Engineering, Technology 

The key to working harmoniously with wood is understanding. The various steps in wood growth, processing, and utilization should be understood by all involved. The woodlot manager must be familiar with the woodworker's needs. The sawyer should know what the wood is intended for, and how best to saw it to suit that purpose. The kiln operator must know the type of wood, how it was sawn, and the end product.

The woodworker can then fashion the wood into boats, sleds, flutes, doors, baskets, chairs, cabinets, candleholders, gunstocks, wagons, tables, looms, cradles, bowls, or ax handles.

Appreciation, too, comes from following through the entire process: from planting a tree, pruning it, watching it grow, cutting it, drying it, shaping and jointing the wood, to finally finishing it. Understanding comes from years of experience and familiarity with a few species.

The worth of a finished object is not necessarily in the wood used, but how well and intelligently it is used. Wood is too precious a resource to be wasted through incompetence.