Woodwork Merit Badge
Woodwork
Merit Badge
Scouting America Merit Badge Hub
Scouting America
Merit Badge Hub
Woodwork Merit Badge Overview
Wood is an amazingly versatile, practical, yet beautiful material. A skilled craftsman can use wood to fashion just about anything. As a woodworker or carpenter, you will find no end of useful, valuable, and fun items you can make yourself, from wood.
Woodwork Merit Badge Requirements
The previous version of the Merit Badge requirements can be found in Scoutbook
The requirements will be fed dynamically using the scout book integration
NOTE: The official merit badge pamphlets are now free and downloadable HERE or can be purchased at the Scout Shop.
1.
Do the following:
- (a) Explain to your counselor the most likely hazards you may encounter while participating in woodwork activities, and what you should do to anticipate, help prevent, mitigate, and respond to these hazards. Explain what precautions you should take to safely use your tools.
- (b) Show that you know first aid for injuries that could occur while woodworking, including splinters, scratches, cuts, severe bleeding, and shock. Tell what precautions must be taken to help prevent loss of eyesight or hearing, and explain why and when it is necessary to use a dust mask.
- (c) Earn the Totin' Chip recognition.
2.
Do the following:
- (a) Describe how timber is grown, harvested, and milled. Tell how lumber is cured, seasoned, graded, and sized.
- (b) Collect and label blocks of six kinds of wood useful in woodworking. Describe the chief qualities of each. Give the best uses of each.
3.
Do the following:
- (a) Show the proper care, use, and storage of all working tools and equipment that you own or use at home or school.
- (b) Sharpen correctly the cutting edges of two different tools.
4.
Using a saw, plane, hammer, brace, and bit, make something useful of wood. Cut parts from lumber that you have squared and measured from working drawings.
5.
Create your own woodworking project. Begin by making
working drawings, list the materials you will need to complete your project, and then build your project. Keep track of the time you spend and the cost of the materials.
6.
Do TWO of the following:
- (a) Make working drawings of a project needing beveled or rounded edges and build it.
- (b) Make working drawings of a project needing curved or incised cuttings and build it.
- (c) Make working drawings of a project needing miter, dowel, or mortise and tenon joints and build it.
- (d) Make a cabinet, box, or something else with a door or lid fastened with inset hinges.
- (e) Help make wooden toys for underprivileged children; OR help carry out a woodworking service project approved by your counselor for a charitable organization.
7.
Talk with a cabinetmaker or finish carpenter. Learn about training, apprenticeships, career opportunities, work conditions, work hours, pay rates, and union organization that woodworking experts have in your area.
Get the Woodwork Merit Badge Pamphlet
Merit Badge Pamphlets are now free and publicly available. Note: Always check www.scouting.org/skills/merit-badges/all/ for the latest requirements.
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Discover more about "Woodwork"
Sometimes, a Scout earns a merit badge and discovers a new hobby.
But every so often, the opposite happens: The hobby comes first, and the Scout discovers there’s a merit badge to match.
During her freshman year at Fremd High School in Palatine, Ill., Abby Pollpeter registered for an elective that sounded interesting: Intro to Woodworking.
But because of COVID, the class was mostly taught through a computer screen. Abby was able to schedule a time to visit the school’s wood shop after hours, but something was missing.
“Hands-on experiences allow you to fully experience the topic and idea, allowing you to understand and remember it more,” she says. “Online just tells it to you, and you don’t do anything to ingrain it into your mind.”
By the time the class was complete, Abby’s woodworking skills were beginning to take root. But she was stumped about where to continue her lessons.
That’s when the lightbulb was lit.
“When I found out there was a Woodwork merit badge, I was excited,” Abby says. “It seemed like a good option to build more.”
Many teenagers have their own room. Luke Thill has his own house.
The 14-year-old Life Scout from Dubuque, Iowa, raised $1,500 performing odd jobs for neighbors and used a mix of reclaimed and purchased materials to build his own 89-square-foot tiny house in his parents’ backyard. The process took nearly two years.
Luke says Scouting gave him both the leadership skills and craftsmanship needed to complete the process.
“All the merit badges helped — Personal Management, Woodwork, Welding, Public Speaking, Communication,” Luke told me by phone. “All that kind of stuff plays a role.”
The project has made Luke something of a celebrity both in the burgeoning tiny house community and beyond.
He has nearly 45,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel, and his story has been featured by ABC News, Country Living magazine and many local media outlets.
