Lost Art Press

Category: Historical Images

The Mallet and Beetle

Posted on by fitz

beetle_1859267. A mallet should be made of some very hard wood, and, if it be not made of a knot, the ends of it should be banded, like the beetle, to keep it from splitting. That part of a tree, if it be tough wood, which grows just above the surface of the ground, what is called the crook, will make the very best mallets, which will require no hooping. I have a mallet which was made of the crook of a part of a white ash stump, which has been the only mallet in use, for framing all my buildings, and doing all my shop work, for sixteen years, and it is not half worn out, as yet.

A mallet should be turned out true, with the ends convex, or rounding, not less than half an inch from edge to edge. The handle should be put in true, so that the faces will be parallel with the handle, as shown in the fig. 104. Let it be well oiled to prevent its cracking. Never allow the faces of the mallet to be bruised, and dented on iron bolts and such like, but keep it smooth for pounding on chisel handles only. A tough piece of apple wood will make about as good a mallet as almost any other kind of wood. But if it is made of a round piece of wood, on account of its great liability to check, it should be treated as recommended for

Beetles.

268. Figure 104 represents a farmer’s beetle made in a workmanlike manner. Beetles should always be turned true, and the handle turned of an oval form (see Sledge Hammer), and put in very true, so that a line cutting the center of the handle will be exactly parallel with lines continued square across the ends or faces of the beetle, as shown by the dotted lines figure 104. The beetle should hang as nearly like the sledge hammer as possible, and the reader can refer to that paragraph for the information which seems to be lacking in this place.
(more…)

Learning a Trade

Posted on by fitz

It may be thought by some that this letter will appeal to a very small circle of readers, for the young men of the present day do not wish to learn trades; they consider it menial, and much prefer to be clerks or professional men. This is a fact. A New York carriage-maker, at a meeting of manufacturers in New Haven recently, said:

bandofhopereview

“One of the serious wants of this country and of our trade is good boys. Our boys are deteriorating, as are our men. The greatest difficulty that we experience in New York is that of getting boys who have brains and are willing to learn a trade thoroughly. The example of men who have made millions in a few years is held up before our boys in school, and the boys become inflamed with the notion that they must make their millions and be able to found new crossroads colleges before they die. So they eschew trades and become poor professionals.”

Tell the average boy that he ought to learn a trade, and he will look up with wonder and, perhaps, contempt, and say, “No trade for me.” But for all that, I hold that of every three boys who become clerks, two would have done better in health, in pecuniary results, and in the long run in comfort and social position, to learn a trade. Good mechanics to-day are better paid than the average of clerks, are more certain of situations, and, when from accidental causes out of a situation, have less trouble in getting another. In many trades the best workmen receive $3 a day. In some they are able to make by piece-work $4 and $5, while the average salary of clerks and subordinate book-keepers amounts to less than $800 a year. Some excellent authorities affirm that, take the country through, it amounts to less than $600 per annum. The expenses of the clerk, also, are larger than those of the mechanic.
(more…)

Orderly Shops and Good Tools

Posted on by fitz

Mechanics_1888
There are few mechanics who realize the importance of keeping their tools in perfect order; nevertheless, the experience of every one having to work with a set of tools ought to prove that he should love his tools and regard them with pride. We scarcely recollect a single instance of a really good workman who did not possess this affection for, and pride in, the implements which enabled him to turn out his work well.

If hammers are rusty and with faces covered with careless nicks, and fitted with ill-shaped and broken handles; if sharp-edged tools are badly ground and covered with rust; if cold chisels are made very much like old shanks taken at random from the scrap pile, and litter, dirt, tools and fragments are clustered together in a close conglomeration, it will convey about the same idea to the observer that a beggar in tattered habiliments would in the parlor of a prince. Every one would feel a great desire to either eject the intruder from the apartment or at once leave the place himself.

There are instances where this affection for, and pride in, implements have gone extremely far and become almost a monomania; so much so that the journeyman could scarcely bear to see you examining his chisels, files, etc., and seemed to have a fear, whilst you were looking at them, of some outward effect like that which the Indians attribute to an evil eye, but which merely arose from a species of selfish affection for these children of his handicraft.
(more…)

Boy Mechanics

Posted on by fitz

boy_mechanic
Boys precede men and apprentices precede journeymen. The boy is the father of the man. It is an old saying and a true one. Almost all boys are naturally mechanics. The constructive and imitative faculties are developed, in part, at a very early age. All boys are not capable of being developed into good, practical, working mechanics, but most of them show their bent that way. There are a few cases in which the boy has no competent idea of the production of a fabricated result from inorganic material, but such cases are rare. Given the proper encouragement and the means, and many boys whose mechanical aptness is allowed to run to waste, or is diverted from its natural course, would become good workmen, useful, producing members of the industrial community.
(more…)

Bostwick’s Giant Riding Saw Machine

Posted on by fitz

bostwicks_saw

A simple method of quickly cross-cutting a log has long been required by those who have to do with unsawn timber. The time and trouble involved by the employment of two sawyers is a serious item in lumbering expenses, and even where a circular saw is available the log has perhaps to be removed from some distance to be placed upon the bench. The ingenious invention illustrated herewith essays to get over these timber-dealing difficulties, and after practically testing its merits we are able to say that it effectively does all that is claimed for it.

The merit of this contrivance mainly consists in the fact that every particle of power in the body of the operator is brought to bear on the work. The feet, hands, back, and even the weight of the man is brought to bear on the saw, whilst the operator sits in the saddle, with his feet upon the treadles and hands upon the lever, in a perfectly easy and natural position. The saw is driven by motions of the body so easy and natural that they are hardly felt, certainly not more than riding a horse. The principles of leverage employed in its operation afford a perfect application of power and the force is applied just “where it will be the most use.” Every “foot-pound” of power produces a foot-pound of good honest work.
(more…)