1. All work should be of the best quality.
2. If the old method is best, use it.
3. If the work can be done better by hand, do it that way.
4. Use long and large mortises, and large square white oak pins.
5. Make all joined work to fit perfectly, using drawbore where it is better.
6. Match the color where two pieces come together.
7. Follow the sample strictly. Take no liberties.
8. The hand and mouth do not work effectively at the same time.
9. Keep busy, do your best, and no fault will be found.
10. Let nothing leave your hands until you are proud of the work.
— from “Wallace Nutting, Collector and Entrepreneur” by William Dulaney
Warning: If you are reading this then this warning is for you. Every word you read of this useless fine print is another second off your life. Don’t you have other things to do? Is your life so empty that you honestly can’t think of a better way to spend these moments? Or are you so impressed with authority that you give respect and credence to all that claim it? Do you read everything you’re supposed to read? Do you think every thing you’re supposed to think? Buy what you’re told to want? Get out of your apartment. Meet a member of the opposite sex. Stop the excessive shopping…. Quit your job. Start a fight. Prove you’re alive. If you don’t claim your humanity you will become a statistic. You have been warned- Tyler.
This morning I’m finishing up all the small drawers for the gallery in this campaign secretary. The dovetails are little buggers, and the mahogany drawer front material is really dark stuff.
So I stole some of my daughter’s sidewalk chalk.
Chalking your knife lines and gauge lines makes your lines really easy to see, even in walnut. I usually rub some chalk onto the board coarsely, knife in my lines and then rub the chalk into the lines. This removes it from the face of the board and leaves it in the crevices.
However, today I learned something new, thanks to the kinda-creepy mind-reading power of carpenter Jeff Burks. He sent me a nice little article from an 1869 edition of The Manufacturer and Builder on dovetails.
There are some interesting tidbits in there, and in the discussion of chalk it implied you could pencil over the chalk. As I am somewhat dense at times, this had never occurred to me. So this morning I chalked my pin boards, knifed in the pins and then penciled in the vertical lines on the inside face.
It worked great.
Thanks dead guys. You’re the best.
You can download and read the entire article here.
“…(I)t was a fact that more tools were spoiled through a simple want of care than were worn out by constant use.”
When I teach classes, I have to restrain myself from saying something incendiary to many students who are frustrated with their tools, even precision planes that cost hundreds of dollars. Here’s what I want to say:
“Of course the tool is fighting you. You haven’t shown it any love.”
Even the best and the most pedestrian tools must be cared for in equal measure. Sharpen them before they get dull. Wipe them down with oil after every use. Ease their hard edges and wax their handles.
These things are discussed in this excellent article dug up by carpenter Jeff Burks, who deserves his own blog (hint). This article was originally published in Scientific American. The following scan is from an 1873 edition of The Manufacturer and Builder. Including this nugget:
“Now, one word about lending tools, and that is – don’t! We know of nothing more aggravating than to work nearly a whole rainy Saturday putting tools to order and then be required to lend one to some shiftless mortal whom we are sure will turn the edge, knock the handle off, and probably throw it down wherever he happens to use it.”
Download the entire article here. It’s a good, quick read. Also, a reader has typed in the text into a .doc file that you can download if you prefer that format.
