The Power of Frame and Panel Joinery

This partially assembled door shows its tell-tale components: the mortise-and-tenon joints, with a panel groove running along the stile.

Master these skills and you can build anything.

My first how-to woodworking forays in the late 1970s were badly aimed. Starting out by reading about cabinetmaking, I was in way over my head. Wood selection, grain orientation, bookmatching; so much of what I was reading was aimed at advanced woodworkers. But I was a beginner. I backed up somehow and started learning about cutting the joints. The dovetail ruled supreme at the time. It was as if it was a marker for quality.

Life often throws us curveballs, mine was the onslaught of “green woodworking” books by Drew Langsner, Jennie Alexander and Roy Underhill. These books (and people) saved my woodworking career. I segued into chairmaking and other pursuits based on stock riven or…