Roy Underhill (left) and Whitney Miller (right) both graced the Lost Art Press shop this week!
Update: Comments are now closed.
We’ve had a grand week of visitors and video shoots. Roy Underhill made a quick trip to town, then headed a little farther northwest to experience eclipse totality. And Whitney Miller, author of “Henry Boyd’s Freedom Bed,” spent the week recording a video on how to make a Swedish tool chest. Not only is she the video star, she’ll be doing the editing…so you know it will be more entertaining than most of our videos! (Look for it in our store later this year.)
After a busy week, it’ll be a bit of a relief to sit at the computer and answer woodworking questions – so queue ’em up in the comments section below, and I’ll answer. As will Chris, once he’s back late today from a whirlwind trip to the Chicago area to drop off the projects for “The American Peasant” with Narayan for photography.
As always, brevity is appreciated.
Comments will close at around 5 p.m. (but we may answer later in the evening).
– Fitz
Whitney with the finished tool chest. (We planned to use pine or linden…but the wide cherry was just too tempting!)
Woodworker and musician Joel Paul – you might know him as 13starsfarm (and formerly as punckrockshaker) on Instragram – had a devastating accident while helping a neighbor to fell a tree. Joel’s injuries are severe, and his recovery will be long and expensive.
If you can spare a bit, please consider a donation to the GoFundMe set up by his daughter, Rachel. Any amount will help.
Plate 13 from M. Hulot’s “L’Art du Tourneur Mécanicien” (1775). Plate Courtesy of John and Eleanor Kebabian
Any time a picture or video shows up of Chris or me or a student using the low bench to shave spindles, I get questions about the “planing stop” against which the workpiece is held. That’s the “Hulot Block” or “head” that shows up in 1775 book “L’Art du Tourneur Mécancien.” Chris reproduced it for the Roman bench in “Ingenious Mechanics.” It’s on page 97 in Chapter 5: Early Workholding Devices. (There are many other simple and clever workholding devices in that chapter, too – but this is the one that always catches people’s collective eye, and it’s the one that sees the most use in our shop.)
– Fitz
If the shaving horse seems too complex, consider shaving spindles and legs using a setup from M. Hulot’s “L’Art du Tourneur Mécanicien” (1775). Hulot details a low bench he calls a “saddle” for chairmaking. The bench includes a “head” for shaving pieces and wedge-based clamps for holding chair pieces.
Detail of Plate 31 from M. Hulot’s “L’Art du Tourneur Mécanicien” (1775). Plate Courtesy of John and Eleanor Kebabian
To shave pieces, you don the “belly” in front of your belly and immobilize the wood between the belly and the head, as shown in the plate above.
We translated the original text (thanks Tom Bonamici) and offer it here for you to interpret.
The Figure 4, Plate 13, represents a type of bench which is named a Saddle for planing and assembling; it’s a piece of oak of 5 feet in length by 12 to 14 inches in width, and very thick, carried on four strong legs below, R, Y, X, Z, which enter through as many round holes drilled in the bottom of the Saddle, A B. The Worker has his face turned toward the head, H B, which is a big piece of softwood, such as alder, and of which the bottom forms a flat tenon which passes through a mortise in the Saddle; the upper part [of the alder head] forms a type of stepped stop, of which the steps are notched in different ways, some perpendicular and shallow, for receiving the end of flat pieces to be planed on their edge [see vertical notch just to the left of the letter B, Fig. 4, Pl. 13]; the flat steps receive pieces to be planed on their face. Other steps are notched horizontally and vertically in the form of a little spoon, for receiving the end of a baton. There are more little vertical notches next to this hollow, which can be seen in the figure [Fig. 4]. Independently of the tenon which fixes the head H, it [the head] is supported by the cross beam K, also named the transom, head, or buttress of the head, & which is supported at the end & across the Saddle, by two strong pegs of strong and binding wood, such as ash or dogwood, which pass perpendicularly across the cross beam and the Saddle.
Minute made. The “belly” is a remarkable appliance for shaving chair components. While it’s not as adept at shaving long, thin spindles, it excels when shaping legs or short spindles. Photo by NN
If the wood to be planed is big & long, one doesn’t sit on the Saddle, but one stands upright, & one places the end of the wood in the corner H K formed by the cross beam and the side of the head of the Saddle.
The Worker is obliged, in planing a piece of wood, to support its end against his stomach; & so as not to hurt himself, he has in front of him a mass or block of wood that’s named the Belly.
This Belly is a type of wooden piece of oak, a foot long, 6 inches wide, & about 1/3 of an inch thick, Pl. 13, fig. 10. The top part is cut in a roughly oval shape, F I, f G; the bottom part, F I, f k, is made in a roughly semicircular shape; & as the Turner places this Belly in front of himself, the cord of his apron passes from F to f, and by this method the Belly is held fast. In the middle of the oval, one places a block L, of softwood, round, 3 to 4 inches in diameter, by around 2 to 3 inches in thickness, made of end grain, and in the center of which has been inserted a pin l of hardwood, & which is held by a friction fit in a hole in the center of the Belly’s oval; one cuts the end of this pin flush off at the back so that it doesn’t hurt the Artist. On the face of this block, one makes a very shallow groove in the shape of a cross, which serves to hold the flat pieces to be planed, either on their face or on their edge. See Pl. 31, vignette, fig. 3, where the Turner is occupied in planing. Below figure 10, Pl. 13, we see the block shown in perspective; l, is the tenon or pin which enters in the hole in the middle of this block. The holes I, I, which are at the bottom, in the semicircle of these Bellies, serve to hang them on the wall when not in use.
Good design. The block in the middle is thick for good reason. Its thickness allows you to get your drawknife right up to the end of the work with remarkable control. Photo by NN
Making the head is simple. Like the shaving horse, the palm and the planing stop, these fit into a 2″ x 2″ mortise in the benchtop. Construction begins with a post that is 2″ x 2″ x 9-3/4″. Plane it so it fits into the benchtop mortise with mallet blows.
Now mortise the post into the 3″ x 3-3/4″ x 5-1/2″ head. Cut a mortise that is 3/4″ deep. Glue the post into the head.
Cut a series of rabbets in the head. I made mine roughly match the plate in Hulot. There also is a blind hole in the middle and a few kerfs. All these notches and kerfs are used to hold onto one end of the work. And, judging by the plate showing the head in use, you place the stick’s tenon in the hole when working a spindle or leg.
Head
The belly is a thin plate of wood that you wear – like an armored breastplate. A block of softwood with two trenches plowed across the end grain serves as the other end of the clamping action. Hulot specifies that the block is friction-fit into a hole into the breastplate, which I assume will allow the block to rotate (if needed).
I made the breastplate from a thin piece of poplar – 1/2″ x 10″ x 14″ cut to a rough oval shape. The block is white pine – 4″ in diameter x 2-3/4″ long. The 3/8″ x 3/8″ trenches cross in the middle of the block. I attached the block to the breastplate with a large screw, which allows it to rotate.
Hulot says the worker’s shop apron string can secure the belly while working. However, my shop apron doesn’t look anything like the aprons shown in the plate. So, I riveted the belly to a pair of $6 suspenders (a couple screws could also do the job of the rivets).
If you are shaving only a couple of pieces, you can prop the belly up on your legs. For long sessions, you’ll want it tethered to you in some way.
The belly is remarkably effective for shaving legs and other chair components. The block holds the work so you can knife the end of your workpiece without the drawknife’s handles hitting your body. Also, the rabbets on the head are all useful – especially the small rabbet at the top, which allows you to shave small components along their entire length.
Belly
The belly is an effective alternative to a shavehorse in many cases. It can be used at a high or low bench. It takes up no floor space. It allows you to shave the entire length of a leg or spindle in one swipe. It’s as fast as a shavehorse.
It’s not as effective when dealing with long, thin spindles, such as the 5/8″-diameter back spindles on a Windsor chair. They are so long and flexible that they are a handful when using the belly.
Lee John Phillips, an illustrator from Pembrokeshire, West Wales, is no stranger to Lost Art Press. A while back, Chris Schwarz commissioned Lee for the “Family Tree of Chairs” that was on the end sheets of “The Stick Chair Book” and a poster. As much as we love Lee’s work for “The Stick Chair Book,” this post isn’t about that — for years Lee has been illustrating all the items, more than 8,500 to be exact, from his late grandfather’s tool shed, which his grandmother has kept in pristine condition.
“The Shed Project,” as Lee calls it, has been in the works for more than 10 years. Lee guesses there are more than 100,000 items in his grandfather’s shed and he’s visually recording every one of them. In the “Toolshed Coloring Book,” Lee shares just a fraction of the meticulously drawn visual studies from this project. (The book was published in 2016 – I don’t know how we only recently found out about it!). You can read more about “The Shed Project” on Lee’s website, from the humble beginnings of the project in 2014 to the rules he’s set for himself along this journey, to where he is now.
You may recognize Lee’s work if you’ve ever picked up a copy of “The Stick Chair Book” by Christopher Schwarz. We commissioned Lee for the end sheets and “Family Tree of Chairs” poster.
“Toolshed” is technically a coloring book – however, I’m so enthralled by Lee’s line work I’m afraid I’d do a disservice to his illustrations with my feral coloring. Each page is deliberately designed to stand alone for one’s viewing pleasure or to keep intact as a sort of coloring sketchbook. We’ve long been a fan of Lee’s work and love supporting artists of all sorts, and hope you do too. Color a page (or don’t) and pin it up in your workshop for wall decor, give the book and a pack of crayons to your grandchildren for them to explore and ask “what’s this?” a million times, or keep it on your coffee table as a conversation piece to share the story of Lee’s project.
Somehow the stunning mosaics unearthed at the Huqoq synagogue during the last 12 years have escaped my attention. Reader Richard Mahler pointed them out to me, and I have been thinking about them all week.
The mosaic I have been poring over is the one depicting the construction of the Tower of Babel. There are stoneworkers (yawn). A crane taking materials to the top (kinda yawn). A guy adzing a post (!). A guy planing on a bench (!!). Sawing boards Egyptian style (!!!). And a fight with mallets vs. a bowsaw (!!!!). And an interesting window.
There is some interesting woodworking stuff in these mosaics. Let’s start with the guys ripping a board that is standing upright.
The synagogue was built in the early 5th century (C.E.), and yet here we have two guys ripping a plank in a clearly ancient Egyptian style. The plank is vertical and secured in place at the ground, and the workers are sawing down with a wedge in place to help keep the kerf open.
Ancient Egyptian sawyers were depicted working exactly this way with one exception. The ancient Egyptians used a bronze saw – it looks like a Japanese saw. With the teeth set to only one side of the blade.
The Romans here use a frame saw. As far as we know the Romans and Greeks invented frame saws and handplanes. So this is a real interesting transitional scene.
Next we have a guy working the side of a plank with an adze. The post is vertical. Again this is something you see in ancient Egyptian imagery. Later, adzes were shown with longer handles with the work on the floor. Though the handheld adze used vertically still survives in some cultures to this day.
And the workbench. My immediate reaction was: Look at that low Roman workbench. But 2 seconds later my head said: But why is the worker standing up as he planes a board on it? Do we have a problem here because this is a pre-perspective image? (Yes.) But does that explain why he is standing up? (No.)
So we just have to accept that maybe we don’t know what the artist saw. The worker holds the board with his left hand as he planes with his right. There is no evidence of a planing stop.
And finally we have a nice window and a fight between two workers: one holding a bowsaw and the other holding a mallet. The story of the Tower of Babel is about humanity’s attempt to build a tower to heaven. God cursed the workers and made them speak different languages. Chaos ensued.
One amazing thing: Early black woodworker. The earliest image I know.
Second thing: My money is on the guy with a mallet.
