Lost Art Press

Author: fitz

Woodworker, writer, editor, teacher, ailurophile, Shakespearean. Will write for air-dried walnut.

‘Of the Waving Engine’

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Moulding machine. The waving engine is a moulding machine that operates off a pattern-cutting principle. The flame mouldings it makes are uncommon today and not generally made with common workshop machinery.

The following is excerpted from “The Art of Joinery,” the first book published by Lost Art Press. It was out of print and unavailable for several years until we released this revised edition in the fall of 2013. It contains: The lightly edited text of Joseph Moxon’s landmark work on joinery – the first English-language text on the topic; modern commentary on every one of Moxon’s sections on tools and techniques by Christopher Schwarz; the original plates; and more.

And later this year, we’ll be offering a beautiful hardcover reprint – with a new introduction by Chris – of all of “Mechanick Exercises or the Doctrine of Handy-Works,” which also includes smithing, carpentry, turning and brick laying (Peter Nicholson’s “Mechanic’s Companion” was an early 19th-century update to Moxon’s early 18th-century work). This important early woodworking book deserves to be in print at a price everyone can afford (about $25 for a clothbound book with sewn signatures). Plus every book sold will help benefit the Early American Industries Association, which assisted with book production.

The waving engine described in plate 5. fig. 7, hath A B, a long square plank of about seven inches broad, five foot long, and an inch and a half thick. All along the length of this plank on the middle between the two sides runs a rabbet [a raised track], as part of it is seen at C. Upon this rabbet rides a block with a groove in its underside. This block is about three inches square and ten inches long, having near the hinder end of it a wooden handle going through it [that is] about one inch diameter, as D E. At the fore-end of this block is fastened a vise, [that is] somewhat larger than a great hand-vise, as at F. The groove in the block is made to receive the rabbet on the plank.

At the farther end of the plank is erected a square strong piece of wood, about six inches high, and five inches square, as G. This square piece has a square wide mortise in it on the top, as at H. Upon the top of this square piece is a strong square flat iron collar, somewhat loosely fitted on, having two male screws fitted into two female screws, to screw against that part of the wooden piece un-mortised at the top, marked L, that it may draw the iron collar hard against the iron [that cuts the moulding], marked Q, and keep it stiff against the fore-side of the un-mortised piece, marked L, when the piece Q is set to its convenient height. And on the other side the square wooden piece is fitted another iron screw, having to the end of its shank fastened a round iron plate which lies within the hollow of this wooden piece, and therefore cannot in draft be seen in its proper place. But I have described it apart, as at M. {Fig. 9.} Its nut is placed at M on the wooden piece. On the farther side of the wooden piece is fitted a wooden screw called a knob, as at N. Through the farther and hither side of the square wooden piece is fitted a flat piece of iron, about three quarters of an inch broad and one quarter of an inch thick, standing on edge upon the plank; but its upper edge is filed round {the reason you will find by and by}. Its hither end comes through the wooden piece, as at O, and its farther end on the opposite side of the wooden piece.

Upright in the hollow square of the wooden piece stands an iron, as at Q, whose lower end is cut into the form of the moulding you intend your work shall have.

In the fore side of this wooden piece is [a] square hole, as at R, called the mouth.

To this engine belongs a thin flat piece of hard wood, about an inch and a quarter broad and as long as the rabbet. It is disjunct [distinct, unconnected] from the engine, and in fig. 8. is marked S S, called the rack. It hath its under[side] flat cut into those fashioned waves you intend your work shall have. The hollow of these waves are made to comply with the round edge of [the] flat plate of iron marked O {described before}. For when one end of the riglet [workpiece] you wave is, with the vise, screwed to the plain side of the rack, and the other end put through the mouth of the wooden piece, as at T T, so as the hollow of the wave on the underside of the rack may lie upon the round edge of the flat iron plate set on edge, as at O, and the iron Q, is strong fitted down upon the reglet [sic]. Then if you lay hold of the handles of the block D E and strongly draw them, the rack and the riglet will both together slide through the mouth of the wooden piece. And as the rounds of [the] rack ride over the round edge of the flat iron, the rack and reglet will mount up to the iron Q, and as the rounds of the waves on the underside of the rack slides off the iron on edge, the rack and reglet will sink, and so in a progression (or more) the riglet will on its upper side receive the form of the several waves on the underside of the rack, and also the form or moulding that is on the edge of the bottom of the iron. And so at once the riglet will be both moulded and waved.

But before you draw the rack through the engine, you must consider the office of the knob N, and the office of the iron screw M. For by them the rack is screwed evenly under the iron Q. And you must be careful that the groove of the block flip not off the rabbet on the plank. For by these screws, and the rabbet and groove, your work will be evenly gauged all the way (as I said before) under the edge of the iron Q, and keep it from sliding either to the right or left hand, as you draw it through the engine.

Analysis
Of course, the No. 1 question you have to have about the “waving engine” entry is what the heck the thing actually does. Is it a planer? A moulding machine? Well, yes. It works like both a planer and a moulding machine to produce what are called rippled or waveform mouldings, which were all the rage during Cromwell’s reign in England.

Wave mouldings show up in many picture frames of the era and reflect light in a most unusual way – thanks to their undulations or ripples.

Moxon’s device seems complex from the description because he is writing about a thing that doesn’t exist in this exact form today. In essence, the waving engine produces rippled mouldings much like a duplicator lathe or a pattern-cutting bit in a router. A flat piece of iron follows a block with the desired pattern cut into it. This moves the stock against a fixed cutter, which gradually (very gradually) cuts away the waste to reveal the final wave shape in the workpiece.

The workpiece, by the way, is pulled through the waving engine by hand. If you are interested in this fascinating machine, I recommend you check out a 2002 article by Jonathan Thornton, who built a close reproduction of Moxon’s waving engine and shows how it developed into a fancier machine that worked with a crank. It’s available in pdf format here: https://wag-aic.org/2002/WAG_02_thornton.pdf

D.H. Phillips: The Art of Furniture

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Izzi the dog with Dan in his office, where he keeps his drafting table and library.

Dan Phillips doesn’t advertise or have a website, so when Christopher Schwarz suggested he’d make a good subject for a profile, adding “he has a great eye,” I looked him up on Instagram. Here’s a guy who doesn’t give a fig for the accepted wisdom about social media, I thought; Daniel’s feed is a colorful mix of drawings, paintings, home interiors, music, kids and woodworking tools, all with a good dose of irony. Scattered among the variety you’ll find images of dovetails, other joinery details and finished furniture pieces. Not for Dan the segregation of woodworking from “life” or any of the other interests that characterize it, a different Instagram account for every one. How refreshing.

Painting. “Girl Sitting at a Chair.” Gouache on paper.

Given what I saw, I wasn’t surprised to learn that Dan, who goes by D.H. Phillips, is the son of artist parents. Born in Dallas in 1976, he’s the middle of three children. His father, Harvey Phillips, shifted from visual art to architecture early in Dan’s life. “For as long as I can remember that’s what he did, and still does,” Dan says. His mother, Susie Phillips, remains a practicing artist in paint.

Dan’s dad was also a professional carpenter who always had a woodshop of one kind or another. “As soon as I was old enough to work a bit, he would take me, first, to demolition sites,” says Dan. “Then I learned to frame houses and sheetrock and all that stuff. I really liked being in the shop more than at somebody’s house.” As he grew more interested in design, H.C. Westermann, a sculptor and two-dimensional artist, became a strong influence. “I wanted to learn that more fancy woodworking stuff, and that wasn’t really in my dad’s [wheelhouse].” Ambitious, he made a dovetailed box on the bandsaw “with lots of wood putty.”

Dan’s former wife is a paper conservator. One of her grad school teachers had trained in the book-binding program at North Bennett Street School. He looked the place up, took a two-week class in fundamentals of fine woodworking and says “That was it.” He applied to the full-time program. He was still motivated by two-dimensional artistic interests, “but once I was there, furniture making totally took over.”

Dan attended NBSS from 2005 to 2007. “I loved finding out about the early American decorative arts. We’d go on museum trips, and I loved the furniture. But all the other stuff – the quilts, paintings, folk art – that whole classical early American thing really did something for me,” he says.

Bar. Inside, there’s storage for beverages. The cabinet is mahogany, the doors are redwood burl and the top is granite.
Couch and lounge chairs with coffee table. Walnut, with the end panels on the couch of crotch walnut. House of Vonne, an upholsterer friend in Portland, Ore., made the upholstery; the cushions are removable. The coffee table base is ambrosia maple.
Built-in end tables of crotch walnut, detail.
Rear view. Walnut burl panels. Dan sought out the golden tone of the sapwood for contrast.

“There’s an aesthetic that carries through the periods,” he continues. “A piece of scrimshaw looks just as awesome to me as a federal secretary. That pre-industrial stuff…. You can see the hand in everything. I love to draw – I don’t use computers for drawing – so maybe there’s something there…a tactile thing, a certain crudeness, no matter how fancy something might look. You can tell it’s handmade, and I love seeing the transition through the periods and the details that stick, the things that change.”

After his time in Boston Dan moved back to Dallas in 2007 and set up in his dad’s shop. Slowly, at first, he began to get commissions; the first was a coffee table for his mom. Then, he says, “It just kind of snowballed. It’s been pretty steady.” There are times he’s overwhelmed and others when “my fingers are crossed that something’s going to pop up. I just sort of made furniture making my reality, whether commissioned work was actually happening or not.”

“From my scrimshaw fascination,” says Dan of this top piece, reminiscent of a sperm whale. White gouache on black paper. The bottom one is a photograph of a walnut sculpture Dan made, approximately 36″ long x 6″ tall.
Whales in black ink, painted with brush, on paper. This is the interior of the cabin in the gallery, mentioned in the text below. You can see glimpses of the three furniture pieces as well.
A comic depicting a true event, with Dan’s father reminding him to wear safety glasses when working on the table saw.

Dan’s work comes mostly through word of mouth. Although he posts work on Instagram, he says “I’m not sure how much business I get from it.” He always asks people how they found him. It’s usually from a friend, or they saw something he’d made.

Today he makes mostly residential stuff – desks, sideboards, wall units, beds, chairs but mostly “loungey” chairs. “I don’t know that I’ve ever made any dining chairs.” There are dining tables…some work for offices, such as desks, about which he remarks, “you can have some fun with all the drawers and hidden compartments.” At present his favorite thing is case pieces.

Sideboard, detail. Mahogany with a granite top. The drawer pulls are metal; Dan had them made for another job and had ordered a few extra. The moulded corners keep things from rolling off the top. “In my drawing I felt like it needed one more little bump, and that’s what I came up with.” He had the granite fabricators drill holes for dowels based on a template.

He works in mahogany and walnut, primarily darker woods and says, “I draw the piece and it will become obvious what wood to use.”

Mahogany high chair. Dan made this one for his daughter.
Dresser in mahogany with olive ash burl drawer faces. The handles are from an antique store; Dan was experimenting with unconventional placement.

He’s still a very active painter, too. His paintings, he says, “have evolved over time. I first did them as train graffiti tags, then moved to paper.” He paints in watercolors and washes but sometimes reverts to colored pencil and watercolors. Most are gouache on paper.

Painting of a mirror, life-size. Gouache on paper. Dan didn’t build the mirror; the painting represents one of the objects he “wish[es] people would commission.”

He sells in a gallery, though recent work has been commissioned. “I never just ‘make art.’ I’ve got to have a reason. There’s someone who’s commissioned a piece, or I have a show coming up. The furniture scratches so many of those itches. I do a ton of drawing, so I never miss out on drawing stuff,” he says.

Dan’s shop is in a former Ford Motor Company manufacturing plant, a huge building near Fair Park in Dallas. He’s been there about 10 years. Before that, he worked in a Quonset hut. “That was not good! Whatever the weather was outside, that’s what it was in there. I couldn’t make fancy furniture.” He moved into a friend’s jewelry studio, but it became too cramped. He currently has about 5,000 square feet in the whole shop, but that includes a couple of office/bench rooms, a storage room, a machine room and more. A Plexiglas fabricator uses half the space; Dan and his dad use the other.

Home is near the shop. In fact, Dan says, most of his existence takes place within about a 7-minute-drive circle. Even his kids’ school is within that radius.

One of the few times Dan has repeated himself and made a design again, after the original commission. These chairs are of walnut, with channeled leather upholstery.
Dresser in walnut with maple drawers. Asymmetrically cut-out pulls.
Jewelry box. Mahogany with painted black details. The long black horizontal strips are drawer bottoms, protruding at the front and intended to function as pulls.

Drawing on the Past
Dan looks to antiques as a starting point. He has no interest in making period furniture as such but incorporates details he likes in his own work. “It’s an opportunity to participate [in furniture making] the same way the old guys did. You get these pattern books from Sheraton or Hepplewhite and use them as a starting point. The proportions…they worked it out! [Master those proportions, and your piece] already looks good. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel,” he says. Dan draws in pencil on printer paper and keeps refining designs, then makes a scale drawing and adjusts accordingly; for example, seat height is important when he’s making one of those “loungey” chairs, so he’ll base it on that.

He refines his drawings, which he calls doodles, until he’s satisfied. Then the challenge is “trying to get things to look like my ‘doodle.’ Sometimes things in the doodle are totally unrealistic, so I’m just trying to figure out how to get the same visual effect in the drawing. I like to draw stuff, and draw a lot of it. I’ve just developed a certain style from doing that. I probably have 8,000 drawings of furniture.”

Dan’s father’s wife gave him these notes her own dad had taken. He thought they’d make a good background for his own drawings.

Home & Family

From left: Mugsy, Jackie and Velena; the kids are sitting on Paul McCobb chairs.

Dan lives with Jackie Dunn Smith, an artist who paints and does tattoos, devoting about half her work time to each. They have two children; their daughter, Velena Phillips, is 10. Their son, Mugsy Smith, is 14.

Dan’s mother’s family moved to north Texas from Pennsylvania via Oklahoma. His father’s side came from Kansas, where they were asparagus farmers; then, in a turn of events worthy of his arch Instagram feed, his paternal grandfather won a contest held on the radio that came with flying lessons as the prize. After training, that grandpa became a pilot, flew in the Second World War and went on to a career as a pilot for now-defunct Braniff International Airways. That’s what brought his father’s family to Dallas when his dad was in high school.

Their home is furnished with all sorts of things, many of Dan’s own making. For one show he built a 12’x 18′ cabin and furnished it with a bed, blanket chest and lounge chair. The installation was for sale, but it didn’t sell, so he ended up with the three furniture pieces. He also has furniture he made in training. As for the family dining table, he got that back from a client who moved and couldn’t use it; the client thought that Dan might be able to sell it, but there were no takers. He wanted to keep it, and in the end, they said he could. The rest of their home is furnished with a mix of antiques and IKEA.

When asked to sum up his work as a furniture maker, Dan says,

Simply, it’s what I do. If I had to analyze it I’d say that I like the place I’m in, where people are aware of my thing and that they are choosing me for the thing they want. There is no shortage of available furniture. It’s almost ridiculous to be making more. But I’m glad to be doing it. I love the art form. I love hearing what the client wants and the spark that goes off in my brain and the subsequent pencil to paper to hash out the general idea. I love the first impression and the miles of yellow tracing paper refining the design. I love making a presentation drawing for the client to look at. Once they say yes, I love getting out the big paper and using the drafting table. I love the problem solving of turning the doodle into a set of working drawings. I love figuring out how much wood I need and looking at the available wood that will work.

I loathe figuring out how much something will cost. But then they say yes and the wood shows up and you agonize about how to break it down and then you break it down and then it’s a mad fever of strategy and efficient work flow until you don’t have anything else to do but get some photographs made and deliver it. Pretty damn fun. Glad to be able to participate in a centuries old way to make your way.

– Nancy Hiller, author of “Shop Tails,” “Kitchen Think” and “Making Things Work.”

Now Printing: ‘Euclid’s Door’

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We are delighted to announce that “Euclid’s Door: Building the Tools of ‘By Hand & Eye’“ – the latest artisan geometry offering from George Walker and Jim Tolpin – is now at the printer. We’ve made the order page live in our store so that you can sign up to be notified when it’s available. (Just click the “notify me” button on the book’s page – Christopher Schwarz has written more about that new feature here, should you wish to read more about it.)

“Euclid’s Door” is an illustrated how-to journey through building eight wooden tools (tools that have been around since ancient times) that should be in every furniture maker’s toolbox. As you work your way through the making, you’ll also learn how to tune each tool to an incredibly high level – lessons that will be useful in all your work. (And the geometry really is easy to follow – even I, a mathphobic – had no trouble with it.)

As are all Lost Art Press books, “Euclid’s Door” is being printed in the United States. It will be a cloth-covered hardbound 115-page book, with a sewn and glued binding for durability.

— Fitz

Alternative Ways of Making Things: Drawers

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The following is excerpted from Vol. II of “The Woodworker: The Charles H. Hayward Years: Techniques.”

As editor of The Woodworker magazine from 1939 to 1967, Hayward oversaw the transformation of the craft from one that was almost entirely hand-tool based to a time where machines were common, inexpensive and had displaced the handplanes, chisels and backsaws of Hayward’s training and youth.

This massive project – five volumes in all – seeks to reprint a small part of the information Hayward published in The Woodworker during his time as editor in chief. This is information that hasn’t been seen or read in decades. No matter where you are in the craft, from a complete novice to a professional, you will find information here you cannot get anywhere else.

For good-class work a reliable system of dovetailed construction has been evolved over the years, though it may have to be varied to suit details of the job to which it is fitted, and in special circumstances may have to be replaced by an entirely different method. However, it is not always possible to use dovetails, possibly for reasons of economy, and we have therefore included the simpler methods as well as those of accepted cabinet practice.

A. B. Standard dovetails. The most reliable and neatest. The dovetails resist the pull as the drawer is opened. Dovetail slope is about 1/2 in. in 3 in., though in some trades it is less, and the pins at the front run nearly to a point (B). Bottom is held in a groove at the front, and it is essential that the bottom dovetail includes the groove as otherwise the latter shows as a gap. At the sides the bottom is held in grooved slips (R) and (S), and the back stands above the bottom. Consequently the bottom back dovetail is square at the lower side, and is in fact formed by the bottom edge of the back.

C. Drawer with cocked beads. Normal dovetailing is used (A) (B) except that the lap is made slightly wider to enable a rebate to be worked in which the cocked bead can fit. This rebate is continued along the bottom edge, but at the top the wood is removed for its whole width so that no joint is visible. This necessitates cutting the top bead to the special mitred and butted joint shown inset.

D. Overlapping drawer. Front projects and is rebated to fit in the opening. Sometimes bottom rebate is omitted. The pins in the front should be cut first as otherwise it is awkward to mark them from the dovetails if these are already cut.

E. F. Shallow drawer joints. Used for small drawers in which it is undesirable to raise the bottom and so reduce inside space. Front is rebated to receive bottom, and square member is cut at bottom to fill in what would otherwise be a gap.

G. Canted front drawer. Note that dovetails slope equally each side of the horizontal. Groove for bottom must be horizontal, not square with the front.

H. I. Shaped front drawers. These are alternative methods. That at (I) is the more economical in material, but, depending upon the shape, a vertical joint is sometimes preferable.

J. Drawer shaped in plan. This may be one of a pair of drawers, or may be a single bow-front drawer with both sides as shown to the left. As the side fits in square the front must be planed off square at the inside. Dovetailing is then normal (A) (B). Much the same applies to the right-hand side, but here the front has to be cut in square.

K. Shaped and projecting drawer. The front breaks forward boldly necessitating its being of the special shape shown. At the ends it is cut thick and finished to a curve inside.

L. Slot-dovetailed drawer. This is needed when the drawer sides have to stand in at the ends. Here the dovetail is shown running right through, but it is generally stopped at the top. Position of slot is important as it is difficult to reduce the sides after drawer is assembled. Best way is to fit back to opening, place on inner face of front, and mark the ends.

M. Central runner drawer. This is practicable only when the sides are thick enough to be grooved without being weakened unduly. One of the oldest methods of suspension, and is sometimes revived today as all stops are eliminated.

N. Machined dovetails. This is used particularly with the Arcoy dovetailer. To avoid having just part of a dovetail at one side the multi-pitch attachment should be used. As this device cuts only lap-dovetails it is not practicable for the back, which should be either grooved or slot dovetailed in.

O. Simple lap-jointed drawer. The front is rebated to take the sides, and the back fits in grooves. Glue and nails are used for assembling. Often the bottom is nailed or screwed on beneath, the front being rebated. A better construction is to groove it in. In either case the back stands above it. It is advisable to let the back stand down at the top.

P. Suspended drawer. Used for an isolated drawer beneath a top with no flanking sides or lower support. Often used on a bench. Construction is usually lapped, held together with glue and nails. The bearers can either be rebated as shown, or they can be in two separate pieces.


Q. R. S. T. Fixings for drawer bottoms. In most cases the front is grooved as it is thick enough not to be unduly weakened. An exception is in a shallow drawer in which it may be rebated. When sides are thick they may be grooved (Q). Usually drawer bottom slips are grooved (R), as the sides are not weakened and the bearing surface is increased. An alternative form is that at (S). For a shallow drawer (T) can be used. Sides and front are rebated, and for small light drawers the bottom can finish flush. Better working is secured by making the rebate slightly deep and adding thin strips to the underside as shown.

U. Bent plywood construction. Sometimes used today. The plywood can be either preformed, or two sheets of thin ply can be glued together around a former. Generally the front and back are rebated to take the plywood.

Crucible Dovetail Templates in Stock

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For the Crucible Dovetail Templates, I think we’ve finally figured out efficient fixtures for workholding, allowing us to cut more than one tool at a time on the CNC mill…and when I say “we” and “us” I mean our genius machinist, Craig Jackson. So, we finally got in a large-ish batch, and they are now available in our store.

The Crucible Dovetail Template marks out dovetail joints – both the tails and the pins – and allows you to easily and accurately lay out the angled and straight parts of the joint. This template marks out the two most common dovetail slopes, 1:6 and 1:8 (9.5° and 7.1° respectively).

This solid steel template is based on a discontinued version from Woodjoy Tools. We contacted the designer, Glenn Livingston, to obtain his blessing for our tool, and he receives a royalty on every one sold.

Unlike the original, the Crucible Dovetail Template is milled from one piece of steel, which ensures a perfect 90° at the corner. (While this might seem wasteful, all the excess is recycled.) The tool measures 5/8″ x 1-11/16″ x 3″. The angled sections of the tool are long enough to mark out tails in 1-3/8″ stock. The straight section of the tool is long enough to reach fully across two 3/4″-thick boards (for those who gang-cut dovetails). There’s also a handy hang hole, just like on the original.

The Crucible Dovetail Template is made in Kentucky.