Furniture is one of the integral elements in all residential and commercial properties. There are different material options for your pieces, though wood and metal are the primary options. The fundamental factor that determines the look and durability of your furniture is its technique of joinery. The creation of joints in furniture involves more than making a seamless transition between two pieces of metal or wood.

Though hard to decipher perfect joinery when buying industrial furniture online, you can still get the best by buying your pieces from a trustworthy dealer. There are different techniques used for joining the metal and wood pieces typical of industrial style furniture. Here are these techniques.

Gluing

This has been the primary mode of joining furniture since the times of early man. Through the years, there have been various innovations in the glue used for joining furniture parts. The one best suited for woodworking is yellow or carpenter’s glue technically known as aliphatic resin emulsion. A small amount of carpenter’s glue is thinly spread over a joint’s surface, then the joint firmly clamped while the glue dries to hold the pieces together.

Pocket Screwing

This joinery technique involves the tight holding of two wooden pieces by a seemingly unseen force. It thus allows the unhindered showcasing of the design details on your furniture pieces. In pocket screwing, a sharp angle of one part is inserted into the grain end of a different piece. Though this joinery technique sounds simple, the angles and measurements involved are detailed and require a high level of expertise.

Biscuits

These are thin oval-shaped chips made from compressed wood shavings. The often used wood type for biscuits is beech. The biscuits fit neatly into the slots cut into the edges of the wood you want to join. Once the glue is applied on the biscuits, they will absorb the glue and swell.  Then, they will generate a secure link between the pieces without a discernible attachment. Biscuits are the ideal choice for joining fine cabinets and table tops where the joints should be completely hidden.

Thermal Joining

This is the choice technique for joining metal pieces. The conventional methods of thermal joining include brazing, soldering, and welding.  Welding uses an electric arc for the melting of metals at the joint to get a permanent joint. In brazing, a filler material will be heated then distributed between at least two parts using capillary action. The filler flows over a base metal and is cooled to join pieces together. In soldering, a filler metal with a lower melting point compared to that of the adjoining metal is used to hold parts together. There is no melting of the metal in soldering unlike in welding.

Professional furniture photographs on websites might fool you into assuming that you are buying the best. It is, however, prudent to check the details of the pieces before committing your cash for something. The above joining methods are some of the crucial specifications that should inform your choice. Remember there are thousands of variations of the above methods. With an expert in wood and metal working, however, the modifications will still work perfectly for your furniture.