JOINERY. This name is given to the handicraft of joining pieces of wood together, for the interior fittings of buildings, for making articles of furniture, and for numerous pur poses reqniring, greater neatness of workman ship than the operations of the carpenter. As carpentry and joinery are in many cases carried on in the same establishment, and even by the same workmen, it would be difficult accurately to define the limits of these two kindred arts. The proper object of carpenter's work in a building is to give firmness and stability to the structure ; and within its proper range may be embraced all the rough timber-work necessary for the support, division, or connection of the several parts of a building. Carpentry thus includes the construction of the framing of floors, partitions, and roofs. Joinery has for its object the addition of all the fixed wood work necessary for convenience or ornament.
Cabinet-making, or that department of wood work which relates to the making of furniture, has little affinity with joinery, although the same materials and tools are employed in both descriptions of work. The line of de ruarcation, however, between joinery and cabinet-making seems to be even more diffi cult to define than that between carpentry and joinery ; and, with the exception of such matters its veneering and polishing, which relate only to the use of the harder and more valuable woods, the operations of the cabinet-maker and the joiner are nearly identical, the same means being adopted by both for the production of heat and strong joints, and for evading the injurious effects of shrinkage and warping in the material ope rated upon. A few details on these subjects will be found under CARPENTRY ; FURNI TURE MANUFACTURE.