu for long-time Guild members but brand new to everyone else. Enjoy!

As you progress along your woodworking journey, it will become clear that joinery can mean much more than a simple mortise and tenon. When you start to dig a little deeper, you find out that various exotic and mind-boggling joints have been in use for centuries. While some are really good for nothing more than impressing your woodworking friends, some actually serve their intended purpose in amazingly clever ways.

During a trip to the William Ng School in Anaheim, CA, I had the chance to take a joinery tour with both Greene & Greene furniture expert Darrell Peart and the owner of the school William Ng himself. Darrell takes us through various Greene & Greene joints and embellishments including faux ebony splines, ebony plugs, leg indent details, the Blacker Arm Chair parallelogram legs, and bolection inlay. William shows us the Chinese Three-Way Miter, the Bird’s Beak Joint, the Gooseneck Joint, and a Locking Scarf Joint. William then shows us a plant stand he’s working on that incorporates some of these advanced joints.

Every year, William teaches a class on advanced joinery and you can sign up for that on his website: WNWoodworkingSchool.com. And you can learn more from Darrell Peart on his website, FurnitureMaker.com.