The first thought that comes into my mind concerning this subject is borrowing and lending tools. I wish I were able to do this part of the subject full justice, but perhaps space in Carpentry and Building would not be available for me to enlarge upon it. When I began the trade it was expected that every journeyman should furnish his own tools to work with. Nowadays it seems to be that each one expects some one else to furnish him tools. It is said, and I believe it is true, that there is no other trade which has so large a proportion of botches to skilled workmen as that of carpentry. The question arises—why is it so? It seems to me that borrowing tools causes more of it than all other reasons put together. This perhaps is a broad assertion, but arguments can be advanced in proof of it.
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Author: fitz
Woodworker, writer, editor, teacher, ailurophile, Shakespearean. Will write for air-dried walnut.
Design for a Tool Chest
Design for a Tool Chest
George A. Jones of Palmetto Florida
Patented March 29, 1921 (D57,436)
– Jeff Burks
Miscellaneous Wood Planes
Under the above heading there comes what are known as Fancy Planes. There are several manufacturers in this country who make these lines of Planes. Some make better planes than others and we try to procure the best. None of the American makes equal those of the best English and Scotch makers. The Englishman said of American beer, ‘They cawn’t make it you know, they aven’t the Ops,” and perhaps this is true of Moulding Planes, ”We haven’t the Beech you know.” As a matter of fact, for Moulding Planes, Spoke Shaves and similar tools the English and Scotch beechwood is greatly superior to the American, and the best Moulding Planes we have ever seen are those made by Mathieson, of Glasgow, Scotland.
While to a great extent the Combination Planes like the No. 45 are taking the place of the Moulding Planes, they do not by any means cover the entire ground. Where a considerable quantity of a certain kind of work is to be done, the Wood Planes are so much lighter and so much more convenient to handle, that it is not always the best economy to use a Combination Plane for this class of work.
We recently had an instance of this. A mechanic in boasting about the merits of his Combination Plane (a No. 45) stated that he had beaded 5,000 ft. of ceiling on a summer hotel job upon which he had been employed. We did not consider that this was very much to boast of, and think that any man who would use a plane weighing 3 ½ lbs. for six or eight days, when he might have bought a 1 Inch Bead Plane, weighing about 10 ounces, for 40 cents, and with it have done the work in 15 to 25 per cent less time, and with correspondingly less expenditure of strength, is rather closely related to that useful— though humble — animal, with kicking proclivities, long ears, and an unmusical voice.
The lines of Miscellaneous Planes shown here we usually carry in stock. Can furnish other sizes than those given here in many of the styles. Special sizes cost more, it takes time to procure them, and we would suggest that the stock—or listed—sizes be used whenever possible.
Chas. A. Strelinger & Co. – Detroit, Michigan 1897
– Jeff Burks
Dividing Saw Plates
An easy method of dividing plates of hardened steel, such as saw plates; and also of perforating them, when requisite.
Workmen frequently wish to divide a broken saw plate, for the purpose of converting it into scrapers, square-blades, or small saws; this is usually attempted by notching them to a small depth with a cold chisel, and then breaking them along the lines so made. When the plate is very hard, this method will not succeed, and the plate is frequently destroyed in the attempt. When it does succeed, the plate is generally twisted, and buckled, in the operation.
The Editor had a hard plate, which he was desirous of cutting into strips, to make small saws for a working model of a saw mill; this, although too hard to yield to the chisel, he divided with the utmost facility, piercing the ends at the same time, for the purpose of stretching the saws; this was effected in the following manner.
The saw plate was made sufficiently warm to melt bees-wax, which was then rubbed over it, so as to coat it completely on both sides, when it was suffered to cool. Lines were then drawn through the wax on both sides of the plate, with a steel point. It being of great importance that these lines should be exactly opposite to each other, this was effected by making a saw-kerf in the strip of wood which was used as a straight-edge, and the plate being placed in the kerf, the opposite lines were easily drawn. A mixture of sulphuric acid (oil of vitriol) and water had been prepared, and suffered to become cold; the proportions about one part of acid to six of water.
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A Legal Anecdote about Secret Compartments
A remarkable criminal case was once tried before Baron Parke, in which his ruling and sentence were at the time considered extremely hard and severe; upon re-argument before the fifteen judges in London his law was held to be sound, and has remained as a text in succeeding cases.
The prisoner purchased at an auction an old bureau, and finding it rather too long for a recess in which he wished to fit it, got a carpenter to cut off a portion of the moulding at one end. While this was doing, a secret drawer flew open and disclosed one hundred guineas, which had been hidden there; the carpenter claimed half, as the finder of the coin; this was refused, and a single guinea given him, the purchaser taking the rest of the money and appropriating it to his own use. The carpenter blazed abroad the story, the heir-at-law of the deceased owner of the bureau claimed the money, and being refused, gave the purchaser into custody for stealing his property.
The case was tried at the Liverpool Assizes before Baron Parke, who told the jury that the prisoner only bought the bureau, and that that only was intended to be sold, that the money was still legally in the custody of the man who placed it there, or of his heirs-at-law, and that if they believed the fact that the prisoner took the money from the bureau, and spent it, that was larceny in the eye of the law. The jury had no alternative but to find a verdict of guilty, and the judge sentenced the prisoner to three months imprisonment with hard labour.
Recollections of Baron Parke
The Leisure Hour – (London) 1879
– Jeff Burks