carving video

Well, I got “Hultman’d” the other day…
for those who don’t know what this means, it refers to Kari Hultman, whose blog “The Village Carpenter” http://villagecarpenter.blogspot.com/ is a regular stop for countless woodworkers. I finally met Kari at the Woodworking in America conference in Valley Forge where she shot & edited a video of one of my presentations there… then she posted it on her website, and I asked if I could stick it here too. she said yes.

thanks for the video work, Kari.

 

nails, not clamps

nails secure chest panel for carving

While I was demonstrating carving panels at Woodworking in America, I used a few different bench arrangements. It has been a while since I worked with bench dogs and vices; and for the stlye & method of carving I do, I am now re-convinced that my method of holding the stock to the bench works better than vices & dogs. this carving results in some pounding on the panel, which can bounce loose from dogs, clamps, etc. I managed to work with each bench OK, but back at my shop, when I put the panel down on the bench, it stays put.

I nail ‘em down. Over the years, I have taken to nailing the oak panels to a pine board, and then fastening that board to the bench with 2 holdfasts. They stay down.

nails & holdfasts secure panel for carving

BUT, this is not just some whacky method of mine – it’s based on period evidence. I have found only one snippet of writing from 17th-century England about carving; John Evelyn in his book Sylva (1664) mentions that

“And yet even the greenest Timber is sometimes desirable for such as Carve and Turn…”  (‘This extract from John Evelyn’s Sylva is from the © text by Guy de la Bédoyère. 1995 and used with permission’.)

 

While that quote will work its way into a discussion about moisture content, it has nothing to do with techniques used in the period shop. For that, we turn to the surviving objects, to see if they have any evidence, and they do.  Here is a panel carved in Dedham, Massachusetts, showing the nail holes around its edges. there’s at least four holes, probably 5… (each corner, and one in a long side)

carved panel, Dedham, MA c. 1640-1680

Next, I look for this technique in other works, just to be sure it’s not an abberation exclusive to one shop. So here are nail holes in panels from the Lakes District in England:

nail holes in cupboard door panel, 1691

I tend to make my panels extra long, and position the nails holes in the waste piece that gets trimmed before fitting the panel…which presumably many joiners did. But now & then I find panels that show nail holes like those above. I leave the nails proud, so I can pull them easily when done. These are fairly stout wrought nails, so tapered square shanks that grab well…

PS: I FORGOT ONE IMPORTANT DETAIL. WHEN I BORE THE HOLES IN THE PANEL FOR THE NAILS, I ANGLE THEM SO THE NAILS PINCH THE PANEL DOWN TO THE PINE BOARD. THIS REDUCES THE CHANCE OF THE PANEL WORKING ITSELF LOOSE DURING CARVING.

 

home again

I returned the other day from the Woodworking in America conference in Valley Forge, PA. It was quite a time; met lots of people, saw many interesting tools & techniques. “Such a long, long time to be gone, & a short time to be there…” To demonstrate to woodworkers makes things so much easier than my usual day job.  

I had only done a couple of woodworking seminar/conference type presentations before. This one went very well, I thought. Best move was having Roy Underhill be the dinner speaker. He keeps your attention to say the least.

I took almost no pictures; except for a few of the old molding planes Larry Williams & Don McConnell brought…

molding planes

 Right now, I am in the midst of a couple of days off, hence walking the beach instead of being in the shop.

 

perfect morning at Plymouth beach

So I will get back to posts tomorrow or so…meanwhile, the woodsy part of the web will have plenty of coverage, judging by what is already out there. So I’ll step aside from that. If you want to see a piece that I had a hand in, see this link to a hatchet/handsaw head-to-head. To paraphrase the Bobby Fuller Four, “I fought the saw, & the saw won…”

http://villagecarpenter.blogspot.com/2009/10/hatchetman-vs-blade.html

 Thanks to Kari for the viddie…

 

some reference material for seventeenth-century furniture studies

Folks who attended some of my carving demonstrations at the Woodworking in American conference this past weekend asked about reference materials, most were interested in images of carvings, etc.  They are quite scattered, but here’s a bunch. Most are out of print, some are on the web, but I can’t stand looking at books that way…

 Overall, my favorite book on joined furniture of the period is :

•  Victor Chinnery, Oak Furniture: The British Tradition, (Suffolk, Eng.: the Antique Collector’s Club, 1979)

half-a-pile of books

 

 Next up would probably be New England Begins, but it’s got more than just furniture in it.

• Jonathan L. Fairbanks and Robert F. Trent, eds., New England Begins: The Seventeenth-Century 3 vols. (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1982)

 A first-rate new book on early N.E. furniture is the catalog of the collection at the Met. This is a really good one.

•  Frances Gruber Safford.  American Furniture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Vol.1. Early Colonial Period:  The Seventeenth-Century and William and Mary Styles.  (New York:  Metropolitan Museum of Art; New Haven and London:  Yale University Press, 2007)  
• another favorite is an auction catalog from Sotheby’s in London: the Clive Sherwood Collection, Olympia, London: 22 May 2002. All color, almost 300 pages.

 A bunch of oldies. The starting point in many cases. Libraries might still have them, but some of my copies are library castoffs…

 

another half-a-pile of books

• Luke Vincent Lockwood, Colonial Furniture in America (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1901)
• Luke Vincent Lockwood, Colonial Furniture in America, 3^rd edition (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1926)
• Clair Franklin Luther, The Hadley Chest (Hartford, Connecticut: The Case, Lockwood & Brainard Company, 1935) 
•  Irving Whitall Lyon, The Colonial Furniture of New England (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1891)
• Irving P. Lyon, series of six articles, “The Oak Furniture of Ipswich, Massachusetts” that originally appeared in Antiques in 1937-38. These are all collected in Robert F. Trent, ed., Pilgrim Century Furniture: An Historical Survey (New York: Main Street/Universe Books, 1976) pp. 55-78. 
• Wallace Nutting, Furniture of the Pilgrim Century (Boston: Marshall Jones, 1921) 
• Wallace Nutting, Furniture Treasury (Framingham, Massachusetts: Old America Company, 1928) 2 vols. 
• Margaret Jourdain,  English Decoration and Furniture, of the Early Renaissance, 1500-1650,  (London: BT Batsford LTD, Scribners, NY, 1924)
• John Weymouth Hurrell, Measured Drawings of Old English Oak Furniture (New York: Dover Publications, 1983) reprint of a 1902 book originally published by B. T. Batsford in London.

 Some of the rest of the modern stuff is well worth having. Some are books, some are articles.

•  Gerald W. R. Ward, American Case Furniture in the Mabel Brady Garvan and Other Collections at Yale University (New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Art Gallery, 1988)
•  Patricia E. Kane, Furniture of the New Haven Colony: The Seventeenth-Century Style (New Haven, Connecticut: New Haven Historical Society, 1993)
• Joshua W. Lane and Donald P. White III, The Woodworkers of Windsor: A Connecticut Community of Craftsmen and Their World, 1635-1715 (Deerfield, MA: Historic Deerfield, Inc., 2003)
• Joshua W. Lane and Donald P. White III, “Fashioning Furniture and Framing Community: Woodworkers and the Rise of a Connecticut River Valley Town” in American Furniture, ed., Luke Beckerdite, (Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England for the Chipstone Foundation, 2005) pp. 146-238
•  Robert Blair St. George, “Style and Structure in the Joinery of Dedham and Medfield, Massachusetts, 1635-1685” in Ian M. G. Quimby, editor, American Furniture and Its Makers  (Chicago: University of Chicago Press for the Winterthur Museum, 1979) pp. 1-46
• Robert Blair St. George, The Wrought Covenant: Source Material for the Study of Craftsmen and Community in Southeastern New England 1620-1700, (Brockton, Massachusetts: Fuller Art Museum, 1979)
• Many of the volumes of Chipstone Foundation’s American Furniture edited by Luke Beckerdite (1993-present) have articles about 17^th-c stuff. Many are online, but there are photos not shown on the web versions. Better to buy the issues you want. Check for the indices on www.chipstone.org  Off the top of my head, 1996, 97, 98, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2005. There might be more.  I think if someone is interested in furniture, it would be better to just have them all…
• Likewise, join the Regional Furniture Society (http://www.regionalfurnituresociety.com/  ) and then buy their back issues going back to 1987….

I know there’s more in the closet, but the kids are asleep, so I am not going to root around in there…

 

seventeenth-century textures & moldings

tear-out

a short note right now. Recent posts about moldings, etc brought up the issue of “tear-out” from planing. This chest is one Alexander & I saw some years ago at Colonial Williamsburg. It has been restored, but much of its original surface is left undisturbed. Notice the torn surface on the panel here that then has applied moldings fitted to it. This tear-out is original; nobody adds this texture to a period piece in restoration, it’s usually the opposite. This amount of tear-out is more than we are accustomed to seeing, especially on the face of the furniture. It can be attributed to a few factors; high moisture content of the wood, dull plane, or a wide mouth on the plane. Often it’s a combination of all of these. The timber itself does not appear to be at the root of the tear-out, it seems to be nice even grained riven oak.

the method we have finally settled on over the years is to split & plane the stock while it’s very green, but to come back to the boards after a short period of drying & plane the face again, lightly. This gets the bulk of the hard work done while the wood is easy to work; but a few passes with a sharp plane after the surface has lost some moisture gets a smoother surface than that seen here…the trick is how much drying time, how to measure the “right” moisture content, etc. It’s a little like Goldilocks & the 3 bears…

moldings detail

Here is more tear-out; same chest -this time on the applied flat stock between the molded sections. This piece is walnut. Note the moldings; the one on our left and the upper one are original, the right-hand one is replaced. I can’t decide about the bottom molding, I mostly think it’s  replaced as well.

 

molding planes, documentary evidence

molding detail, Plymouth Colony chest

The previous post in this series showed photos of moldings on surviving seventeenth-century woodwork. Now  I will present some evidence of molding planes in probate inventories and elsewhere.

And here a quick note. This topic is getting huge. I will cover some of how I cut moldings in a future post; I have done some of that in the blog before. Search for “scratch stock” for a partial discussion. Alexander asked me about drawings as well. Another discussion, another post. 

Now to the written record.  

William Carpenter, Sr. died in Plymouth Colony in 1659. He had a great many tools listed in his probate inventory, and among them were these planes:

  “three Joynters 3 hand plaines one fore plain  10s”                                                

“Rabbeting plaines and hollowing plaines and one plow att ₤1”                                

 So, that does not tell us much; he’s got a few jointer planes, one fore plane, and rabbets and hollows, but who knows how many of these? Also one plow plane, and three “hand” planes. Hmmm.

 In Essex County, Massachusetts, George Cole died in 1675, and left many tools. Planes listed in Cole’s inventory are:

 “2 goynters & foreplaine 6s, 3 smothing plains & a draing knife 3s6d, 2 plans & 2 revolvong plains 10s,  4 round plains 5s, 3 rabet plains 4s,  3 holou plains 3s6d,  9 Cresing plains 10s6d,  3 plaine irons & 3 bits 1s6d,  1 bench hooks, 2 yoyet irons 1s”

 So here it’s some phonetics employed to work out “goynter” as being the jointer planes. Fore plane, smoothing plane – simple. “Revolving” plane? The round planes go with the hollows (holou) of course. “Cresing” planes are thought to be molding planes, particularly those that make a molding on the face of the stock, set in from the edge. “Yoyet” irons? Who is to know? W.L. Goodman’s article, “Tools and Equipment of the Early Settlers in the New World” (EAIA Chronicle, v.29 #3, Sept 1976) discusses this inventory, among many others. Goodman speculates that the “revolving” is just a mis-reading of grooving planes.

 In Malden in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Abraham Hill, Sr, died in 1669/70. He has a great many tools as well, much like George Cole above. Again, I have only excerpted the planes, with a few things counted in among them.

“5 old small axes, 1 hay spade, 1 small iron crow, old iron, 1 Joynter, 2 foreplaines, 2 small foreplaines, 4 smoothing plaines, 2 small planes for gun stockes,   4 boulting plaines, 2 plow plaines to grove & tennant, 1£11s6d”

 ”4 Rabbet plaines,  2 Bevell plaines, 3 great crest plaines, 2 small crests 9s, 1 great plow stock & 12 other plaine stocks al without Irons – 1 small plow plaine & Iron, 4 wood squares 8s, 1 stock shave, 1 drawing knife, 1 spook shave 2 stock percers, & 2 gages etc  2 Inch & 1/2 Augurs & 1 inch & 1/2 & 1 inch & 4 under inch & Ry bitt 17s”

Some of the standard joiners’ planes appear again & again. Jointers, fore planes, smoothing planes/smooth planes, and plow planes. But here’s a few new ones; “bolting” planes, “bevel” planes, and “crest” planes. I think the “2 plow plaines to grove & tenant” could perhaps be a pair of tongue & groove planes. Are the “crest” planes just creasing planes again, or are they dedicated molding planes for a cornice?

 The Goodman article cited above discusses a “bowtle” plane and a “Cadgment” plane, seen in an English apprenticeship contract. Here’s Goodman’s quote:

 “Before the introduction of Italian names for moulded profiles, some time later in the seventeenth century, English masons (see Moxon, p. 267) and woodworkers used two types of molding: the “boltel” or “bowtell,” for projecting moldings such as beads or ovolos, and the “casement” or cove, later known as the scotia.”

molding details, cabinet Salem, MA c. 1680

 

 

Another term sometimes used for running moldings is “imbow” – seen here in this contract from Boston, 1685:

“Articles of Agreement Indented concluded the [blank] Day of Decemb anno Dom One Thousand Six hundred Eighty and ffive Between John White of Boston in New England joynor on the one part and Arthur Tanner of Boston afforesd marriner on the other part are as ffolloweth Imp[rimi]s The s[ai]d William [John?] White for the considerations herein exprest doth Covenant promise bind and oblige himself his heires estate and adm[inistrator]s to doe and performe all Such joynors worke in and upon the Ship Which william Greenough is now building for the sd Tanner on the Stocks in Sd Greenoughs Building yard as is herein mentioned & expressed.

 

vizt:

 

To Plane and rabbit the upright of the Sterne

To Plane and rabbitt all necessaryes for the Territts

To Plane the great cabbin Deck

To make a Bulkhead & doors to that cabbin

With two Close cabbins & settlebed with turn’d ballasters and a Table in three parts with a Cupboard & all Lockers convenient with Shutters for the light and to ceile it after the best manner

To Imbow [i.e., run a molding upon] all railes that shall be placed on sd Ship with a ffife-raile

To Ceile [ceiling; a synonym for joining] the roundhouse & make in it two Cabbins and a Table with Lockers, and too lights wth Shutters to them

To plane the Bulkeheads & make a table on the Quarter Deck: and Chaire & binacle with Hen Coops convenient

To Plane the planks in the Steeridge & round the beames & to make foure hanging Cabbins and a binnacle will one Close Locker will a Lock to the Same

To make foure close Cabbins between decks & a Saile room wth a grateing bulkehead for the gun roome & to round the beames

To Plaine the Bulk head of the Steeridge & the Innboard plank along the side to make all such Gangways the master sees meet.

To plane all Gunwales & round house & bulk head of the forecastle & to make in the forecastle two Cabbins and Two Lockers & to plane the planks of the Beakc hedd All which abovementioned worke with what more Joynors work fill for sd Ship & not herein mentioned is to be done and finished to the masters content and in good and workemanlike order in every respect by the ffifteenth day of may next ensuing the day of the date hereof if required. 

 (from Benno M. Forman, American Seating Furniture 1630-1730, (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1988) p. 43.

And here is the list of molding planes from Randle Holme’s Academy of Armory (1688):

“The Moulding Plains, are for the working off of several sorts of Moulding works, which Plains have names according to their several Operations; as
The Hallow Plain.
The Round, or Half Round Plain.
The Belection Plain.
The O-gee Plain.
The Back O-gee Plain. The Cornish Plain.”

For those of you who are familiar with Joseph Moxon’s work on the manual trades; Randle Holme’s is well worth seeing also. It has been discussed here & there on this blog; but the best thing to do is to get the CD which features his manuscript drawings from which the engravings were made. The scope of his book is huge; but it includes many woodworking crafts, as well as the other trades too.

Randle Holme on CD:  N. W. Alcock and Nancy Cox, Living and Working in Seventeenth-Century England: An Encyclopedia of Drawings and Descriptions from Randle Holme’s original manuscripts for The Academy of Armory (1688) (London: The British Library, 2000)

 

Now this post is long enough. More to come…

molding details, Plymouth Colony chest

 

some 17th-century moldings; pt 1

mortise & tenon, w integral mitered molding, 1691

Last week I posted some photos of a wainscot chair I made. In that note, I mentioned that I had no idea what the crease molding on the framing parts was called. Jennie Alexander wrote to me later & we talked a bit about the conundrum of this work – what do we call the moldings, the turning patterns, the carving designs; versus what did they call them. In most cases, we have no idea what terms the joiners & turners of the seventeenth century used to describe their work.

 

So a look at moldings. First, the moldings themselves on surviving woodwork, then the tools mentioned in documents like Moxon & Holme, and probate inventories as well. Lastly there are early 20^th-century books that have measured drawings of English furniture and woodwork. These are often useful, but have problems of their own. So to start, here are some photos of existing moldings run on oak furniture & woodwork.

 

The first one at the top of the post is a door frame from a cupboard dated 1691, from the Lakes District in England. Two moldings here, the “crease” molding as it’s called in the period, run on the midst of the framing parts. Then the molding that I was tempted to call an “edge” molding, although it’s not technically on the edge of the stock, but at the arris. Anyway, that molding appears to be an ogee, to my eye anyway. The crease molding seems to be more than a bead, and less than an ogee, flanking perhaps a flat section between the two moldings. Notice the tearout on both these moldings on the horizontal rail.  

 

molding detail, joined chest Dedham MA 1650-1680

The next two photos are both joined chests from Dedham, MA about 1650-1680. The moldings are cut on all the framing parts of the front of the chests. This is perhaps the same molding on both examples, but survives better on the one with the ruler in the shot. The one above was strippped more aggressively, but still retains the layout lines struck with an awl. So not too much wood was removed in the refinishing. Note again, lots of tearout here…

 

molding detail, joined chest Dedham MA 1650-1680

The gilded moldings on this woodwork from Haddon Hall, Derbyshire are first-rate. The crease moldings even get connected where the muntin meets the upper rail. Great wood, great work, for a very well-to-do house in the period, light-years from the work in Dedham, MA.

molding details Haddon Hall chapel

The next one is a muntin from some English wainscoting; a complex molding – very crisp, fine detail.

English wainscot molding, 17th century

Just a few more. Here is a joined stool from Essex County, MA; mid-to-late seventeenth century.

joined stool Essex County MA

Here is another “crease” molding – this one from a joined chest from Braintree, MA c. 1660-1690.

crease molding, joined chest Braintree, MA 1660-1690

All of the above are oak, all integral to the furniture, not applied moldings. That’s another whole batch of pictures. Maybe they will be part X.

Next time I will dig out some nomenclature; using Moxon, Randle Holme, and some probate inventories. More to come…

 

new wainscot chair

new wainscot chair

I have just been finishing up this wainscot chair, for the Brooklyn Museum. It’s a copy of an original they own…said to have descended in a Hingham, MA family. It has a few notable features, one being the beveled shoulders on the frames of the back section.  Not exactly a coped joint, but there are scratched moldings that are blended a bit. The mortised members are beveled, and the tenon shoulders overlap this bevel. Then the moldings are just kind of fudged to look as if they meet properly. It helps that the molding just seems to be a double quarter-hollow. (I don’t know its real name, if it in fact has one…there certainly isn’t a seventeenth-century New England name for it…)

beveled & mitered joints

The carvings on the back panels are like no others I have ever seen. Early on in this project I got stuck on them reminding me of Edvard Munch’s The Scream and I never got past that…

The museum wanted me to copy the panels verbatim, so there is a strange lack of symmetry between the 2 panels, and within the one on the proper left of the chair.

carving

Otherwise, there are some standard features, among them the riven surfaces seen on the inside faces of the seat rails.

riven & hewn surface

One more. I haven’t measured it yet, but it’s a big chair. About four feet high at the back.

side view

But the best picture I got yesterday was at Sandwich beach. I had some work down on Cape Cod, but got there early. So walked out to the beach for a bit..

juvenile great blue heron

 

preparation for “Woodworking in America”

preparation underway

The picture is the result  of some preparation undeway for my trip to the Woodworking in America  conference in a couple of weeks. http://handtools.woodworkinginamerica.com/register

I’m not bringing all the junk in the picture, I’ll just take some of these oak boards, and leave the firewood and shavings behind.

new stock of oak boards

The other day I started some carved panels that will be part of my demonstration. I hope to cover some carving, joinery, stock preparation – that sort of thing. Anyone with specific ideas/requests, leave a comment & I will see if I can maybe tailor my demonstrations to suit some particular notion. No promise, but worth a shot.

carved panel demo preparation

 

More about 17th-c tools missing from your list.

 WELL. THE TOOLS THEME HAS A LIFE OF ITS OWN. FOR THOSE OF YOU JUST STOPPING HERE; I HAVE DONE A COUPLE OF RECENT POSTS ON BASIC TOOLS FOR SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY JOINED WORK. THIS DOES NOT MEAN “HOW FEW TOOLS CAN YOU…” – BUT NEITHER DOES IT MEAN EVERY LAST TOOL POSSIBLY USED IN THE PERIOD.

http://pfollansbee.wordpress.com/2009/09/08/seventeenth-century-tool-kit/

http://pfollansbee.wordpress.com/2009/09/11/seventeenth-century-joiners-tools-again/

TO GIVE YOU AN IDEA  OF THE WAY THAT JENNIE ALEXANDER & I HAVE WORKED OVER THE YEARS, I HAVE TAKEN JA’S RECENT LENGTHY COMMENT & ADDED MY RESPONSE/REACTIONS, ETC IN THESE CAPITAL LETTERS. INSTEAD OF LEAVING IT IN COMMENT-LAND, I HAVE DECIDED TO TURN IT INTO THE UMPTEENTH POST ABOUT TOOLS & BENCHES….THERE ARE A COUPLE OF LINKS BACK TO EARLIER POSTS IN THIS BLOG; THERE IS A SEARCH BUTTON AS WELL. YOU MIGHT FIND MORE THAN I REMEMBER POSTING.

SO, HERE IS ALEXANDER’S COMMENT, BROKEN OUT INTO SUBJECTS.

Peter: 

SAWS: Mike’s comment about the small number of saws in the Everssen Inventory is well taken. Your suggestion that the deceased was working sawn, not split, stock is a possibility. It is Just as likely the larger saws, beetle, wedges and froe were gone at Everssen’s death. The Inventory only includes, “…suche tooles as remayned in ye Joyners Workehowse at Westhordon…” We often overlook that Inventoried tools may be those of an elderly or infirm craftsman and not necessarily represent his full kit. Large saws and riving tools may also be in another location and not inventoried. Large saws were sometimes owned jointly with others and may have wandered. Reading Inventories is fun! Recognizing that you do not fell trees, how many saws do you use?

ALL THE SAWS I NEED FOR A JOINED CHEST ARE TWO -  I USE AN EARLY 20TH-C DISSTON BACKSAW FOR CUTTING TENON SHOULDERS. SIMILAR VINTAGE RIPSAW FOR ALL ELSE.

SQUARE: In your list you list only one. In your Post of 3-14-09 you showed Felibien’s print of squares: joiner’s (90 degrees), moving (adjustable bevel), and bevel (fixed 45 degrees). All are called “squares.” Holme also illustrates the mitre square with 30, 60, 45 and 90 degree angles. I happen to know that you possess all 4 types. Indeed, the Mail Bunny sent you some of them. How many of these thingees do you use?

square, beech & white oak

I REGULARLY USE A JOINER’S SQUARE, TRY SQUARE, WHATEVER IT’S CALLED. AND A BEVEL GAUGE; I.E. BEVEL SQUARE IN 17TH C.  MITER SQUARE IS A BONUS, BUT YOU CAN DO WITHOUT IT.

http://pfollansbee.wordpress.com/2009/03/12/miter-squares-then-now/

MITRE “BOX”: Holme illustrates a device for accurately sawing angles. It is shown in the drawing you set out at the beginning of this post. Though I like you don’t remember where we got this illustration, it seems clear that this is not “cribbed” from Holm but is a copy of actual pages of Holme’s drawings. What do you use when sawing moldings?

THE ILLUSTRATION IS HOLME’S DRAWING, I COPIED IT FROM THE CD. PROBABLY ILLEGAL. WHEN SAWING MOLDINGS; I DON’T USE A MITER BOX. I JUST SAW THEM AGAINST A WOODEN BENCH HOOK, (A TOOL/FITTING THAT WE HAVE NO PERIOD REFERENCE FOR…)

GIMBLET: We find this tool in Inventories and in Holme, Moxon and Felibien. Do you use one?

hand bit or reamer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I HAVE 19TH C GIMBLET BITS THAT FIT A BRACE; I USE THEM SOME. I HAVE A TAPERED REAMER THAT I USE A LOT, IT’S ONE-HANDED LIKE THE PERIOD GIMBLET; MADE BY MARK ATCHISON, THE BLACKSMITH I WORK WITH A LOT.

PINCERS or PLIERS: Likewise. They are handy for installing and adjusting gemmels (wire hinges).

YES, & PULLING BENT NAILS.

KNIFE: Is rarely found in the Inventories. Perhaps it was used to eat with! I find it handy to clean up and point wooden pins. My pins are more carefully made than yours. I also score tenon shoulders with a knife rather than an awl because I am not as confident a sawyer as you. Do you use a knife in joinery?

I SOMETIMES SCORE SHOULDERS IN SOFT WOOD WITH A KNIFE; OR SCORING END GRAIN FOR MAKING THE THUMBNAIL MOLDINGS USED ON CHEST & BOX LIDS, AND JOINED STOOL SEATS. OTHERWISE I USE AN AWL, WHICH, BY OVERSIGHT,  HAS BEEN LEFT OUT OF THE “LIST. “

 

SINGLE BENCH SCREW: Last, but not least, you did not include the single bench screw. It is a screw affixed to the left hand side of the front of the work bench to hold workpieces vertically. … I find mine very useful for boring pin holes.

 I RARELY USE IT; MORE FOR PLANING EDGES OF BOARDS. TO HOLD STOCK VERTICALLY I BLAM A HOLDFAST INTO THE FRONT FACE OF THE BENCH’S LEG. WE HAVE COVERED SOME OF THIS TERRITOTY BEFORE, FOR DETAILS, SEE http://pfollansbee.wordpress.com/2009/01/14/bench-screw/ AND http://pfollansbee.wordpress.com/2009/01/15/bench-screws-in-the-shop/