At noon EST on Friday, Oct. 14, we will put the first batch of dividers up for sale on the Crucible Tool website: crucibletool.com. We are now in continuous production and Raney Nelson has the mill humming at a fast clip.
If the first batch sells out quickly, don’t fret. We plan on keeping production moving as quickly as possible to meet demand and will offer another batch the following week.
The dividers are $120, which includes domestic shipping. I’m afraid we don’t have the ability to ship internationally. We are working on first opening up sales to Canada in the coming weeks, then we’ll take a look at the rest of the world. Shipping these holdfasts overseas might not make sense.
This week I’ll post some video that shows how we make the dividers, from roughing out the stock to final assembly.
Two massive tables bookending the first half of the 16th century and that is where the similarities end. One has seen hard use and is scarred, the other is fun and frivolous. One mirrors the poor choices made by the estate and the other is a celebration of wealth and multiple marriages.
Oak refectory table from Little Moreton House, Cheshire, England. Photo from The National Trust.
The Brute
The top of the table is original and was listed in the estate inventory of 1597. However, the frame is an 18th or 19th century replacement. The National Trust description of the frame is, “a round arcade with bosses below the spandrels. The top is mounted on three supports with a single stretcher running lengthways (appearing to be a later addition). The top of the frame has six pendant bosses at regular intervals carved with Ionic capitals.”
Little Moreton House is a half-timbered Tudor gem and has the distinction of being one of the most crooked houses in England. The house was in the same family for 450 years with additions made by successive generations. An ill-considered addition of an upper-story gallery put too much weight on the lower stories causing bending and warping. The table top did not fare much better, starting with the wood selection.
My consultation with a well-known “person of knowledge” associated with this blog revealed two things: the top board includes pith, a knot or both. The long crack indicates a “boxed heart” where some of the pith is part of the board. The radial crack seen in the foreground could be from a knot.
Repairs on the table top. National Trust photo.
This table top lived a hard life with at least two repairs. Although the National Trust did not provide dimensions (there is an effort underway to provide more information on the thousands of pieces in their registry) I estimate the length to be 8 to 10 feet. In the language of the day this table top would be, “that whyche ys nedefoulle and nesesary.”
The Angel
At the same time Bess of Hardwick was to marry George Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, her son and daughter from a previous marriage were also marrying the children of Shrewsbury. She ordered a table to include the arms of Hardwick, Shrewsbury and Cavendish (the previous husband from whence her two children came) and designs for entertainments. By the way, it was 1568 and this was Bess’ fourth marriage.
Eglantine table. Photo by The National Trust.
This is the Aeglentyne, or Eglantine Table. The National Trust description: “Oak table with inlaid walnut rectangular top. Four conical legs, tapered from top, also inlaid, as is frieze and stretchers with moulded edges. Legs have carved capitals with egg and dart moulding above a gadrooned ring. Plinth foot is squared. Inside of stretchers painted strapwork pattern. Outside diamond and oval pattern. Frieze inlay has metopes and drops with roundels between. Top inlaid with musical instruments, etc.”
Aeglentyne is an old name for the sweet briar rose (Rosa eglanteria), is mentioned in many poems of the 16th century and is included in a short rhyme in a cartouche at the center of the table.
“The redolent smle/of aeglentyne./We stagges exauet/to the Deveyne.” The cartouche is surrounded with animals from heraldry and the joined arms of the three families involved in the three weddings. The remainder of the table has glorious inlays of flowers, musical instruments, sheet music, board games and playing cards.
Overview of the table. National Trust photo.
Among the musical instruments there at least five stringed instruments, maybe a sackbut, possibly a cornemuse and two or three pages of music. This table can accomodate them all as it is 90 cm high, 302 cm long and 129 cm wide (35.4″ h, 9’11” l, 50.8″ w).
Playing cards are arranged as though the players just stepped away from the table. There is also a choice of three board games.
After the Earl of Shewsbury died Bess Harwick began building Hardwick Hall to replace the rundown Old Hall. The Aeglentyne table stands today in Hardwick Hall, a noted Elizabethan estate. In the inventory of 1601 it is believed the table was listed only as, “an inlayde table in the window.”
In these two tables we see one well used, but ravaged by poor wood selection and an awful frame replacement. This could very well be a piece that through time was removed from use by the family to use “below stairs.” On the other hand, the Aeglentyne table is an example of refined and careful wood selection, and an expression of pure vanity and indulgence for a women increasing her (and her children’s) wealth through another marriage.
The process of glueing up is one of the most important in woodwork, and requires the attention of all craftsmen who strive to endow their work with the vital qualities of endurance and stability. Often the best methods are the easiest to use; they save labour, and result in a cleaner finish to a job.
PREPARATION OF GLUE Quality in glue depends upon its purity; therefore it is advisable to pay a good price. The best Scotch glue is pale in colour, and is usually in thin cakes. It is is prepared by soaking in water overnight so that it absorbs the correct amount of moisture to make it of the right consistency when hot.
It is, of course, heated in the glue pot with proper water container, and is ready for use when a skin forms on the top of the liquid. If a little powdered alum is stirred in during the heating the glue will be rendered waterproof, or, at any rate, resistant to damp. Never heat glue over a naked flame. It only burns it and causes it to deteriorate.
APPLICATION The butt or rubbed joint is usually one of the first to be prepared and glued up in most jobs. For this joint the glue MUST be thin, that is, will run from the brush in an unbroken stream, but not thin enough to splash, or break up, as it falls. Certainly it must be hot, and be kept hot while being used, preferably in a warm atmosphere.
We all know how this joint is made; it has been described so many times, but many workers, both amateur and professional, find that it sometimes comes apart after a short time, the parting generally commencing and “running in” from the ends of tops, etc.
A butt joint that is completely and permanently successful is obtained by the writer in the following simple manner: The edges of the boards to be joined are first shot straight and true, as usual. Next, they are planed a trifle hollow, usually about 1∕32 of an inch, each edge, or sufficient to make the ends of the boards pinch together tightly when the joint is cramped up. These hollow edges are lightly toothed and are warmed before being glued and rubbed together.
FIG. 1. GLUEING UP RUBBED JOINTS
When being assembled they are placed across two trestles or similar supports.They are quickly cramped together, the number of cramps varying according to the length of the joint.
The advantage of this method is that the greatest pinch or holding power occurs at the ends of the joints, where fracture generally begins.
FIG. 2. APPLYING GLUE TO DOVETAILS
GLUEING DOVETAILS Drawers and other dovetailed joints can be cleanly assembled by brushing the glue on the inside corner of the tails or drawer side, at the same time forcing glue into the small openings where the pins fit (Fig. 2). Glue is transferred to the base of the pins by quickly rubbing the glued end grain of the drawer side across the width, at the back of the drawer front, care being taken to avoid smearing glue below the gauge line. (Fig. 3).
The drawer side is lightly tapped into position with a light hammer, and a joint is obtained with the absolute minimum of surplus glue adhering to the inside corners of the drawer.
FIG. 3. HOW PINS CAN BE GLUED WITHOUT MAKING MUCH MESS
VARIOUS JOINTS With mortise and tenon joints the best procedure is to apply a little glue to all four sides inside the mortise, at the same time allowing a little to adhere to the edge to join up to the shoulders of the tenon, thus effecting a clean joint.
To ensure a permanent dowelled joint, it is best to countersink the holes, and tooth or roughen the dowels before they are cut into short lengths from the whole stick. After cutting to length, a saw cut is made along the length of each to allow surplus glue to escape. After inserting a little glue into the holes on one side of the joint, using for the purpose a foot of dowel rod sharpened at the end, the dowel pegs are driven in.
Mitres and similar small butted faces should be warmed before glueing, and are then rubbed together. If pins are to be used these can be driven in after the glue has set. Glue-blocks should always be rubbed on, and if previously warmed so much the better.
With all joints the aim should be to use sufficient glue to make the joint, with only a very small surplus to be afterwards cleaned off: there is no need to smother it with the glue. Remember that only the glue in the joint is used, the surplus is wasted.
As a final word, always wipe off surplus glue before it sets. Keep a clean swab and can of clean hot water for the purpose. Do not use the water in the glue pot. It is usually dirty and will probably discolour the wood.
The Lost Art Press storefront will be open this Saturday, Oct. 8, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. to sell books, holdfasts from Crucible Tool, T-shirts, posters and the like. The storefront is at 837 Willard St., Covington, Ky. 41011.
We have the new “Stanley Catalogue No. 34” in stock at the store, as well as the red edition of “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest.” We also have a decent selection of blemished books for 50 percent off retail (blemished books are cash only). And a few slightly blemished letterpress tool chest posters.
While you are in Covington, be sure to stop by Covington Coffee on West 12th Street. They have fantastic coffee, Lil’s Bagels and make waffles on weekends. (This is not an advertisement.)
— Christopher Schwarz
P.S. We’ve gotten a few curt notes stuffed in our mailbox from customers who have stopped by on a Saturday when the storefront isn’t open. Please note that we are open only the second Saturday of each month – not every Saturday.
Fujimigahara in Owari Province, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji by Hokusai, 1830-32. Metropolitan Museum, New York
You never know what you might find when viewing Fujisan in a Japanese woodblock print. The tool the cooper is using looked very familiar and then I remembered the tools from “Woodworking in Estonia” by Ants Viires. The bigger Japanese tool may be a spear plane but in Estonia it was a grooving knife.
Tools from the Boarded Container chapter of “Woodworking in Estonia.”
The Estonian tools in use at the time of Ant Viires research in the first half of the 20th century were likely no different from the tools used a century or more earlier. Besides the the size difference in the spear plane and grooving knife I wondered how the Japanese cooper’s tools might compare to those of the Estonian cooper. A quick search turned up the plate below and oddly enough it was in the National Archives of Estonia.
Japanese cooper’s tools.
The handwritten title in German translates to “Cooper’s Tools.” No date was provided for this plate but the notations beneath each tool give a clue. The notations provide a scale in the old German measurement, the Fuß* (fuss, or foot). The Fuß was in use until the beginning of 1872 when use of the metric system became compulsory. To find out how long was the Fuß (good luck!) see the bottom of the post for some conversions.
Looking beyond the tools the next question was what were the Japanese and Estonian coopers making and were there any similarities. Going back to “Woodworking in Estonia” I pulled a few photos that date from 1890 to 1939.
Products of the Estonian cooper.
As described by Ants Viires coopers made buckets, churns, wash tubs, small baths, beer casks and containers for grain and other food storage. For merchants there were larger barrels for beer, food and many other commodities. For the Japanese cooper it was much the same with the addition of very large barrels for production of fermenting sake and soy sauce.
Selection of Japanese cooper’s work taken from woodblock prints dated 1766-1790 by Chobunsai Eishi (top left and bottom) and Suzuki Harunobu (top right and center).
Many woodblock prints feature domestic scenes with women using buckets and tubs for bathing, washing clothes and for food preparation (I left out the bathing scenes). Much larger tubs and barrels can be seen in making sake.
Dainihon-meisan-zue, sake-making, by Utagawa Hiroshige III (1842-1894).
One of the differences between Japanese and Estonian cooperage is the material used for the hoops. Estonian coopers used small branches, and later, iron for hoops. The Japanese used braided bamboo, then iron and copper. Traditional craftsmen making small pieces and companies using huge barrels for making soy sauce still use braided bamboo for hoops. Overall, there are more similaries than differences in the methods, tools and items made by the Japanese and Estonian coopers.
Not so different: Estonian, 1921; Japan late 19th- to early-20th c.
With so many similarities the next question is about the roots of cooperage in each country. Open wood buckets made using the methods of a cooper have been dated in Egypt to 2690 BC and fully closed Iron Age barrels have been found in Europe from 800-900 BC. By the 1st century BC barrels were in wide use for beer, wine, oil and water. Celtic tribes in Europe can be credited with making and using barrels for beer and wine. Next, here come the Romans because they always seem to be part of adapting, refining, inventing or spreading new technologies.
The Romans, like the Greeks and many early Mediterranean civilizations, used clay containers for storing and transporting wine and oil. Roman rule over the Celtic tribes of Gaul began in the 2nd and 1st c. BC and continued until 486 AD, and it was in Gaul they encountered the barrel. They found wooden barrels a vast improvement over clay amphorae for transporting wine and the added benefit of an improved taste to their wine, especially when the barrels were made of oak.
Loading barrels on a boat in the Danube, Trajan’s Column in Rome, completed 113 AD.
Did the early Estonian peoples learn cooperage from the Romans? Although Roman coins have been found in Estonian we don’t know if there was a direct connection.
Baltic tribes had trade contact with the Romans via the Amber Road. The Amber Road (actually a network of routes) extended from the North Sea and Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean.
One example of the Amber Road, from Wikipedia.
Highly prized, amber from the Baltic has been found in Egypt from 16th c. BC. Like the East-West Silk Road, the Amber Road was a conduit for trading commodities and technology.
For five centuries the Romans controlled Gaul and that extended presence did exert an influence on Germanic tribes not under Roman control. If the Baltic tribes in the area of Estonia did not aquire knowledge of cooperage prior to the end of Roman control the technology may have arrived via trade or war contact with Germanic tribes, or during later invasions by others.
When did Japanese coopers learn their craft? In yesterday’s news (what timing) there was a report that Roman coins had been found in the ruins of a 12th century castle in Okinawa. What next, Vikings? The archeologist overseeing the site said there was no evidence of Western contact with the ancient Okinawan kingdom, but the Chinese did have extensive trade contact with the West from the 14th through the 19th centuries. The coins were probably traded between the Chinese and the Okinawans.
For millenia Japan had extensive trade and cultural contact with its neighbors, in particular China and Korea. During the Nara period (710-794) Japan turned more inward and concentrated on cultivating its native crafts, especially woodworking, ceramics and textiles. As for cooperage, we known that sake has a history extending back 1700 years. In the 8th century sake was favored by, and became regulated by, the Imperial Court. The Imperial regulations covered all portions of the production of sake and included the barrels used.
Left: Late 19th- to early-20th c. cooper. Right: a 21st c. cooper making a sake barrel.
Soy sauce production dates back about 1500 years and one of the key ingredients of the fermenting process is using kioke, barrels made of cedar. After World War II soy sauce companies were urged to use stainless steel vats instead of the cedar kioke.
70 year old kioke fermenting soy sauce at Yamaroku Shoyu.
On the island of Shodoshima the soy sauce makers did not agree and continued to use kioke. In 2012 Yamamoto Yasuo the owner of Yamaroku Shoyu traveled with two carpenters from his company to learn the traditional method of making kioke from preparing the cedar slats, making the bamboo pins and selecting and braiding the bamboo hoops. They worked with Ueshiba Takeshi of Fujii Wood Work in Osaka Prefecture. They now make there own kioke and other producers are following their lead to revive and continue the traditional craft of making the huge barrels. A short (7 minute) video on making a kioke and the braided bamboo hoop is here (it is really cool).
One of the themes Ants Viires highlighted in “Woodworking in Estonia” was the decline of traditional crafts and the use of plastic items to replace wood. This lament is also heard in Japan and more efforts are underway to work with elderly craftsmen to learn and document traditional craft. In Kyoto this movement is particularly strong.
Nakagawa Shuji, an oke maker (oke are the wooden tubs) in Kyoto was interviewed by Kyoto Journal. Nakagawa talks about his apprenticeship and efforts to keep his traditional craft alive. The oke he makes are refined and copper is used for hoops. In the middle photo below he holds the sen, the two handled plane, that dates back to medieval times (1185-1600 in Japan). You can read the interview with him here.
Nakagawa Shuji, oke maker of Kyoto.
Conclusions: although the Romans seemed to have left their coins everywhere they did not originate nor spread cooperage around the world. Good ideas and sucessful technology don’t have to have a single point of origin. With some variations in tools and techniques, when humans need to make something to improve their lives they often travel the same path.
The tools of a 21st c. Japanese cooper.
–Suzanne Ellison
*There was no standardized measurement for the old German Fuß as it changed through time and it also depended on where you were living in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and parts of France. Here are conversions as recorded in 1830 in three places (chosen to show the range of the Fuß measuremnt and because I either lived or visited these cities as a child): Mainz – 314 mm or 12.36 in, Metz – 406 mm or 15.98 in, Würzburg – 294 mm or 11.57 in.
