Every woodworking failure can be traced backward. The drawer that binds. The door that won't close. The joint that gaps on one side. Follow the chain of cause and effect far enough, and you'll often arrive at the same origin point: stock that wasn't actually flat, square, or parallel when you thought it was.

Stock preparation isn't the exciting part of woodworking. It's the part you want to rush through to get to joinery and assembly. But James Krenov understood something essential—the quality of finished work is determined long before the finish goes on. It's determined in these early, unglamorous steps where you establish the reference surfaces everything else depends upon.

The sequence matters. The verification matters. The patience matters. Get this foundation right, and subsequent operations become almost automatic. Get it wrong, and you'll spend the rest of the project fighting problems you created in the first hour.

The face-edge-face-edge-ends sequence isn't arbitrary tradition. It's a logical chain where each step creates the reference for the next. Understanding why this order matters reveals why shortcuts inevitably fail.

Your first face goes through the jointer to create one flat surface. This becomes your reference for everything. When you run it through the planer, that flat face rides on the bed while the machine creates a parallel second face. The jointed face must be truly flat—any cup, twist, or bow gets transferred to the opposite face as the planer simply copies the distance from your reference.

Next comes the first edge, jointed with your reference face against the fence. This creates a surface that's both straight and square to your reference face. Now you have two surfaces at 90 degrees to each other. The table saw, with fence set parallel to the blade, uses this jointed edge as reference to create a parallel opposite edge.

Finally, the ends. You crosscut with a reference face down on the sled and a reference edge against the fence. Each cut depends on what came before. Skip the face jointing, and nothing afterward can be trusted. Joint an edge before establishing a flat face, and you've created a square relationship to a surface that doesn't exist. The sequence builds certainty upon certainty—or compounds error upon error.

Takeaway

Each step in stock preparation creates the reference for the next step. Shortcuts don't save time—they generate problems that multiply through every subsequent operation.

Your machines are only as accurate as their setup. A jointer that's not coplanar, a planer with worn feed rollers, a table saw fence that's not parallel—these create systematic errors that affect every board you process.

For the jointer, coplanarity between infeed and outfeed tables is paramount. Use a reliable straightedge spanning both tables with the cutterhead at rest. Any gap means the tables aren't aligned. The outfeed table should be exactly level with the knives at top dead center—too low creates a slight concave cut, too high causes snipe at the end of the board. Check this with a straightedge resting on the outfeed table; it should just kiss the knife edge at the apex of rotation.

Planer setup focuses on feed roller pressure and bed condition. Excessive pressure from feed rollers can compress soft areas of wood during the cut, which spring back afterward and create an uneven surface. The bed must be waxed and clean—any debris creates high spots that affect the cut. Measure your actual thickness at multiple points across the width; if readings vary, your bed or knives need attention.

The table saw fence requires parallel alignment to the blade, verified with a dial indicator or careful measurement. A fence angled toward the blade creates burning and kickback risk; angled away causes the cut edge to drift. Set the fence parallel to the blade's teeth, not the blade body, and verify this relationship periodically. A few thousandths of misalignment might seem insignificant, but it compounds across the width of every board you rip.

Takeaway

Machine accuracy is a system, not a setting. Regular verification of jointer coplanarity, planer bed condition, and fence alignment prevents systematic errors that affect every piece of stock you prepare.

Trust but verify. Actually, just verify. Your eyes will lie to you, and your hands aren't sensitive enough to detect the errors that matter. Systematic checking at each stage catches problems while they're still fixable.

For flatness, winding sticks reveal twist that's invisible to casual inspection. Two parallel sticks placed at each end of the board, sighted across their tops, make any twist dramatically visible. Even a few degrees of rotation becomes obvious. Check for cup and bow with a straightedge across the width and along the length. Do this after each face is surfaced—wood moves as you remove material, and the face that was flat before jointing might not stay flat after planing.

Square checking requires a reliable engineer's square, not a framing square. Press the stock against the fence and body of the square, then look for light gaps. Check both ends of jointed edges and at multiple points along the length. Also verify that your square is actually square—check it against the same surface with the square flipped. Any error doubles and becomes visible.

For parallel, calipers or a dial indicator at multiple points tell the truth. Take readings at both ends and in the center, both across the width and along the length. Variations indicate planer issues, inconsistent feed pressure, or wood that moved after surfacing. Record your findings. When boards measure 13/16" at one end and 25/32" at the other, you've found a problem worth solving before it becomes a joint that won't close.

Takeaway

Verification isn't optional perfectionism—it's how you catch errors while they're still local problems instead of project-wide catastrophes. The thirty seconds spent checking each surface pays dividends for hours.

Stock preparation is where craftsmanship begins. Not in the dramatic moments of cutting dovetails or applying finish, but in these foundational steps that nobody sees in the finished piece.

The sequence creates a chain of reliable references. The machine setup ensures those references are accurate. The verification confirms you've achieved what you intended. Together, they transform rough lumber into the precise, predictable material that quality work demands.

Rushing this process is borrowing against your future self. Every minute saved here generates multiple minutes of frustration later—fitting, adjusting, compensating for errors baked in at the start. The project that assembles cleanly, with joints that close and surfaces that meet, was won long before assembly began.