carpentry Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. Carpenters tr ...

, a reveal is a feature resembling a

rabbet A rabbet (American English) or rebate (British English) is a recess or groove cut into the edge of a piece of machinable material, usually wood. When viewed in cross-section, a rabbet is two-sided and open to the edge or end of the surface in ...

, but constructed of separate pieces of

wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin th ...

. A reveal may typically be seen at the edge of a

door A door is a hinged or otherwise movable barrier that allows ingress (entry) into and egress (exit) from an enclosure. The created opening in the wall is a ''doorway'' or ''portal''. A door's essential and primary purpose is to provide security b ...

window A window is an opening in a wall, door, roof, or vehicle that allows the exchange of light and may also allow the passage of sound and sometimes air. Modern windows are usually glazed or covered in some other transparent or translucent materia ...

, where the face molding is set back, often by a distance from 3/16" (5 mm) to 1/2" (12 mm). (This noun is unrelated to the verb ''reveal'' but is from the obsolete verb revale 'to lower, bring down,' which is related to vale and valley.''American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language'', s.v
reveal
) A "tight reveal" is where the distance to the edge of the casing is kept as small as possible, to give a smoother, more consistent look, often thought to be more contemporary. This is often achieved on a cabinet door by notching out the area of the door where the hinge mounts.

Notes

Woodworking Carpentry {{Woodworking-stub