“It is worth noting on the Platte one may sometimes see the shattered wrecks of ancient claw-footed tables, well waxed and rubbed, or massive bureaus of carved oak. These, some of them no doubt the relics of ancestral prosperity in the colonial time, must have encountered strange vicissitudes. Brought, perhaps from England; then, with the declining fortunes of their owners, borne across the Alleghanies to the wilderness of Ohio or Kentucky; then to Illinois or Missouri; and now at last fondly stowed away in the family wagon for the interminable journey to Oregon. But the stern privations of the way are little anticipated. The cherished relic is soon flung out to scorch and crack upon the hot prairie.”
— Francis Parkman, “The Oregon Trail, Works, Vol. 12,” (Little, Brown, 1910) page 103
While visiting blacksmith Peter Ross’s shop last week I couldn’t resist asking him to make me two pairs of dividers that are dead ringers for the dividers shown in Joseph Moxon’s “Mechanick Exercises” (1678) and the logo of Lost Art Press.
The dividers are, like all of Peter’s work, stunning. Their movement is smooth and sufficiently stiff. If they do loosen up with use, that can be retightened by striking the ball at the top with a flat-face hammer with the dividers resting on an anvil.
The dividers are $125 each if you are interested in obtaining some for your tool chest.
Peter has also been working on some hardware for “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest.” Shown are the hinges, which Peter designed to merge parts of a chest hinge and a butt hinge. I’m going to install them on the chest I’m building at home now and see how they function. Next up: Peter is going to make a crab lock for the chest.
OK, if you will excuse me I have to go make some more money to pay for this stuff.
Though some books decry the act, the archaeological record is clear: Woodworkers used their tool chests as sawbenches.
Many tool chests I’ve examined have edges that have been scarred by saw teeth. And as a woodworker, I’ve also felt the urge to saw upon the lid of my tool chest. OK, confession time: I’ve done it.
The only real problem with using your chest as a sawbench comes if your lid has a traditional raised-panel lid, such as the one on my current tool chest. The problem is that the raised field of the panel leaves some portion of your work unsupported, hanging out and vibrating like crazy when you saw.
The solution, according to Australian woodworker Phil Spencer, is the “Spratling Bead.”
This feature, named after Spencer’s grandfather, Lindsay Spratling, adds a raised bead between the lid and the dust seal that helps support work when you saw it on top of the chest. It also will help support work when you clamp it on top of the chest – something I do all the time.
Spratling was a carpenter and later a woodwork teacher at the former Caulfield Tech in Melbourne.
“I remember when he had his apprentices building their tool boxes he would have them incorporate two raised hardwood strips into the lids running along the edges of the lid,” Spencer wrote in an e-mail. “The idea of the strips was to sit proud of the raised panel and gave the owner something solid to rest a plank on so it could be cut, if the plank was rested on the raised panel it would usually rock.”
I must admit that the Spratling beads are quite clever. And if you think you might saw anything on the top of your tool chest, they would make an excellent addition.
While visiting North Carolina this week, I visited the shop of blacksmith Peter Ross and saw a few of his dang-amazing full-size Andre Roubo-style holdfasts in the works.
I’ve been using this holdfast every day on my bench at home. It is an incredible piece of iron and a great asset when sawing, mortising or planing on my bench. And, best of all, it makes other holdfasts look like pipe cleaners.
Peter says he’s built about a dozen of these holdfasts since he made mine. And though they take a lot of physical effort to produce, the biggest challenge is in finding the material that is suited for a holdfast of this size.
These holdfasts are more expensive than smaller ones – about $385. But the craftsmanship is outstanding, and they function brilliantly. If you cannot swing the price of a full-on Roubo holdfast, I highly recommend the Joseph Moxon-style ones that Peter makes, which hold better in thick benches than any holdfast I’ve ever used, and they have a low profile. Those are more like $80 each. Read my discussion of them here.
Lost Art Press is pleased to announce that Roy Underhill will be the voice reading our audiobook presentation of “The Joiner & Cabinet Maker,” which will be released later this summer.
Roy and I have spent the day recording the first part of the original 1839 text, and we will work on the remainder of the book this week. The audiobook will be available for download from LostArtPress.com or as a CD set available from us and our retailers.
The tentative price for the book will be $16 for the download and $20 (plus shipping) for the CD.
We’ve been recording the audiobook at Roy’s cottage in Graham, N.C., where we have taken over his office and covered all the walls with quilts and blankets from his house (apologies to Jane, Roy’s wife). Roy is doing somewhat of a dramatic reading of the text, using different voices for the different characters in telling the tale of young Thomas and his journey of apprenticeship in a rural English joiner’s shop.
The only hitch in the recording so far has been controlling some of the hard “P” sounds with the microphone. We fixed that using a wire hanger and a piece of Megan Fitzpatrick’s pantyhose that she donated for the recording.
You can download a short (and somewhat rough) clip from our recording session for free by clicking below.
