Carpenter in 1952: The truss plate industrializes the roof

Entry has kept the same shape for most of recorded history: a young person learns beside someone who already knows, and gets paid to do it. Today that means a three-to-four-year apprenticeship — union programs in North America, the dual system in German-speaking Europe, TAFE training contracts in Australia — ending in a journeyman's examination. No university degree is required anywhere, which makes carpentry one of the last well-paid professions whose classroom is a building site.

This page follows the trade from the Khufu ship's 4,500-year-old joints and the temple carpenters of Nara to balloon framing, the Skilsaw and today's cross-laminated timber towers. It covers how people actually become carpenters in different countries, what the work does to a body over decades, the know-how masters pass down, eight lives worth studying, and an honest accounting of which parts of the job factories and machines are already taking.

Do you need a license or qualification to work as a carpenter? It depends on the country. Germany and Austria regulate the trade through chambers of crafts, and training apprentices there requires a Meister title. The UK requires competence cards (CSCS) on most commercial sites. Canada's Red Seal is voluntary but widely expected. In much of the United States, carpenters themselves are unlicensed — only contractors need state licenses — so standards are set by unions and employers instead.