A try-square is not always at hand when it is desired to saw a stick, and when it is handy some mechanics prefer to work by “guess” than otherwise. When a bright, straight saw is placed upon a stick or on the edge of a board, the reflection of the stick or board in the saw
is sufficiently well defined to permit of placing the saw so that the reflected image coincides with the object reflected, forming a continuous straight line. If the sawing is done while the image and the stick are in line, the stick will be cut at right angles.
It is obvious that a line may be drawn at right angles to the stick by arranging the saw as shown in Fig 2. If, after forming this line, the saw be placed across the stick so that the line and its reflected image and the stick and its reflected image form a square, with the
reflected image and the stick lying in the same plane, as shown in Fig. 3, the stick may be sawed at an angle of forty-five degrees, provided the saw is held in the same position relative to the stick.
I like to see a farmer well provided with tools, that he need not be subject to the very troublesome inconvenience of borrowing. Some, however, prefer to carry on their work by means of their neighbor’s implements, and, from frequent use of the same, they seem to think, that they derive a positive right to them. You may bring home a new axe, for instance, all ground and sharp for business, and, in half an hour, if you wish for it, you are pretty sure to find it at the woodpile of your borrowing neighbor. Is not this most provoking?
A farmer, as well as a mechanic, should have tools of his own. How would it answer for a carpenter to depend upon a brother artificer for his broad-axe, his mallet, his hammer, and hand-saw? For myself, I have always endeavored to keep on hand, and ready for use, every sort of farming utensils, that I think I may need, in my, rather small way, perhaps, of husbandry; and it may be, that what has been remarked about it is true, viz: that, for this very reason, my neighbors are but too negligent in this matter, calculating that whenever they want a tool, they know where to find one.
I have been called a ‘good-natured man, and willing to oblige,’ but, from this time henceforth, I am determined to set up my Ebenezer in the business, and show them, that I am not without grit and resolution. I will not be pestered, as I have been for a series of years, with such continual annoyance. I would be liberally disposed towards my neighbors; I would be in season and out of season in my good offices; but with respect to farming tools, there is no more lack of them for the agriculturist, than there is of lace, ribands, and trinkets for a ball room.
Every sort and kind of tool is offered for sale at the Agricultural stores, and a man is not obliged now, as once, to botch up an old, worn-out tool, because there are no more to be purchased. The best accommodation on this behalf may now be found on the right, and on the left, so that borrowing is out of the question. I say to the farmer who expects to carry on his business by depending on his neighbors for tools,—’avaunt! nor presume to meddle with my scythe, my rake, my flail, my brake, my axe, my hoe, my plough, my crow;’ ay, and again I say, hands off from my beetle and wedges. (more…)
In my carpenter work I have many odd jobs, which makes it necessary to call a drayman for hauling the chest of tools each way, and this added expense on small jobs makes them unprofitable. To eliminate this expense I constructed a tool-chest cart that can be easily pushed along on a sidewalk, paved street, or smooth roadway, by hand.
The frame of the cart is made from 1/2-in. pipe set on 20-in. bicycle wheels using pneumatic tires. The wheels are set far enough forward so that there is considerable weight on the post at the rear when standing still. When lifted, the handle is of convenient height for pushing, and it balances well on the wheels.
It is much easier to push the cart than to carry a few tools in a hand box on the shoulder, and when I arrive at the work I have everything I need, including screws, brads and nails of various sizes.
– Contributed by Sim Goddard, Sheridan, Wyo.
The village joiners outside their shop in Eschelbronn, Germany – May 1911.
Which tool will you choose to identify with for your next group portrait? Will it be the try square or the jointer plane? Or will you be in the bathroom when the photographer arrives and wind up holding the glue pot because all the cool tools were taken?
Adam Kaiser and his Journeymen – Joiners from Eschelbronn, Germany – 1882
(from left to right starting with the back row)
Konrad Grab, Johann Rumig, ? Kirsch, Adam Kaltenbrunner, Christian Wolff, Adam Lenz, Jacob Steiß, Christoph Canz, Adam Kaiser junior, Adam Kaiser senior, Georg Wilhlm Kirsch, Wilhelm Echner, Johannes Filsinger.
I have yet to see a wall-hung tool chest that gives me a tingling feeling in my no-no square. (That is the mark of good design.)
But this chest comes the closest.
This is a page from the 1907 tool catalog of Tiersot, a French ironmonger founded in 1865. The catalog itself is a wonderful trip to a time when hand tools and machines occupied equal space in the pages of catalogs. You can download the enormous catalog here, courtesy of Jeff Burks.
This tool cabinet, which cost the impressive sum of 400 Francs, is fairly well-equipped and organized. I wish I had a better scan to share.
