Face, edge, thickness, width, length has gotten complicated with all the YouTube tutorials and woodworking forums flying around. As someone who has milled thousands of board feet from rough stock over twenty years, I learned everything there is to know about squaring lumber. Today, I will share it all with you.
Rough lumber becomes precision stock through a specific sequence of operations. Skip a step or rearrange the order, and you will chase errors throughout your entire project. This sequence was refined by generations of woodworkers for a reason. Follow it exactly.
Step One: Reference Face
Nothing else works until you have one perfectly flat surface. This reference face becomes the foundation for every subsequent operation. Every measurement and every machine setup refers back to this surface.
On the jointer, take light passes until the entire face shows fresh cut marks from end to end. Run your hand across it and feel for humps or hollows. The surface must be flat in length, flat in width, and free of twist. I use winding sticks on longer boards because my hands are not sensitive enough to catch a half-degree of twist over four feet. Mark this face clearly with a triangle pointing toward the reference edge. You never want to lose track of which surface is your reference once you move to the next step.
Step Two: Reference Edge
With the reference face pressed tight against the jointer fence, create a perfectly straight edge at 90 degrees to the face. This gives you your second reference surface and establishes the board in two planes.
Check the result with a reliable engineer’s square. The edge must be perpendicular to the face along its entire length. Any deviation here multiplies through every piece you cut from this board. I have seen a single degree of error at this stage turn into visible gaps in a panel glue-up six steps later.
Mark this edge with the second leg of your triangle symbol. The face and edge markings together tell you how to orient the board for every future operation.
Step Three: Thickness
The planer creates the second face parallel to your reference face. Run the board with the reference face riding on the planer bed. The cutterhead machines the rough top surface into a plane parallel to the bottom.
Probably should have led with this section, honestly, because this is where most beginners make their biggest mistake. Do not try to reach final thickness in one pass. Take off a sixteenth per pass for clean results. Aggressive cuts cause snipe at the board ends and leave rougher surfaces that need more sanding later.
The planer does not flatten. It only creates a surface parallel to whatever rides on the bed. Any remaining bow or twist in your reference face gets copied directly to the opposite face. That is why Step One has to be done right before you even think about the planer.
Step Four: Width
With thickness locked in, rip the board to final width on the table saw. Run the reference edge against the fence, placing waste on the outside of the blade. Your reference edge stays intact while you establish the final width.
The freshly sawn edge may show blade marks or sit fractionally out of square. One light cleanup pass on the jointer fixes it. Keep that pass minimal so you do not significantly reduce your target dimension. I aim for about a thirty-second oversize on the rip cut, then joint it flush.
Step Five: Length
Length comes last for a reason most people overlook: crosscuts release internal stress. A board that was perfectly straight after ripping may spring or bow once you crosscut it shorter. By cutting length last, any stress relief happens after all the critical dimensions are locked in.
Use a miter saw or crosscut sled for square ends. The reference edge runs against the fence, ensuring the cut is perpendicular to your established surfaces. Verify squareness with a combination square on both faces, not just one.
Why This Order Matters
That’s what makes this sequence endearing to us woodworkers who have tried every shortcut — each step builds a reference for the next. Trying to establish width before thickness gives you a board of precise width but unknown thickness. Crosscutting before ripping might leave you with a piece too narrow after the rip cut straightens a bowed edge.
Experienced woodworkers follow this sequence without thinking about it. If you are still learning, consciously work through each step and verify the result before proceeding. The discipline becomes habit, and the habit produces consistently accurate stock every single time.
Batch Processing
When dimensioning multiple boards for a project, process all of them through each step before moving to the next. Face every board, then edge every board, then thickness them all at once. This reduces machine setup changes and ensures consistency across matching pieces. I learned this the hard way after planing eight drawer sides one at a time and ending up with three different thicknesses because I kept adjusting the planer between boards.
Good projects start with square, flat, dimensioned stock. The joinery comes later, but every joint depends entirely on this preparatory work. Invest the time here and your joints will fit on the first attempt.
