Welcome

Daedalus working on his most famous
invention, the wings glued with beeswax.

fabricam materiariam Daedalus et in ea serram, asciam, perpendiculum, terebram, glutinum, ichthyocollam; normam autem et libellam et tornum et clavem Theodorus Samius, mensuras et pondera Phidon Argivus aut Palamedes, ut maluit Gellius. (Plinius Maior, Naturalis Historia, 7.198)

"The craft of carpentry has been discovered by Daedalus, and to perform it, he invented the saw, the adze, the plumb-line, the gimlet, the glue and the fish-glue; yet the try square, the level, the lathe and the key were invented by Theodorus of Samos; measures and weights by Phidon of Argos or by Palamedes, as Gellius preferred to say."


With his usual brevity, Pliny informs us about the current opinion in the Greco-Roman world about the origin of carpentry, namely that it had been invented by the most gifted craftsman of the mythological universe, Daedalus.

This blog will deal with furniture-making and with the pleasure of persuading wood into shapes that are not just useful, but also easy on the eye. This being a beginning, I thought it appropriate to put not only this blog, but my whole adventure into the world of woodworking under the benevolent guidance of this great civilising hero.