Create a big carving from smaller boards

Originally titled “Stacking” in Fine Woodworking #5—Winter 1976

The technique of stacking, by which layers of boards are glued together and carved to make furniture, was virtually unknown [decades] ago. Today it is part of the vocabulary of many professional furniture makers. Stacking makes possible the most arresting of contemporary designs. It is high­ technology work, depending upon modern adhesives, clamps, and power machinery.

Methods similar to stacking were used as early as medieval times, when sculptors occasionally glued baulks of wood together to build a block large enough to carve. Since carousel horses have been carved from laminated blocks of wood, with the legs and head attached by traditional joinery. Modern stacked furniture, however, relies on carefully preplanning the cross sections of the form at each elevation, and cutting the wood very near to the finished…