If you don’t read my blog at Popular Woodworking Magazine, you might want to check out this article I posted there this morning. Git yer polissoirs.
— Christopher Schwarz
Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Event (and Lost Art Press Garage Sale)
This weekend (April 4 and 5) Lost Art Press will be at the Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Event in Cincinnati. As always, the event will be held at the offices of Popular Woodworking Magazine (go here for directions and hours).
We’ll have all of our Lost Art Press books (including a deluxe version of “To Make as Perfectly as Possible”) to sell. But this year we’ll have some extra stuff because the show is in our back yard.
We’ll have discounted copies of our books that are blemished or were soiled (don’t ask) and returned. In addition, I have been cleaning out the basement and have gathered together a heap of tools I had forgotten about or were boxed up out of sight.
Some are new stuff I purchased to test years ago. Some tools are vintage ones I bought to study. All will be priced fairly. (And yes, the tools we do not sell will be up here on the blog for everyone at a later date.)
And one last thing: I’m bringing one of my unfinished full-size Anarchist’s tool chests to sell. The shell, skirts and lid are complete. You just have to add the internal guts. As I built this chest during a class, I have already been paid for my labor. So I’ll be asking the cost of materials only: $300.
If this doesn’t sell, however, I’m not going to put it up here on the blog. These are crazy to ship.
If you live within a day’s drive from Cincinnati, these events are totally worth the trip. This show is one of the bigger ones and has a lot of other toolmakers and furniture-makers.
— Christopher Schwarz
P.S. Please, please, please don’t ask me to send you a list of tools in advance. It doesn’t exist. Or please don’t ask to come by the house at 5 a.m. tomorrow. Crazy requests will be ignored.
Portable Library Writing Tables
One of the interesting forms I didn’t get to discuss in “Campaign Furniture,” is the portable library writing table. It’s typically a three-piece affair – the desktop lifts off the two pedestals for travel.
The version shown above is from the 1907 Army & Navy Co-Operative Society catalog, though the form appears over and over again in many of the catalogs.
It also appears as a reproduction at times. And this form is the ancestor of the modern campaign desk that is shown on sawhorses at Pottery Barn etc.
Mark Firley at The Furniture Record shows a particularly nice antique version in his blog today. The top surface of the desk tilts, there is a secretary gallery and the drawers in the pedestal units are protected by drawers. Check it out here.
And by the way, free domestic shipping for “Campaign Furniture” ends on Saturday. So if you were waiting to hide the charge on your April statement….
— Christopher Schwarz
Good Tools are Half the Work
There has been a good deal for some time past spoken and written about the education of the workman, but technical knowledge is not all that our artisans require. The use and abuse of tools is a subject of great importance, yet we hear no one essaying to say a few plain words upon the topic.
There are many workmen who probably pride themselves upon the knowledge of their trade, and who, with a compass, rule, and square, may be able to draw a number of lines and curves occurring in the setting out of their work. Even a little geometrical knowledge is useful; yet a little more attention on the part of these same workmen to the use and condition of their tools would be highly desirable.
If we take the case of a cabinet-maker or joiner, who generally requires to have a good “kit” of bench or workshop tools at least, it will be usually found that, for the one workman who keeps his tools in a proper and serviceable condition, there will be three who will be perfectly careless about the appearance of the tools that they are using. A workman who has a good basket of tools, pertinently observes a writer in the Irish Builder, will find more favour with those employing him than those who have not a presentable set of tools.
Planes, the wooden part as well as the cutting irons, should be kept in clean condition. In grinding and sharpening tools there is much to learn by many workmen, notwithstanding their constant use. Chisels and gouges should have firm and well-formed handles, and the heads of the handles should not show a battered and ragged appearance. Handsaws and other saws should not be allowed to be buckled in the blades, and good setting and careful filing are indispensable.
Without going through the list, it may be at once boldly said, that the character and ability of a workman may be known by the state of his tools. A workman who does not take a pleasure in keeping his tools in good order will not take a pleasure in executing his work. In fact, no workman can perform good workmanship with a bad set of tools.
There is an old proverb which says that “good tools are half the work,” which means, that a workman with good tools and knowing how to use them will get through his work in half the time that he would with indifferent tools—and so he would. But good tools, at the same time, in the hands of a bad workman or botch will not effect much for him. There is an art in using tools deftly, and this art is part of the skilled labour that constitutes the competent workman.
The Furniture Gazette – March 15, 1884
—Jeff Burks
Elementary Paper—Glueing, Veneering, Polishing
Glueing.
The right sort of glue to use for ordinary work is “best Scotch” (inferior kinds are often adulterated with lime). This glue is sold at all good tool shops; but if it cannot be obtained, choose the most transparent cakes. For fine work in light-coloured woods, Salisbury glue may be used; this is made in thin cakes, and is of a clear amber colour.
Preparation of the glue. Break it into small pieces with the hammer, and soak for at least twelve hours in sufficient water to keep it covered even when swollen by the water it absorbs: this water must be cold. It is no use attempting to melt glue by putting it into hot water; it will always be stringy, and give endless trouble. Put the pieces of soaked glue without any superfluous water into the glue pot, taking care that the outer vessel is kept full of water, which will prevent the glue in the inner vessel from burning ; this is very important.
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