Lost Art Press

The Wierix Square, or ‘Die Fledermaus’

Posted on by Lost Art Press

wierix1_IMG_8746

One of the variants on the Melencolia I square has its blade stretched out in width until it looks almost like a bat’s wing.

This square shows up in the late 16th-century Wierix plates shown from my first entry on this topic. A nearly identical square shows up in the title page to the book “The Childhood of Jesus,” by Hieronymous Wierix. (By the way, that plate is a treasure trove of rabbit holes for investigation.)

wierix_title_page

The Wierix square looks a lot like a modern SpeedSquare, with a wide and triangular blade and a small stock. The curves on the blade have a gothic look to them.

wierix_detailWhile it is easy to start thinking of uses for these curves, I think they primarily serve two purposes:

1. To make it efficient to cut two blades from one rectangular blank. After cutting out about a dozen of these early-style blades this week, I’m struck by how often the waste can be used to make an identical blade. This, I think, is more important than the decorative shapes on the blades.

2. The decoration exposes more end grain along the length of the blade, making the tool more responsive to changes in humidity.

These squares are even easier to make than the Melencolia I square. The stock in this example is 3/4” thick, 1-3/4” wide and about 12” long. The blade is 1/4” thick, 12” wide and about 20” long.

The stock of these squares isn’t always moulded – sometimes it’s just a rectangular stick. I planed two moulded edges on mine using a 1/2” square ovolo plane. Then I plowed a 1/4”-wide x 1/2”-deep groove along one edge.

wierix_moulding_IMG_9456

The shape of the blade was the most difficult part. I mucked around in SketchUp for a while, but then found the correct arches by drawing them out on paper with a set of French curves. A saw and a rasp finished the blades.

Then I glued up the two parts, trued up the blade and added a coat of finish.

These are handy for layout because the blade rests on the work and won’t let the stock totter. This makes it easy to mark square lines across a board. As a result of the large blade, however, these squares are no good for checking an assembly for square on the outside of the assembly.

But for two scraps of wood, they are pretty handy.

— Christopher Schwarz

wierix2_IMG_8738

Sawing Lumber in Japan

Posted on by fitz
in_the_mountains_of_totomi
‘In the Totomi Mountains’ by Katsushika Hokusai (1830-1833)
From the series – Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji

I gave a series of experiments one day in my lecture-room before the governors of the province and a large number of people who came in from mere curiosity. I wanted to show the officials my model saw-mill, having a small circular saw run by a diminutive steam-engine.

I told them it was a pity to see dozens of men and boys with long hand-saws sweltering and working the whole day in sawing boards from a single log, as I had seen them do in building my house, when a modern saw-mill could perform ten times the amount of work in half the time.

They watched my little machine as it cut rapidly through small sticks of wood, and then said it was very wonderful; but, if they were to establish such a saw-mill in Shidzuoka, it would be mobbed or raise a riot among the workmen.

Edward Warren Clark
Life and Adventure in Japan – 1878
(more…)

Sawing Lumber in India

Posted on by fitz

 

ackerbau_der_morgenlander_1772

Image from ‘Ackerbau der Morgenländer’ (Agriculture of the Orientals) – 1772

“ The Indian carpenter knows no other tools than the plane, chisel, wimble, a hammer, and a kind of hatchet. The earth serves him for a shop-board, and his foot for a hold-fast; but he is a month in performing what one workman will do in three days.”

“ The sawyer places his wood between two joists fixed in the ground ; and, sitting carefully on a little bench, employs three days, with one saw, to make a plank which would cost our people an hour’s work.”

Robert Mudie
The Picture of India: Geographical, Historical & Descriptive, Volume 2 – 1830
(more…)

Sawing Lumber in China

Posted on by fitz

china_sawing

In China, the sawyer’s, the carpenter’s, the joiner’s, and the sashmaker’s trade are all exercised by the same person. There are no saw-mills, planing machines, or sash factories, and in sauntering about the streets of the cities, at the door of a shop, or new building, may be seen one or two men sawing boards from the logs, and inside other workmen manufacturing them into the different forms for constructing or finishing a house.
(more…)

The Quality of Fruit Crates in 1960s California

Posted on by Lost Art Press

2006Rumbler

The first project I can remember making on my own was a small wall sconce or shelf I had seen in a magazine. I told my parents that I wanted to make it and, being enablers, they got me started. We had a coping saw frame and no blades (I am sure my brothers and I had broken them all at some point), so my dad took me down to Perrozzi’s Hardware in Lompoc, Calif., and we picked up some blades. On the way home, he swung the Rambler American behind the Safeway store and found a fruit crate with wood suitable for my project.

It is important to know that both my parents grew up in the Great Depression so we learned the practice of thrift, something that shows up in my forthcoming DVD, “The Naked Woodworker.” My 90-year-old mother still saves more plastic bags than she will ever use under her kitchen sink, along with foil and other things one might need in a pinch.

The quality of pine in fruit crates back in the day was pretty good, so I had some decent material to work with. I sawed and nailed my shelf together and smeared on some mahogany-colored stain and varnish mix that was in the garage. I don’t know what happened to that shelf, but I am pretty sure that it was “lost” in one of our moves.

It is hard to believe that was more than 50 years ago. Since then I have built houses and cabinets, clock cases and coffins, even a wooden car. I still look forward to the next project with some of the same anticipation I felt as we searched through the fruit crates behind the grocery store for the proper shelf material so many years ago.

No matter your age or ability woodworking is great fun, so grab your coping saw and jump in! You’ll meet some great people along the way and you might even end up with a shelf, or a car!

— Mike Siemsen, Mike Siemsen School of Woodworking