Winding sticks are one of the essential woodworking tools for furniture making, and one of the first projects the students make at Rowden Atelier, whether on a 50 week course, or here for one of our short woodworking courses.
Winding sticks help you to determine if there is twist in a board of timber. You can see if there is twist by sighting from the top corners of the front stick to the inlaid rectangles on the back stick. This is an essential woodworking tool, designed to ensure that the pieces of timber you are working with are truly flat, so that you can continue to work on your projects, making pieces of furniture to the highest standard with dead tight fitting joints and smooth action piston fit drawers.
For our students this project teaches several key skills at the earliest stage – inlaying and sanding without blending the ebony into the sycamore, honing and learning to check for flatness regularly – all of which are vital when making bespoke fine furniture.
