It’s quite difficult to determine a species of wood from a 16th-century engraving of it.
So we don’t know for certain what sort of wood would be used to make early squares, rules and levels. One clue comes from W.L. Goodman, who wrote a two-part history of marking and measuring tools for The Woodworker magazine in 1964.
Here’s what he wrote:
“Mediaeval building accounts often refer to the purchase of old wine casks, usually made of Baltic oak or wainscot, for the carpenters to make their straight-edges, rules, and squares from this well-seasoned hardwood.”
Goodman also briefly discusses the Melencolia-type squares in the article and said they were for “setting out.”
So if you want to build some old squares, drink up!
British woodworker Richard Arnold recently discovered an abandoned hand-tool joiner’s shop located only a few miles from his workshop.
Arnold says it looks like the shop was abandoned just before the second world war and looks as if it had never been mechanized. The pit saws were still hanging undisturbed on the walls.
Even more extraordinary are the pine or fir workbenches left in the shop. Each is about 30” tall and looks like it was built right out of Peter Nicholson’s treatise on joinery.
Two of the benches sport planing stops and leg vises with a traditional parallel guide. Yet neither appears to have a garter, as far as I can tell from the photos. Both benches have massive legs plus bearers that pierce the front and rear aprons and support the tops.
Perhaps most remarkable is that Arnold said the benchtops were only about 5/8” thick.
Arnold said there is a third workbench, not pictured, that appears to be an even earlier piece of work and didn’t have any vises attached to it. He promised that he would go back for a closer look and would report back.
— Christopher Schwarz
P.S. Arnold is the generous soul who dug up the original “Doormaking and Window-Making” booklets that we reprinted late last year.
Rather than attempt to explain the specific details of French style trestle sawing, I have attempted to translate two the of the best primary French sources on sawing timber. The translations are not polished, but they will begin to help explain the methods used to mount heavy timbers on the chevalet type sawing trestle. (more…)
June 15 is the day when I take stock of everything that has happened in the last 12 months and think about what is coming in the next 12 or 120.
It’s an important date because on June 15, 2011, I left Popular Woodworking Magazine and began to work full time for Lost Art Press, which John Hoffman and I started in 2007. There’s a navel-gazing aspect to this personal exercise, and I won’t bore you with those sorts of details.
Instead, I’ll bore you with a short list of the projects on the horizon. These are projects where we have signed a contract. They will happen. But I cannot say when. So when you ask me: “When will that be out?” My answer will be: “I don’t know.”
1. “The Woodworker Magazine: 1936-1966. The Charles Hayward Era.” We have contracted with the owners of The Woodworker magazine to reprint hundreds of articles on handwork they published between 1936 and 1967, almost all of them by Charles Hayward. This project began the day we started Lost Art Press and, if all goes to plan, it will be out in time for Christmas. John Hoffman, Ty Black, Megan Fitzpatrick, Phil Hirz and I have poured hundreds of hours into this project during the last six years to collect, organize, digitize and edit this information for publication.
2. “Woodworking in Estonia.” We have signed a contract with Ants Viires to produce a new English translation of his important and rare book. The translation is underway. The earlier English translation was not authorized by Viires; it was poorly done and has horrible photos. Our version will be like all our books: worth owning.
3. “Turning Fundamentals” by Alan Lacer. When I began turning about a decade ago, I looked for a book that covered everything in a deep way: tools, sharpening, spindle and faceplate turning. I couldn’t find one that made me happy. Alan is currently writing this book. It will be a monster.
4. “The Traditional Shop” by Richard Maguire. This is another book I wanted when setting up shop. It will be a complete overview of how to set up your shop for handwork. It will dive deep into benches, sawbenches, appliances, storage, lighting and arranging things. I cannot think of anyone better to write this book.
5. “Practical Design” by Jeffrey Miller. This book will outline Miller’s process for designing furniture, from its concept to the finished piece. Jeff will be discussing the book and his approach on his blog in the coming months.
There are other books in the fetal stages, including books on American campaign furniture, Danish modern furniture, “Furniture of Necessity” and 17th-century joiner’s work. And there are projects that are much closer to publication: Roubo on furniture, H.O. Studley, Andrew Lunn’s book on saws, Peter Galbert’s chair book, Roy Underhill’s novel and “The Naked Woodworker” with Mike Siemsen to name a few.
After reading the above list, I think I should stop writing this blog entry and get back to editing. There is work to be done.
To amuse ourselves, Jeff Burks, Suzanne Ellison and I have been trying to find the earliest extant holdfast or the earliest image of one. We’ve gone way back, but the trail goes dead in Roman times. We have people saying the Romans had holdfasts, but we have yet to see one in a museum or image.
W.L. Goodman, the author of “The History of Woodworking Tools,” wrote “sometimes the Romans used an L-shaped iron hold-fast, and for planing, serrated dogs or bench stops” in a September 1964 article for The Woodworker magazine.
Robert Ulrich, the author of “Roman Woodworking,” describes a device that could be a holdfast or a pinch dog, but it’s likely a pinch dog. See these images from the British Museum.
I’m suspect the Romans had holdfasts, which is why I keep looking. (It’s something to do after I’ve had a couple beers and shouldn’t operate machinery.) There’s a 18th-century copy of a Roman fresco (which we think is now destroyed) that shows a holdfast. That image (above) is from “Le Antichità di Ercolano, Volume 1,” by Tommaso Piroli (engraver) 1789.
Here’s Jeff’s translation of the image’s accompanying text:
The other involves a curious painting expressing two genii, engaged in the art of the Joiner. The plank with a toothed iron for stopping the boards, a saw, a hammer, a box for storing other instruments of the art are to be seen in the workshop. On the wall a shelf with a vase from the oglio likely to grease the blade. What the above mentioned two genii Joiners were meant to indicate that inclination arose also called the genius of their respective crafts.
So if you see one when you are touring Roman ruins or European museums (which have hordes of Roman artifacts) this summer, let us know.
