Joinery / Joints

A joint is the point or area where two or more members of a structure meet plus the adhesive material, if any, employed to bind them together. Joints in masonry consisted of the arrangement of stone or brick either laid without mortar to form a dry stone structure or bound together with mortar to form a solid masonry mass. The strength and endurance of a masonry structure depended on the quality of the material, its bond, and the quality of the mortar used to fill the joints and bind individual bricks and stones together. The terminology of masonry construction was generally adapted to revetment materials (sand-bags, fascines, and such) that could be laid in courses used in the construction of field fortifications.

Joinery is the craft of using the various types of joints to bind the members of a frame together. In most cases the soundness of a structure depends on the strength of the materials used to construct it, the arrangement of the materials, and the strength of the joints used to bind the materials together. A sound joint bound the joined members together without allowing them to shift, slide, sag, or move in any way that would threaten the soundness of the frame as whole. Wood framing used in both field and permanent fortifications generally required simple, but very strong, joints that could be formed with a minimum of labor and refinement.

January, 2003