For some reason I never considered a tree stump as essential workshop equipment until I met Richard Maguire.
Maguire, a lifelong furniture-maker and bench-builder, uses a stump and an axe in his shop and counts it among his essential workshop kit. I’ve always favored sawbenches (yup, I hew on them), but I am coming around to Richard’s way of thinking.
Especially after playing a few (OK, 126) rounds of the Hammer Schlager game, the best stump game ever.
This week Suzanne Ellison sent me this photo from the Victoria & Albert Museum archives. Lady Hawarden Clementina took this photo at Dundrum House circa 1858. It is a fascinating photograph. Not only for the workbench, the chest in the foreground and the awesome hats, but for the stump and the axe.
— Christopher Schwarz
What’s the correct height for a stump? 😉 mostly a joke…
Depends on how short the politician is. 😉
I am starting to see a pattern here with you and beer drinking. 🙂
Stump, chopping block, what ever is very useful whether chopping firewood of prepping roughly. Best ‘stump’ is Cedar: enjoy the smell every time I use it !!!!
Sad to say I know exactly what hammerschlagen is without looking it up…
My grandpa always had a stump in the barn (woodshed) for splitting kindling.
I can’t fathom working in my shop with a 10-12″? hat on my head. Did they fit that tightly? We’re they posing for the picture?
I am the happy owner of a genuine ca. 1860 top hat, which fits me perfectly. I have never dared to wear it in the shop, although now I think I should try it. They really are only 7″ or 8″ tall, and I find mine surprisingly stable without being tight at all. They really had these things down to a science considering how utterly non-practical they were!
All those trips to Roy’s studio never put the idea of a stump in the shop into your head?
Peter Follansbee has one right near his bench too!
That’s funny – I coulda sworn you edited & published a book I worked on…but I’m glad you see the light however you go there.
Hah….here’s your sign
My shop is tiny. Adding anything to it requires a lot of contemplation.
I suspect Clementina Maude, Viscountess of Hawarden would be amused by your not knowing how to address her, unless you are Japanese.
Yup. Splitting kindling on a nice round (or stump if you will) at just the right height ( which depends on the individual involved) is the best way there is.
As for those silly hats, my guess is that they decided to dress “up” for the photo, not realizing how silly they would look, especially years later. How many of us have posed for pictures thinking of future generations?
Great, now the price of tree stumps will triple! Thanks a lot Chris!
The stump in my grandfather’s shop had an anvil sitting on it. Plus it sunk into the dirt floor so it was never level.
We play a similar game, but you have to toss the hammer in the air, get it to turn a whole revolution, catch it and hit the nail, all in a single smooth motion. Sometimes we light the stump on fire too.
Lighten up on the moonshine. 😉