“All books are either dreams or swords.”
I (Heart) Inlaid Brass Hardware
After 18-plus months of building campaign furniture for this upcoming book, I’ve experimented with several different techniques for insetting the ubiquitous brass hardware that adorns every piece.
I’ve used electric routers and templates, routers freehand, drills, firmer gouges, chisels and carving tools. Sometimes I combined several of these tools.
All of the methods work just fine, and so I don’t have any particular recommendation as to the tool set you use. I’m going to show all the different ways in the book.
What was surprising to me is that the 100-percent hand-tool methods (chisel, gouge, router plane and mallet) weren’t slow at all. Yesterday I inlaid 25 pieces of brass into a trunk that I’ll be finishing tomorrow, and I did the whole job in four hours.
That’s on par with the time it takes me to do it with a router and a template.
In other “Campaign Furniture” book news: I can’t draw for possum poo. Yet, I want all the drawings in this book to be hand-drawn by my hand. The solution: Photoshop, a light table and tracing paper. All week I’ve been experimenting with taking my SketchUp drawings, combining them with bits from photos and then tracing the results.
I am not where I want to be. But it looks better (to me) than a CAD drawing in a book that discusses pre-Industrial furniture and has a “manual” feel to its design.
— Christopher Schwarz
Of the Hammer, and its Use
This Tool was forgot to be deſcribed in Joinery, though they uſe Hammers too, and therefore I bring it in here. Its chief Uſe is for driving Nails into Work, and drawing Nails out of Work.
There is required a pretty skill in driving a Nail; for if (when you ſet the point of a Nail) you be not curious in obſerving to ſtrike the flat face of the Hammer perpendicularly down upon the perpendicular of the Shank, the Nail (unleſs it have good entrance) will ſtart aſide, or bow, or break; and then you will be forced to draw it out again with the Claw of the Hammer. Therefore you may ſee a reaſon when you buy a Hammer, to chuſe one with a true flat Face.
A little trick is ſometimes uſed among ſome (that would be thought cunning Carpenters) privately to touch the Head of the Nail with a little Ear-wax, and then lay a Wager with a Stranger to the Trick, that he ſhall not drive that Nail up to the Head with ſo many blows.
The ſtranger thinks he ſhall aſſuredly win, but does aſſuredly loſe; for the Hammer no ſooner touches the Head of the Nail, but inſtead of entring the Wood it flies away, notwithſtanding his utmoſt care in ſtriking it down-right.
Joseph Moxon
Mechanick Exercises: Or, The Doctrine of Handy-Works – 1683
—Jeff Burks
Is ‘Ginormous’ a French Word?
Being a tad old fashioned in many respects, I need a physical piece of paper to read and write on when editing, revising and annotating “To Make As Perfectly As Possible: Roubo On Furniture Making,” or as we call it here, R2 (as opposed to a local luminary, RG3). I am nearing the three-quarter mark of working my way through the raw transliterations for the first time as a serious venture, as opposed to the merely voyeuristic jaunts as they would arrive from translator Michele Pagan.
Today I printed out the final chapter of R2, titled whimsically (?) by Roubo as “Of Whole Cabinetry or Assembly in General,” which is another way of saying, “All the stuff about furniture making that I could not figure out where else to put.” To suggest that this single chapter is eclectic and substantial is to damn it with faint praise.
I generally format these working manuscripts to approximate the finished size of the printed book; not exactly, but it does give me a sense of the immensity of the tome. I will probably avoid contact with John Hoffman when the day arrives for him to start mailing a mountain of books twice as hefty as the 4-1/2 pound R1.
Among my 258 pages (!) of working manuscript for this chapter alone are included the odd mix of discussions on tools necessary for accurate assembly, making and using spring-pole lathes, screw-thread cutting, fluting of columns, drilling, making and using a ripple molding cutter, locksmithing, filing, hinge-making, tilt-top tables, building a printing press, the renowned folding book stand, and the design and construction (but not use) of a fancy French “necessary.” And those are just the topics I can recall off the top of my head.
After the intense run-up to the release of TMAPAP:ROM I had little opportunity to revel in the grandeur of the project. By the time I arrived in Cincinnati for the premier, to paraphrase BB King, the thrill was gone. Chris’ comments of wanting to light it on fire did not miss the mark by much.
Now that R1 is no longer resting on my neck, and believe me it was heavy, I am finding a bit more spring in my literary step.
Yes folks, the thrill is back!
— Don Williams
85 Copies of the Deluxe Roubo Book Available
After sending out all of the copies of “To Make as Perfectly as Possible: Roubo on Marquetry” to customers, we have 85 copies remaining to sell.
We will sell these on a first-come, first-served basis beginning at noon EST Monday, Nov. 11, 2013. For U.S. customers, we will post an item in the store allowing you to purchase the book for $400 (domestic shipping is included in the price).
For international customers, please send an e-mail to John Hoffman at john@lostartpress.com after noon EST Monday. The cost will be $400, plus actual shipping costs. Please be advised that shipping this book overseas is quite expensive when it is properly insured and accompanied by a tracking number (as much as $70). E-mails ordering the book before noon EST on Monday will not be acknowledged or fulfilled.
We do not like to brag, but this is a fine, fine book. If you would like a second opinion, please read Jameel Abraham’s blog about the book at the Benchcrafted.com blog.
— Christopher Schwarz