Planing a board of any width and length by hand, so that it will be true, need not call for any special talent on the part of a patternmaker, yet tradition and bigotry are responsible for the survival of the belief that expert handling of “winding strips” furnishes the only correct means of planing a board surface out of wind.
As this apparently hard-and-fast shibboleth has still many adherents, an attempt to shatter the long established belief and practice is at best but a thankless task. The use of “winding strips” is so manifestly unnecessary that the chief wonder to any thinking man is, that the use of them didn’t “die abornin’.” (more…)
I took a vacation day on Friday, ostensibly to work on my kitchen rehab – but my lunch “meeting” and shopping trip were a great deal more fun than installing a sub-floor and leveling cabinets. Chris and I met at Tom+Chee for grilled cheese and tomato soup, then ambled the few blocks down to one of my favorite places in Cincinnati: Ohio Book Store.
With five floors of used books, it’s the perfect place to search for 1930s novels to use as exemplars for the design and production choices for Roy Underhill’s forthcoming book, “Calvin Cobb – Radio Woodworker! A Novel with Measured Drawings.”
Because Roy’s book will feature illustrations, we spent a most of our limited time (we were both parked at 1-hour meters) perusing the shelves in the “juvenile” section, thinking books therein would be most like the look we want…not that we yet know exactly what that look is.
The content of the volumes didn’t matter to us at all; they just had to look good. But rest assured – we weren’t just judging the books by their covers – we also judged their bindings, typography and layout. (Don’t worry; we’ll skip the self-destructing acid paper common in the period – that’s a verisimilitudinal* step too far).
I think we got four books for less than $20, each of which had things we liked and things we didn’t – or things we loved but are likely impractical (inked edges on the pages, for example). We’ll pass these along to the designer for inspiration…a hand-off I’m hopeful will come soon, so she or he can get started on the layout and font selection.
I mentioned last week that I’ve the updated manuscript in hand, and I’ve now completed a full read-through and have just a couple of questions for Roy. The next step is to talk with Roy about my notes and any additional edits he wants to make, then fact-check all dates, building names, numbers etc., and finalize the illustrator. We’ll be working on the drawings alongside layout, leaving blank pages where the art will later be dropped in.
Right now, we’re on schedule to have it edited, illustrated, printed, bound and on its way to you well before the end of the year.
Whether it is that untidiness leads to ruin or that a manufacturer who is losing money has not the moral stamina to keep things in trim, thrifty shape is a hard matter to determine, but true it is that untidiness in the shop and office and ruin are such close friends that they are ordinarily seen together, and the sight of one suggests the other.
We have often seen men of rare industry, judged by their hustling manner, who would spend much time each day looking for tools they had forgotten where they left, stumbling over piles of stray castings left under the lathe or piled on or under the bench, or pawing those castings over for a piece somewhere in this pile or that, when it ought to be in a place by itself, going from tool to tool or bench to bench to find or borrow a drill or wrench or hammer or block, when there should be just one place to find the desired article. (more…)
The Boss Loses Out and Timmins Gets the Job
(Thanks to his Two-Wheeled Runabout)
“Not this afternoon, Mr. Green,” the boss was saying over the phone.
“We are pretty busy here in the shop and two of the boys are out on the other side of town on a job—” “I’m sorry, but I can’t get anyone out to you this afternoon.”
“Have someone out there first thing in the morning, but—” “Won’t do, you say?”—“You’re working on your barn and want someone to come right out to help you.”—“Do I know of anyone you can get?”—
“Well, let’s see. There’s a fellow over on the east side—name is Timmins—thinks he’s a carpenter. You might get ahold of him.”—“I don’t think he’s very busy, and he’s got one of them there motorcycles he dodges about on quite a bit. He ought to be able to get out there to finish up for you this afternoon.”— (more…)
