Now that “To Make As Perfectly As Possible: Roubo on Marquetry” has been birthed, or put to bed, or sent to press, or whatever cliché is appropriate (I only know that my part is done), we now draw your attention to the curtain marked “To Make As Perfectly as Possible: Roubo on Furniture Making,” behind which the work has continued unabated even through the seemingly endless tribulations of Roubo on Marquetry.”
See, I am learning from Roubo: one paragraph, one sentence, no problem.
Much of “Roubo on Furniture Making” is fairly straightforward, seeming all the more so after six years of our interpreting and expressing Roubo’s voice. Some days I find I can get through as many as a dozen pages of Michele’s raw transliteration, mostly to clarify the idiosyncratic jargon and syntax A-J employs. This process can be a bit humorous as Michele does not even begin to know what particular tools are (or do), while Philippe – though superbly skilled in their uses – identifies them only in his native French. He never needed to converse in English about the arcane details of 18th-century French woodworking tools, so he is relying on me to phrase things properly in the language of a 21st-century Anglophone.
It is excellent that “Roubo on Furniture Making” is going well because in sheer scale it renders “Roubo on Marquetry” a mere warm-up act: This one is almost TWICE as large as our first volume.
For example, this week I am working my way through (again!) Volume 1 Section 1 Chapter 5: “Some Tools Belonging to Woodworkers, Their Different Types, Forms and Uses,” which contains the much-heralded Plate 11 “Interior View of the Furniture Maker’s Studio” and its ballyhooed image of the French Workbench, the source of much of Schwarzophinia.
Many hands have given at least part of the text for this plate the old college try. I am unashamed to suggest that our 17-page treatment of this plate’s text is as accurate, nuanced, understandable and downright elegant as any thus far.
That text and the remaining passages of the chapter delve excruciatingly DEEP into the esoterica of the 18th-century tool box and workshop. Really, Andy, did you need to give us five pages on the moving fillister plane?
At more than 100 pages of working manuscript, this chapter would make a fine little book all by itself (still, it is barely half the length of Vol. III Section 3 Chapter 13: “Tools and Machines for Furniture Making”), but the thrill of this chapter is a near-perfect analog to my new status of “retirement.” I am busier and working harder than ever, yet I simply cannot wipe the smile from my face.
— Don Williams
I’m really looking forward to this one!!
I am looking forward to this volume for sure, but hope you won’t have to make it through all the Roubos, before you finish the Studley book.
Remember Don, that slow is steady and steady is fast.
By the way, I didn’t know until now, that they made “cliff hangers” in the publishing business.
Excellent! It may also be the first time that marquetry has been used as a warm-up act for furniture making…
Trestle Notes
The three posts were used when fancy folks sat on one side and were served from the other. The flared posts get in the way of seating seating. Three posts seat well on uneven surfaces. Are also handy for table against walls with single post in room. The big reason for early trestle use was the need to break tables down after meals. The Great Hall was used for many functions. I call this construction slab and post. It was also used for portable tables for outside uses such as markets. Suggest dropping complex joinery. I found the tapered tenon is easiest to make and it survives.
Problem with the more modern stretcher table is that the long central stetcher interferes with legs if table top is too narrow-unless people do not sit back in their chairs. Yuk! If freestanding trestles are used some method must be devised to lock them to the underside of th table. Otherwise the constuction gets wiggledee.
Five pages on the moving fillister? Does he mention anything about how to fix the nicker when it drops down too far in the groove that holds it? ‘Cause that’s the problem with my moving fillister and I need to figure out the best way to fix it.
Sharpening it will have the effect of shortening its extension from the plane.
Ugh. I’d have to sharpen away 3/8 of an inch of blade!
(But that is at least an idea, so thanks!)
Either use a shim behind the nicker, or use a small screw in the bottom of the groove to give the nicker a new (but adjustable) point to bottom out. I personally like using a #8 set screw, and drilling all the way through the plane body, so I can adjust it in while the nicker’s in place. But not everyone likes visible holes.
Don, I only hope that when I reach the age of my retirement that I can find something half as interesting to keep me half as busy. I am simultaneously thankful for and jealous of your journey.
I’m told that’s the key to a long and successful retirement: Having good work to do.
I hope to have a similar fate when I get there…