The first of three books designed to meet the needs of students engaged on a course of study in carpentry and joinery. Together, the three volumes cover the content of the City and Guilds of London Institute craft certificate course in carpentry and joinery (course numer 585). Procedures described in the practical sections of the text have been chosen because they follow safe working principles. The aim of the book is to supplement school or college-based work of a theoretical and practical nature, its presentation is such that it should also prove invaluable to students studying by correspondence course (distance learning) and to mature students who in earlier years may perhaps have overlooked the all-important basic principles of our craft.