Wood-butcher (tradesmen): workmen who have not thoroughly learned their business as carpenters or joiners.
Counting carpenters and wood-butchers together, it is estimated that about 20,000 men make their living in London as carpenters and joiners. Of these nearly 5300 are of the wood-butcher, or inexpert workmen class, and therefore do not belong to the trade societies. —New York Herald.
Albert Barrère & Charles Godfrey Leland
A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon & Cant: Embracing English, American, and Anglo-Indian Slang, Pidgin English, Tinker’s Jargon and Other Irregular Phraseology – Volume 1 – 1890
The above image was reprinted in a 4 volume set of Danish craft history books: Håndværkets Kulturhistorie – Copenhagen 1982-1984.
The book titles in English are: Vol. 1: Craft Coming to Denmark. The time before 1550.
By Grethe Jacobsen. Vol. 2: Craft in Progress. The period from 1550 to 1700.
By Ole Degn and Inger Dübeck. Vol. 3: The Craftsmanship and State Power. The period from 1700 to 1862.
By Vagn Dybdahl and Inger Dübeck. Vol. 4: The Race with the Industry Period from 1862 to 1980.
By Henrik Fode, Jonas Miller and Bjarne Hastrup
The period source for this image has eluded me. All references point back to the reprint, which I don’t intend to purchase. If anybody owns this set of books, I’d like to know if the authors included background notes for this illustration.
While I was searching for the source to the above image I came across this interesting photograph of a workshop appliance located at Sønderborg Slot in Denmark. It is described as a Fugbænk, which I believe translates as [joint(ing) bench]. The description implies that the bench could also be used for plowing.
The ability to measure accurately, and thus obtain a definite and positive knowledge, instead of a general and indefinite knowledge of form, relation, distance, and the other phenomena of the existing condition of things in which we are placed, constitutes the difference between scientific knowledge and ordinary knowledge. By some philologists our term man is traced to a derivation from the Aryan root-word ma, to measure. Whether this derivation is true or not, certain it is that the most accurate and comprehensive definition of man, as classified at the head of the organic evolution of intelligence upon this planet, is that of a measurer, and, as symbols of his true domination of the world, a rule and a pair of scales would be much fitter and more expressive of his glory than a crown and a sceptre.
The use of the rule is so absolutely necessary in almost every mechanical or artistic pursuit, that the consumption is, of course, very great, and the manufacture is consequently a very important one. Rules are generally made of boxwood or of ivory, and are mounted and tipped with brass or silver. Boxwood is most extensively used, both on account of its being more plentiful than ivory, and also because it is less liable to expand and contract by variations of the temperature. This last consideration is the most important, since the accuracy of the rule depends upon the constancy with which it marks the fixed standard for lineal measurement. (more…)
Veneers used to be cut by the hand-saw; at present, the circular saw is, I believe, universally employed in England for this purpose, with the advantage, not only of cheapness and expedition, but of a smaller waste of wood in sawdust, and for greater accuracy and precision in the thickness of the veneer — a quality essentially requisite to produce good work in the finished article.
In a large veneer-mill which I had an opportunity, through the kindness of one of our members, of visiting, there are five circular saws. Each consists of a strong, stiff, circular frame-work, of the shape of a plano-convex lens, or rather a low hollow cone, tapering gradually to the edge, from which projects a ring of soft steel a few inches broad, pierced with many holes. The saw is a plate, or rather a flat ring, of well-tempered steel, about twelve inches broad, pierced with as many holes as the former ring, and firmly secured to it by means of screws: a band over the axis of the saw communicates motion to it, by connecting it with the first mover, which is a steam engine. (more…)
Oil on canvas by the American painter Francis William Edmonds. This painting, owned by the Chrysler Museum, was first exhibited at the National Academy of Design, New York in 1845.
The scene depicts a joiner leaning back in his chair as he contemplates a decanter of spirits near the window. On the wall is a handbill advertising a Temperance Reform Meeting.
Edmonds was concerned that artisans were especially susceptible to alcoholism. His painting was engraved by Thomas Doney in 1847 to illustrate a sermonizing circular by the Temperance Society.
