I was very fortunate to recently catch wind of Carpenters from Europe and Beyond, an incredibly valuable traditional carpentry resource from France’s Ministry of Culture. The website is host to a wealth of information about the history of carpentry, the people who honed the craft, and videos of modern day traditional carpenters continuing to work by hand, especially in the timber framing tradition.

Included are profiles of some historical and modern day carpenters, a wealth of information about the classic toolbox of a carpenter working by hand, and several dozen videos with carpenters demonstrating their skill. (Not to be missed is the Japanese master carpenter squaring off a log — barefoot!)

Awesome.

This website came to me at a good time, since I and my sub-community here at Dancing Rabbit plan to build our kitchen mostly by hand, using some of these same techniques. The frame will be roundwood post and beam, assembled by hand as much as possible. I personally have little experience working with wood, but this website has given me a good background on some of the history.