The paper is to be very plain, sufficiently brief, and is intended to lead to practical results; but whether such intention succeeds will, as usual, depend on the obedience and sympathy of those to whom it is addressed.
I was asked the other day to make a set of shelves to hold a few books, and while engaged in the work I determined to jot down a few notes upon those pitfalls which would beset an amateur not quite up to the mark who might undertake a similar job. To an onlooker nothing can be more simple and apparently easy than to cut out and put together a plain set of shelves, especially if they are to be nailed together; yet not a few make a terrible mess of it. (more…)
The frequent inquiries in the Correspondence columns of Carpentry and Building indicate that there is a dearth of knowledge as to the proper method of sharpening a scraper. Without any disposition to assume superior knowledge in this connection I am constrained to remember that we cannot clean our floor without sharp tools, and will give your readers the benefit of my experience along this line.
I presume that every reader understands that the cutting edge of the scraper is formed by turning over a “burr” or wire edge, which does the cutting when applied to the wood. This burr is made by rubbing against the edge of the scraper with a tool called a burnisher, which may be made of any piece of steel of convenient form but which must be harder than the scraper. (more…)
The general demand for finely finished floors of hard or soft wood in modern residences has given rise to such a variety of tools and finishes designed for this special purpose that natural confusion arises as to the best tools, finishes or methods to employ in this highly important branch of the trade.
The growing demand for the conveniences of the city residence in the homes of the smaller towns and the rural districts often brings the carpenter and the painter up against this sort of work, demanding methods of treatment with which they are unfamiliar, and many a good job of floor has been spoiled or indifferently treated by otherwise good mechanics, simply because they lacked the knowledge or experience so essential to success.
It has been the fortune of the writer to have a somewhat extended experience in the better grades of modern floor finishing, and it is with the hope of affording some degree of general information to the craft that this discussion of the topic is undertaken. For convenience in treatment the subject will be considered with reference to the following elements:
1. The carpenter.
2. The tools required.
3. The laying of the floor.
4. Preparation of the surface.
5. The painter’s work.
6. Different varieties of finish.
7. Relative cost of floors and finishes.
8. Suggestions as to estimating. (more…)
The superior processes introduced into industry, in modern times, by the knowledge of chemistry, has led to the establishment of various branches of manufacture, and made them of great importance, though they deal with articles which were formerly either entirely unknown, or disregarded as of no value.
Glue, in the modern industrial world, is a case in point. Like many of the important things in industry, it has heretofore been overlooked; and though the world would suffer, to-day, much less in its comforts and conveniences of living from a loss of all its gold and silver than from that of its glue, yet this fact would be most probably overlooked by the large majority of those whose well being is so intimately dependent upon its abundant and cheap supply.
Yet, in fact, glue is absolutely indispensable to the arts of modern industry, and as yet no substitute has been found to take its place. Without it, turpentine and petroleum would escape from the barrels which now contain them, and be lost. The very paper on which we write would, but for glue, make nothing but a series of blots; and so on through all the series of domestic or household arts. (more…)
From the remotest periods of antiquity down to the present time, wood has been largely employed in the manufacture of all the principal articles of furniture. In this particular but little change has taken place within the memory of man, and even the lapse of centuries has effected comparatively few modifications.
In the course of a series of articles on “Gains and Losses in the Use of Wood,” that appear in the Timber Trades Journal, the writer, touching upon the use of wood for furniture, says that glass has been introduced in the panels of certain furniture, to the displacement of wood, and a light and elegant character of design has taken the place of the old heavy-wooded fittings, which, of course, has somewhat interfered with the bulk of wood used in the manufacture of a given quantity of furniture. This is at best but a minor loss, and, had it not been for a solitary loss of some moment, we need not have singled out the detail of furniture for notice.
We here allude to the discontinuance of the use of wood in the important item of bedsteads. This article in the old days of “four-posters,” capped with heavy cornices, and furnished with head-boards, foot-boards, and lathed bottoms, was a host of timber in itself. These gave way to the more elegant half-headed bedsteads, with their circular cornices, a style that existed to the end of the long career of wooden bedsteads. Practically speaking, this style of furniture has been swept away, and its place has been occupied by brass and iron. (more…)
