Now you can read about all things Don by visiting donsbarn.com – the web site of Don Williams. For those of you who aren’t frequent visitors here, Don is the mastermind behind the A.J. Roubo translations and the author of the forthcoming book on H.O. Studley.
He’s a former conservator for the Smithsonian and expert on all things waxy and shellac-y.
His new site will feature lots of the public-domain articles he wrote while at the Smithsonian, plus a blog on the things that go on at his extremely huge barn and a store for buying some of the things he makes – like the polissoirs from Roubo.
So bookmark the site, add it to your reader and enjoy the articles that are already there. Don says more are forthcoming.
With “By Hand & Eye” at the printer, our sights are set on completing the first volume of the A.J. Roubo translation.
All I can say is thank goodness for Jeff Burks. If it weren’t for his regular stream of research, I wouldn’t have much to post here except: “Day 630, still editing Roubo and looking stuff up in the original French.”
During this admittedly drawn-out process, several readers have said something like: “Come on. Just run the text through a translation program. Look up the weird words the translation program doesn’t recognize and be done with it.”
To demonstrate what that piece of rotten sausage that idea is, here is a simple exercise in that process. Jeff Burks sent me a cool Dutch children’s book called “De historie van de kaboutermannetjes” from 1873. The kaboutermannetjes are like gremlins and get into all sorts of mischief. I extracted the text and ran it through Google’s translate program.
And here’s what comes out. Reading it out loud is hilarious, particularly after two beers.
Oh, what a golden age was that,
When m ‘in every home in country and city
Gnome Mannekes had,
That was a maid ‘journey lazy and slow?
Or deemed d ‘labor acid plague,
Pst! came at night,
If mice so soft,
And scoured and performing ablutions,
And washed and splashed,
And auctioned,
And mopped,
And wormden and saddled,
And scrubbed and scrubbed,
So that was the hour to stand by on
The maid àl ‘t homework was done.
The metslaarsknechts and carpenters
Also had hard work of the effervescent,
There, they thought it was small-menfolk
And d ‘labor over for them.
‘t handle hammer and ax,
Drill, truffle and file,
The addict and trotted,
The drilled and scraped,
It added,
The toiled,
As it withers and food
Gladweg was forgotten,
Until very ‘t chore was dismissed
And the people could go. Pub or bed
The baker and his white servant
Deen but also what their well thought only,
Because, if it’s small people saw them luiren,
Came it from the chimney for the day.
They took the flour
From attic or part,
They sifted and kneaded it,
They weighed and did it,
they moved
‘t In d’ oven,
Stoking the coals on
And fit well on
Until, at the crowing of the cock,
The boss’ t diff baking was done standing.
it went to the butcher just so far:
Had that night to a pig or cow,
But he and his servant often,
‘t Leprechaun People helped with entertainment.
Keelden that the animal,
Which made it nigh,
Who went to ‘t heels,
Getting it down and snap,
That flushing,
Which churned,
Who smeared and spilled,
Who stopped the sausages,
And, dear broke tomorrow,
‘t Meat was only to save. upon the hook
The kastlein tasted sweet in inward peace
But up to his guests;
Because it was all his work which he drank,
There until he sank down on.
So he lay at rest,
Then it was a delight,
How it small people are repelled,
‘t In’ t chalk standing noted,
How it pondered,
How it appropriate,
To room and buffetkas
Weather was just pure and
And where they looked but around,
Every thing was good in the place again.
Sat once a tailor in pain,
Because a suit had to be ready soon
He slate but it drape down with him
And went to ‘t snore like a bear.
Went with a seesaw
‘t Kleine-folk to the cut;
She tucked and stung,
They zoomed and suffocated,
Garneerden,
Watt migrants,
And pierced and sewed,
And squeezed and twisted
At night through – if the tailor stood on,
Had the Sinjeur ‘t new suit already.
Oh dear, now done that time;
‘t Leprechaun People is to the moon!
One can not loafing more,
It should present themselves busy;
Currently some will,
Not to sit still,
Who keep themselves awake dough,
That stir themselves …. the wretch!
That gape,
That her lie,
Clean it long hour of rest there,
Is not ready for his work. –
So, boys, girls! keeps you well,
And do your duty with courage frischen.
While I am trying to keep a stiff upper lip in my basement shop by working on a British naval officer’s campaign chest, the rest of the house is in a European near-riot.
This morning the postman dropped off another proof of “To Make as Perfectly as Possible: Roubo on Marquetry,” which I’m going to start plowing into as soon as I stop typing this missive to you.
A few minutes later, the same postman stopped by to make me sign for a package from France. What’s this? He shrugs his shoulders and ambles away. I rip the package open with a knife and suddenly remember I had won this item via French eBay.
It’s a brass apron hook that looks like a workbench that is adorned with a bowsaw, holdfast, mallet and handplane. The bauble is surprisingly small – the brass part is only 1-1/2” long – and quite detailed – I can see the pegs that secure the tenons on the front leg.
Now all I need is an apron that works with these hooks. That shouldn’t be too hard to rig.
Also in the Inbox is a very interesting e-mail from Jeff Burks with an early – 1502 – depiction of a shoulder knife in use.
“As far as I know this is the oldest image depicting a shoulder knife in use, “Jeff writes. “The original was an intarsia self portrait made by Antonio Barili in 1502. I believe this was installed at the chapel of Saint John the Baptist in the Duomo of Siena.
“Antonio Barili (1453-1516) was an Italian intarsia designer, civil engineer, architect and engraver and a native of Siena. From 1483 to 1502 he worked in Siena Cathedral, providing carving and intarsia. This particular intarsia work was destroyed during World War II.
“The Latin inscription on the intarsia reads: ‘Hoc opus ego Antonius Barilis coelo non penicello D excussi an MCCCCCII.’ This translates to: ‘This work have I Antonio Barili made with the carving knife, not with a brush. In the year 1502.’ ”
One interesting description of this self-portrait comments that Barilis seems to be guiding the knife with a pencil in his right hand. Curious.
I never get tired of looking at old drawings from woodworking shops. They confirm some of things I know about woodworking, challenge some of my ideas and make me want – really, really want – a cool joiner’s cap.
This weekend, Jeff Burks shared a bunch of images with me from the book “Angenehme Bilder-Lust, Der Lieben Jugend zur Ergötzung also eingerichtet” by Peter Conrad Monath (1683-1747) of Nürnberg.
Jeff’s stab at the translation for the book is: “Pleasant Diversions with Pictures: Thus Fondly Arranged for the Amusement of the Young.”
Monath was a Nürnberg printer who was famed for his children’s books and adolescents’ literature. Among the plates in this book is “Das Schreiner Handwerck,” or the “Carpenter’s Craft.”
Things that are interesting to note about this Germanic plate (aside from the fact that there must have been a sale on those hats):
1. A shoulder knife in use. The user is working on one of these “slab workbenches” I discussed last week. He has a cool hat, but it is not as awesome as the hat on the guy ripping at the same bench, which leads us to:
2. Clamps in use on the bench. The more old images you see, the more you’ll find this simple wooden clamp, which is described in A.J. Roubo’s “L’Art du Menuisier.”
3. Sometimes mortising looks like you are singing an aria.
4. A nice Germanic bench with a shoulder vise and no stretchers in the undercarriage. Could be the fault of the illustrator. But who knows?
5. More sawbenches with curved legs. Gotta make some.
6. Vanilla Ice is a member of the undead. Check out the cap on the guy sawing on the sawbenches. He is either with the crips or the bloods. I forget which is which.
7. The casework on its back. It’s good to see this – this is how I work on casework.
One last detail: I really like how the two shoulder knives are crossed in the little illustration below in amongst the text.
Hey buddy, wanna see some edited proofs of the A.J. Roubo translation? Read on.
Lost Art Press will have a booth at the Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Event next weekend, and yes, we’ll have the first 126 pages of “To Make as Perfectly as Possible: Roubo on Marquetry” for you to look over. And if I can get it printed out in time, I’ll also have a nice color proof of “By Hand & By Eye” by George Walker and Jim Tolpin.
Details and directions to the Popular Woodworking Soviet-era bunker are here.
As always, the Society of American Period Furniture Makers will be there in force doing demonstrations. Even if you own every Lie-Nielsen tool made, these demonstrations are a great reason to go. The schedule of demonstrations is here.
Plus, lots of toolmakers to chat up and an opportunity to test-drive their tools.
We’ll have our full range of books and DVDs for sale at the show, including our newest book “With the Grain” by Christian Becksvoort. Plus my Dutch tool chest and the Milkman’s Workbench. And a partridge in a camphor laurel tree (Got to get Australia out of my head.)
This is always a great show. Free. Hope you can make it.
