Wood furniture and wood construction have been used by mankind probably since 10000 years.
In the past, wood was assembled by mechanical assembly such as dovetails, tenon and mortise, tongue and groove, and then the assembly was secured by nails or dowel pins.
Later the Egyptian and others started to use some glues based on animal glues such as gelatin, bone glue, blood glue for furniture, and tar or asphalt as sealants for the boats.
Modern synthetic wood glues started only in the 20 th century with the discovery of phenolic and urea-formaldehyde glues in 1920, of polychloroprene adhesives in the forties, the development of vinyl emulsion glue in the fifties, the polyurethane starting in the fifties, the hot melts in the sixties…
In this chapter, we will study the modern synthetic adhesives, their technical characteristics, the bonding techniques, the machines which are used for bonding and the different application of wood: bonding panels, millwork, laminating, construction, furniture and decoration.
But first, we must spend some time to understand the properties of wood and see how they affect bonding.