It’s a strange world where I need to write a blog entry about this topic.
Recently Editor Megan Fitzpatrick and I have been getting e-mails and phone calls with this basic question: “Why isn’t Schwarz going to Woodworking in America?” Then they ask:
• Is it because Popular Woodworking Magazine doesn’t want him there?
• Is it because I don’t want to attend?
• Is Chris finally getting that gender-changing operation he’s talked about for years?
• And etc.
Here is the real story.
Megan approached me about speaking at the 2014 WIA, and I pleaded for a break. I’ve been a speaker (and usually an exhibitor) at every single WIA since the first one. Whether you know it or not, WIA is exhausting. The month leading up to it is crazy for me – and I don’t even have to help organize it anymore.
I have been trying to reduce my travel schedule so I can spend more time at home. This year I’ll be on the road for almost 18 weeks, and that is an easier schedule than 2013.
So I asked for a year off, and Megan gave it to me.
As it so happens, I have been scheduled to speak to the San Diego Fine Woodworkers Association on Sept. 12-14 for almost two years now (we started negotiating this in 2010 when I was still editor of the magazine). That particular weekend is, you guessed it, where F+W decided to put WIA in 2014.
As a result, the conspiracy theories have abounded: I am snubbing WIA. I purposefully scheduled a conflicting event. I’m not really cutting back on traveling. Those are all false.
I’m going to honestly miss Woodworking in America this year. It is probably the single-strongest line-up of speakers the event has ever had. And it’s in Winston-Salem, N.C., where you can sample Old Salem and the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA), one of my favorite museums in the country.
If you haven’t been to WIA, I recommend it. It’s the biggest woodworking geek-fest I’ve ever attended, and you will make new friends and learn a ton of amazing stuff.
And, as a bonus, you don’t have to watch me rub my nipples (a nervous tic) when I’m presenting. A double victory.
Consists of a platform A B C D called the top, supported upon four legs, E, F, G, H. Near to the further or fore end A B is an upright rectangular prismatic pin a, made to slide stiffly in a mortise through the top. This pin is called the bench hook, which ought to be so tight as to be moved up or down only by a blow of a hammer or mallet. The use of the bench hook is to keep the stuff steady, while the joiner, in the act of planing, presses it forward against the bench hook.
a, the “bench hook”
D I a vertical board fixed to the legs, on the side of the bench next to the workman, and made flush with the legs: this is called the side board.
D I, the side board
At the farther end of the side board, and opposite to it, and to the bench hook, is a rectangular prismatic piece of wood b b (Editor’s note: this is likely an error as the plate is labeled d d), of which its two broad surfaces are parallel to the vertical face of the side board: this is made moveable in a horizontal straight surface, by a screw passing through an interior screw fixed to the inside of the side board, and is called the screw check (Editor’s note: sic. “Check” is correct). The screw and screw check are together called the bench screw; and for the sake of perspicuity, we shall denominate the two adjacent vertical surfaces of the screw check, and of the side board, the checks of the bench screw.
d d, the screw check
The use of the bench screw is to fasten boards between the checks, in order to plane their edges; but as it only holds up one end of a board, the leg H of the bench and the side board are pierced with holes, so as to admit of a pin for holding up the other end, at various heights, as occasion may require. The screw check has also a horizontal piece mortised and fixed fast to it, and made to slide through the side board, for preventing it turning round, and is therefore called the guide.
H, the leg pierced with holes
Benches are of various heights, to accommodate the height of the workman, but the medium is about two feet eight inches. They are ten or twelve feet in length, and about two feet six inches in width. Sometimes the top boards upon the farther side are made only about ten feet long, and that next the workman twelve feet, projecting two feet at the hinder part. In order to keep the bench and work from tottering, the legs, not less than three inches and a half square, should be well braced, particularly the two legs on the working side. The top board next to the workman may be from one and a half to two inches thick: the thicker, the better for the work; the boards to the farther side may be about an inch, or an inch and a quarter thick. If the workman stands on the working side of the bench, and looks across the bench, then the end on his right hand is called the hind end, and that on his left hand the fore end. The bench hook is sometimes covered with an iron plate, the front edge of which is formed into sharp teeth for sticking fast into the end of the wood to be planed, in order to prevent it from slipping; or, instead of a plate, nails are driven obliquely through the edge, and filed into wedge-formed points. Each pair of end legs are generally coupled together by two rails dovetailed into the legs. Between each pair of coupled legs, the length of the bench is generally divided into three or four equal parts, and transverse bearers fixed at the divisions to the side boards, the upper sides being flush with those of the side boards, for the purpose of supporting the top firmly, and keeping it from bending. The screw is placed behind the two fore legs, the bench hook immediately before the bearers of the fore legs, and the guide at some distance before the bench hook. For the convenience of putting things out of the way, the rails at the ends are covered with boards; and for farther accommodation, there is in some benches a cavity, formed by boarding the under edges of the side boards before the hind legs, and closing the ends vertically, so that this cavity is contained between the top and the boarding under the side boards; the way to it is by an aperture made by sliding a part of the top board towards the hind end: this deposit is called a locker.
— Peter Nicholson, “The Mechanic’s Companion; or, the elements of and practice of carpentry, joinery, bricklaying, masonry, slating, plastering, painting, smithing and turning…” (1811). The image is from my 1845 edition, published by John Locken, Philadelphia. The entire book can be downloaded and read for free on Google Books via this link.
Getting started in handwork doesn’t have to be expensive or difficult. For many years, woodworker Mike Siemsen has been teaching new woodworkers how to get up and running with a basic set of tools, sawbenches and a workbench that can be built in just two days.
We are huge fans of Mike and his no-bullpucky approach to the craft.
So this winter, John Hoffman and I traveled to Minnesota to film our first full-length DVD for Lost Art Press. It is, I think, unlike anything out there. Here are basics.
It starts with a 5-gallon bucket and roll of $20 bills. We took that bucket to a regional tool-swap meet of the Mid-West Tool Collectors Association and bought almost every tool you need to get started. I filmed Mike as he picked through the piles of tools and he discussed what he looks for when buying these key tools. I also filmed him haggling with the dealers – fun stuff.
Once we bought the tools and put them in the bucket, we drove to Mike’s shop and started making the tools usable. Mike demonstrated how to sharpen and tune the chisels, planes and saws with dirt-cheap equipment. And we also tuned up the braces, hand drills and layout tools so everything was nice.
The next morning, Mike built a sawbench using the tools, wood from the home center and two 5-gallon buckets that worked as proto-sawbenches. After lunch, Mike built a Nicholson-style workbench using home-center wood and five doses of cleverness. No machines. No difficult joinery. It’s a great bench, and it is designed to work without any metal vises.
The DVD documents the entire process, from sorting through rust piles of tools to boring the final holdfast holes in the bench and putting it to use.
What is most amazing about the project is how you can get started for little money. Mike kept careful track of every purchase of tools and wood and has documented them in a spreadsheet (which will be included with the DVD, as well as a detailed SketchUp model of the workbench). This spreadsheet shows how you can collect the necessary tools and build the sawbench and workbench for a little more than $571.
That number includes everything, including the glue, screws and bolts.
I am editing the digital video now and we expect this DVD to be released in July.
In the next few days, I’m going to turn over the discussion of this project to Mike, who will tell you a bit about the theory behind the workbench and discuss how to buy the user-grade hand tools you need.
Oh, and why is the DVD called “The Naked Woodworker?” Because it’s about how to get get started in woodworking if you have nothing (yup, a pair of pants is included in Mike’s spreadsheet).
Except for the last few pages being batted back and forth between Michele, Philippe and me, the translated and edited manuscript for “To Make As Perfectly As Possible: Roubo on Furniture Making” now resides in Chris Schwarz’s lap. Given the number of projects fighting for space on the scrawny lap, I would suggest Chris go on a “donut-an-hour” diet for the foreseeable future.
I am often asked the problematic question, “So what did you find in Roubo that surprised you the most?” (Or some such variation. Why not just ask me which of my children I love more?) I am not sure of the answer, but there are some interesting “tonal” differences between “Roubo on Furniture Making” and “Roubo on Marquetry.” Though our first volume, “Roubo on Marquetry,” contains material that was presented later in “L’art du Menuisier” than the material in “Roubo on Furniture Making,” I find the tenor to be quite different. In “Marquetry,” Roubo assumed the reader knew how to use woodworking tools and techniques, but he also recognized that the reader might not know how to use these particular woodworking tools and techniques, and the instructions are quite detailed as a result.
In “Furniture Making,” Roubo makes no such allowances. He knows the reader can use the tools and techniques, so he spends his time telling the reader how to use those techniques to accomplish a particular end. The difference is both subtle and fundamental. While he covers the subjects pretty thoroughly, he wastes no time waxing ecstatic about joinery. His attitude seemed to be if you do not already know how to do it the right way, you are not ready to read his treatise. No breathless prose. Just do it, Grasshopper. Perfectly.
Nevertheless, nuggets of solid gold are sprinkled liberally throughout the text. One of my great regrets is that there was not a recording being made of our readings and comment sessions as we worked our way through the manuscript. Sometimes our discussions of a topic engaged us for scores of enthused minutes. I suspect they may do that for you as well.
“Furniture Making” will be a larger book but will include fewer essays than “Marquetry.” I cannot yet tell if that is because Roubo addressed the topics in a more straightforward manner and the topics were more familiar, or perhaps we were just getting inside his head and knew what he was saying. Chris will have to provide feedback on that one.
At the moment there are plans for four major essays and perhaps a half-dozen short ones. Of the long ones, I am writing only the essay on truing rough-sawn lumber a la Roubo. His method made me smack my forehead and exclaim, “Of course!”
Some guy name Schwarz is contributing an essay on The Workbench – a moment of silence, please – to augment the text accompanying Plate 11. We presented the text accompanying that Plate to the FORP participants last summer, and I think they would confirm it is killer stuff.
Philippe Lafargue will provide an essay comparing his training as a classical chairmaker at Ecole Boulle in the 1980s to the account contained in Roubo, and historical upholsterer Mike Mascelli will recreate and photograph some of the techniques from the chapter on chairs.
When? To quote our publisher, “It will be ready when it is ready.”
