The Bench.—The tool most frequently used is the bench, and of this many varieties or patterns exist. Whatever pattern is adopted, however, the embodiment of these common principles must be ensured, if the maximum of utility is to be obtained :—
(a) It must be rigid and stable, by being suitably and securely framed, put together, and fixed.
(b) It must be level on the top of the planing board, which should not be less than 10″ broad.
(c) It must be of such a height as best suits the work and the height of the worker—30″ or 31″ being high enough.
(d) Details of construction must ensure that natural shrinkage and wear shall limit its usefulness to as small a degree as possible.
(e) It should have a clearance all round of at least 2½ or 3 feet.
There are considerations other than merely technical ones which have weight in determining the quality and quantity of a man’s work in the shop. For instance, what is distinctly and, pre-eminently the mark of the superior workman? I would unhesitatingly put it as self-respect. The good workman justly appreciates his abilities; and this self appreciation is as far as can be from unwarranted and inordinate self-conceit.
A man in a machine shop, like a man anywhere else in life, who knows how to do good work, knows well enough when he does good work, knows as well as anyone the value of it, and cannot be got to willingly waste it. Work that is wasted is never good work nor done by a good workman. Work may be like choice butter upon good bread, or it may be like the same butter daubed upon the sleeve of your best coat, and then it is not good work.
Troy is the great laundry city—put tight fits upon work that is to encounter the rust of a wash-room, and it will bring you profanity instead of praise. The most worthless man in the shop is he who is willing to swing his axe all day and see no chips fly. The man who is in earnest makes every motion tell to the accomplishment of his purpose. He is the man whom I may always safely tell when anything about his work is wrong. He will know that he is precisely the one who should know about it, that he may correct it and avoid a like mistake in future. (more…)
He is employed by the Carpenter, the Cabinet-maker, and the Cooper, to cut wood into the required boards, planks, and battens, for their respective operations. This he performs by placing the tree or timber, on strong tressels, usually laid across the sawpit; and being assisted by the Pitman, whilst the Top Sawyer, or chief, stands upon the work, they conjointly work a long coarse saw along the line marked out for the cut.
Their earnings vary extremely, unless constantly employed, in a covered yard during winter, by the Cooper, at a weekly salary, usually amounting to 35s. Oftener, however, they choose to depend upon jobbing about for different masters “upon the call;” at which sort of game, they either find “nothing stirring,” and literally starve awhile, or make such astonishing sums at piece work, as to set their heads a madding with the fumes of the stomach; they become broilsome, drink unaccountably, fight any body or thing, pawn their tools by scores, and, when Tuesday comes round, find themselves under the necessity of kicking the master, for an advance.
On these occasions, the masters who have work in hand, supplicate the men to resume the job, and thus become the beggars; which they may do in vain, if they have suffered the ungrateful wretches to run in debt, or the publican is importunate for payment of his scores.
Who would be a Sawyer? Or, being one, would not work out his own reformation in time?
Nathaniel Whittock, John Badcock, John Bennett, Cyrus Newton, and Others
The towboat Ida reached New Orleans, out of the Arkansas River, on June 8, with a walnut log raft* of unusual proportions. Additional interest attaches itself to this raft on account of it being part of an order for 10,000,000 feet from a Bridgeport, Conn., sewing machine factory. The growing scarcity of this desirable wood in the Eastern States, and the demand by European furniture makers has developed distant sources of supply.
The raft in question had been ninety days making the trip from the forests along the White and St. Francis rivers, in Arkansas, and in that time drift, five feet deep, had accumulated beneath the logs. Of these the raft contained 2,500, 2,000 being walnut and 500 cypress. The latter are used as buoys for the heavier timber. This log island measured 400 by 208 feet, and many of the walnut logs were over six feet in diameter.
They were cut by a band of 200 Canadians who are adepts at working in hard timber, and can get out 500 logs per day under favorable circumstances. From New Orleans the logs go by rail to New England, this transportation being found to be just $2 per 1,000 less than by steamship. Col. S. M. Markel, of Missouri, has this contract, and has orders for walnut logs from Liverpool parties. The raft in question contained 600,000 feet, and is among the first shipments of the kind to the East.
*Note: There was no photograph included with this article. The above image is a substitute.
Although some of our readers are doubtless well acquainted with the manufacture of the above-named articles we think that the greater part of them are ignorant of anything connected with the manufacture of saws, and that a few facts relative to this subject will be perused by them with interest.
We therefore propose giving an account of a visit we paid to one of the principal saw manufactories in Sheffield. On reaching the factory, we were shown into a comfortable office, and were told that one of the principals would wait upon us in a few minutes, and we were soon after introduced to the managing partner, who after receiving us with great politeness, told us that he would have great pleasure in sending the saw manager to show us over the works, and explain the various processes. (more…)
