During Joshua Klein’s research into the woodworking life of Jonathan Fisher of Maine, Joshua has found several tantalizing entries in Fisher’s journal about mechanical marvels he has invented or made for his workshop. But perhaps most interesting is when Fisher hooks up his lathe to his windmill.
Joshua has been looking for other historical references to people using wind power for turning. Check out his blog entry here.
If you have any clues for Joshua, drop him a line.
— Christopher Schwarz
Jeff Burks has written here several times about the drinking habits of 17th- and 18th-century woodworkers viz. they used to work like the devil all day and then spend all of their hard-earned largesse on gin (known as “mother’s ruin” here in the old country). Workshops typically set up a system of penalties for unsuspecting apprentices to generate alcohol for the journeymen.
It should not have been a surprise that when students joined Chris for the first New English Workshop course the evenings were, in short, a mess; our group of budding anarchists simply reverted to 17th-century type. They worked like the clappers and then went nuts every night.
Inevitably talk turned to differences between U.S. (i.e. damned colonial) and The Queen’s English. It all started innocently enough with the usual woodworking terms: English “timber” being U.S.’s “lumber,” the English cutting “rebates” whilst Americans cut “rabbets” (though there is evidence that “rebate” was originally pronounced “rabbet” here in dear old Blighty). Then we moved onto the more general terms like “chips” in the UK being “French fries” in the U.S., pedestrians getting hit with the hood of the car in America whereas we run them over by hitting them with the bonnet. You get the picture.
I can’t remember who mentioned it in the deepening alcohol-induced haze but somehow the word “chub” came up, and Chris and another American plain flat out snorted their (warm) beer through their noses. So for the next 5 minutes:
Americans: Hooting with laughter.
English: Staring in shock, bemused.
We managed, eventually, to get out of them that in America a chub (chubb?) is a semi-erect willie, whereas in civilised parts of the English speaking world it is a fish or a brand of lock. I’m serious: Englishmen everywhere lock up their homes with a large Chubb at night and fine upstanding Englishmen spend long hours on riverbanks here trying to catch the biggest chub they can….
But then in the U.S. if you have a “semi” you are driving an articulated truck, whereas here in the UK you have a semi-erect johnson… Result:
English: Hooting with laughter.
Americans: Staring in shock, bemused.
But then there are always going be differences: In America “Hooters” is a chain of family restaurants with a friendly owl as its mascot. We also have “Hooters” in the UK but this is dirty, salty, saucy Edinburgh Hooters that has naked ladies of the pole writhing barely inches above your burger and chips. (If my better half is reading this, I heard that on BBC Radio 4, I swear.)
So, thanks to the power of alcohol we established each evening that The Special Relationship is alive and well. Our sorry anarchic crew would then troop into the workshop each morning, scarf down a litre (about a quart) of water and crack on banging out tails in time to the jackhammer pounding in their head. But then on a course where everyone got their bottom ripped French style (see photo above) at least once isn’t a special relationship just what you need?
– Paul Mayon, the New English Workshop
One of the more remarkable items I got see this summer that belonged to Jonathan Fisher was this fascinating homemade saw. Stoutly made with pegged mortise-and-tenon joints, the tool looks like what happens if a hacksaw and a tenon saw had a love child.
Joshua Klein, the Maine woodworker who has been studying Fisher, was undecided as to what Fisher used the saw for. The teeth are fairly coarse – though that could have happened after Fisher’s death in 1847. So one theory is it was a fancy bucksaw. Another is that it was a tenon saw.
If it’s a bucksaw, it’s the fanciest bucksaw ever. Also, the depth of cut is pretty limited.
So judging from the overall physical characteristics of the tool, I think it’s more likely it was used for joinery. But who knows? To me it looks like a miter-box saw (and Fisher did make his own miter box devices), though I would expect to see some more wear on the wooden parts from the saw rubbing on the miter box.
If you are interested in the continuing research into this fascinating early American woodworker and Renaissance man (and a direct relative to Thomas Lie-Nielsen), subscribe to Joshua Klein’s blog, Workbench Diary.
— Christopher Schwarz
The wheel’s hub holds 30 spokes
Utility depends on the hole through the hub.
The potter’s clay forms a vessel
It is the space within that serves.
A house is built with solid walls
The nothingness of window and door alone renders it usable,
That which exists may be transformed
What is nonexistent has boundless uses.
— Laozi, founder of philosophical Taoism