In joinery

Woodworking joints

Joinery is a part of woodworking that involves joining together pieces of wood, to create furniture, structures, toys, and other items. Some wood joints employ fasteners, bindings, or adhesives, while others use only wood elements. The characteristics of wooden joints - strength, flexibility,...

, a groove is a slot or trench cut into a member which runs parallel to the grain. A groove is thus differentiated from a dado

Dado (joinery)

A dado , housing or trench is a slot or trench cut into the surface of a piece of machinable material, usually wood. When viewed in cross-section, a dado has three sides...

, which runs across the grain.

Grooves are used for a range of purposes in cabinet making

Cabinet making

Cabinet making is the practice of using various woodworking skills to create cabinets, shelving and furniture.Cabinet making involves techniques such as creating appropriate joints, dados, bevels, chamfers and shelving systems, the use of finishing tools such as routers to create decorative...

 and other woodworking

Woodworking

Woodworking is the process of building, making or carving something using wood.-History:Along with stone, mud, and animal parts, wood was one of the first materials worked by early humans. Microwear analysis of the Mousterian stone tools used by the Neanderthals show that many were used to work wood...

 fields. Typically, a groove is used to house the panels in frame and panel

Frame and panel

Frame and panel construction is a woodworking technique often used in the making of doors, wainscoting, and other decorative features for cabinets, furniture, and homes...

 construction and the bottoms of drawers. For more structural construction, grooves are created along the sides and/or ends of panels, such as in tongue and groove

Tongue and groove

A strong joint, the tongue and groove joint is widely used for re-entrant angles. The effect of wood shrinkage is concealed when the joint is beaded or otherwise moulded...

 construction. Applications include roofing, siding and flooring.

A groove may be through, meaning that it passes all the way through the surface and its ends are open, or stopped, meaning that one or both of the ends finish before the groove meets edge of the surface.

Methods

A groove can be cut by the following methods:

• electric router
  Wood router
  A router is a tool used to rout out an area in the face of a relatively hard workpiece, typically of wood or plastic. The main application of routers is in woodworking, especially cabinetry....
  
   using a straight or rebate bit
• circular saw
  Circular saw
  The circular saw is a machine using a toothed metal cutting disc or blade. The term is also loosely used for the blade itself. The blade is a tool for cutting wood or other materials and may be hand-held or table-mounted. It can also be used to make narrow slots...
  
   with multiple passes (depending on width and depth)
• dado set
  Dado set
  A dado set or dado blade is a type of circular saw blade, usually used with a table saw or radial arm saw, which is used to cut dadoes or grooves in woodworking.There are two common kinds of dado sets....
  
   in a single pass
• spindle moulder (wood shaper)
• hand saw
  Hand saw
  In woodworking and carpentry, hand saws, also known as "panel saws", "fish saws", are used to cut pieces of wood into different shapes. This is usually done in order to join the pieces together and create a wooden object. They usually operate by having a series of sharp points of some substance...
  
   and chisel
  Chisel
  A chisel is a tool with a characteristically shaped cutting edge of blade on its end, for carving or cutting a hard material such as wood, stone, or metal. The handle and blade of some types of chisel are made of metal or wood with a sharp edge in it.In use, the chisel is forced into the material...
  
  
• router plane

See also

• Dado (joinery)
  Dado (joinery)
  A dado , housing or trench is a slot or trench cut into the surface of a piece of machinable material, usually wood. When viewed in cross-section, a dado has three sides...
  
  
• Tongue and groove
  Tongue and groove
  A strong joint, the tongue and groove joint is widely used for re-entrant angles. The effect of wood shrinkage is concealed when the joint is beaded or otherwise moulded...
  
  
• Groove (disambiguation)