Toolemera Blog

EAIA Annual Meeting once over and more

Yeah and verily I have returned from the EAIA Annual Meeting in Hyannis, MA. Miles Standish made an appearance at the Sat nite banquet to regail us with tales of his escapades as well as some of the true life down and dirty facts of the life of the Living History Museum experience. Which, by the why, is why you should consider joining the mind boggling named ALHFAM and also found here ALHFAM.

As I expected, I was one of the younger of crowd. As I also expected, my elders out walked, out talked and out lasted me for the duration of the meeting. Which is to say the EAIA has a slowly but steadily aging and decreasing membership about which problem something has to be done. Which something I'll muse on at later times, having mused much during the meeting with other musers.

The silent auction raised over $11k , the most ever thanks to the generosity of the assemblage. I won on one bid (I confess that I simply placed one strong bid) the single piece of ephemera in the auction: a valuation of a carpenters tool chest and contents from Fort Madison, Indian Territory, 1841. Yes, it will go online, replete with transcription, in due time.

I also won a glass base kerosene lamp at Mike 'Rat' Urness' auction, c1870, grecian key square base design for the lowly sum of $25 bucks. Mike and Bill Spicer ran a superb auction, so much so that I wish Mike would bring his traveling show East more often.

Other news, the EAIA endowment fund has gone from near zilch to a whole lot of cash. That is not to say that more cannot be raised. The endowment ensures the life of the organization, the giving of research grants and of so many other functions.

The glass blower at the Sandwich Glass Museum, along with the introductory film, the talk by the curator on the roles women played in the early glass industry and the revampled displays all dictate that you must visit this museum.

The indoor tool dealer and displays was a huge success. The displays were fascinating, particularly the one on some immense old locks, the likes of which I have never seen. On a personal level, I sold all the copies of Martin's Circle Of The Mechanical Arts that I brought, a very good thing as that box weighed in at 30 lbs for 6 copies. As I had assumed, these hard core historical types went for it hook and sinker. (Gratuitous Shill Link) Sold a lot of other Toolemera books along with some older books too.

Even sold the huge 1909 RussWin hardware catalog of over 1000 pages that I had been hauling from tailgate to tailgate for a few years but could not, for the life of me I do not know why, interest anyone in buying it. This is the last catalog before Corbin absorbed RussWin, of Russell Erwin fame and so contains a gargantuan number of late 19th C hardware. It sold to a young preservation carpenter who specializes in restoring windows, what lives in northern Vermont, for the grand total of $30 along with a copy of Martin's Circle for an additional but reasonable show sum. The moral of this story is: Support Our Preservation Carpenters!

On the way back on Sunday I chanced upon a flea market in Marshfield and was forced off the highway, literally forced into checking it out. Bought a panel saw, round screws with a Boston, Mass Hardware store mark that I can't make out yet but it's not Wilkinson. $2. A hand made cane of rosewood, maple and walnut. $3. From a picker who had just cleaned out a local house: one ambrotype with the original Plymouth photographers trade card on the back.  One tintype of a stereotype photographer. One tintype of three little children. One albumen print of a group of men standing on a railroad handcar. One patented 1870 sharpening stone holder with a white arkansas stone in a wood box. Books: The Economy In Garment Cutting With Practical Layouts, 1887; Madison's Direct Shoulder Measure Coat System, 1904 (updating the 1827 edition). All from the picker for $170. I was a happy camper, to say the least although I really can't figure out what 'to say the least' really refers to because if you are intending to 'say the least' you would not have said 'to say the least', you would have shut up already.

The highlight though was meeting people I have corresponded with by email, talked to over the phone, read their articles, seen their names over the years in membership lists or simply never met before but can now say I know them as fellow EAIA'rs or whatever the word is.

Lastly, I was volunteered for the web committee. Note that I did not volunteer for a committee as historically I have avoided committees or boards when possible. Ten years working for the State of Massachusetts left me with an allergic condition. I break out in hives when sitting on committees. But for this association I'll take my benedryl and suffer! If anything goes wrong, I can always blame it on Paul Van Pernis as he was the one who asked me to volunteer. Thusly I can absolve myself of any blame for future malfeasances.

When I get around to uploading photographs, scanning, taking photographs, etc., I'll regale the world with images of what I've just gone on about.

Till then, Gary

 

Temple Thorold On Wood Turning: Free PDF Download

My favorite author, Mr. Temple Thorold, wrote not only his famous book, Our Workshop, he also wrote two serialized articles for Routledge's Boy's Annual which was the yearly compilation of Routledge's Boy's magazine. In 1866, Thorold wrote a series entitled Our Workshop, which became his one and only book... you guessed it: Our Workshop. Almost had you there, didn't I?

In 1867, Thorold wrote another serialized article entitled: The Lathe And How To Use It: Or, Principles And Practices Of Plain Turning. Being the book guy that I am, I obtained a copy of the 1867 volume and excerpted the series, compiled it as a single pdf and Ta Da! here 'tis in all it's shining glory in the Museum Galleries of The Toolemera website:

The Lathe And It's Uses by Temple Thorold

Just scroll a wee bit down to the bottom of the list to get to Mr. Thorold and his Lathes.

Till next, Gary

 

On Sale: A Manual Of Wood Carving by Charles Godfrey Leland, 1891

Yes, you heard it here first. Charles Godfrey Leland, that odd fellow from the 19th century has done it again. He's gone and reprinted his famous book on wood carving, titled, strangely enough:

A Manual Of Wood Carving by Charles G. Leland, revised by John J. Holtzapffel 1891

The peculiar thing is that although the book is revised, it's still the first edition. It seems there was a previous book by Leland encompassing a variety of what he at first termed "the minor arts". Apparently he thought better of this and wrote an entire book on wood carving as well as further books on leather carving and even on metal work. You can read a bit more about Mr. Leland in this previous post if you so wish. He was, shall we say, different. But then, so many of the newly rich of that century were, shall we say, different.

What he did do was pen a book on wood carving that was a huge hit. The sheer number of editions testifies to it's popularity as it remained in print for a full decade throughout the high times of the Arts & Crafts period. Mr. Holtzapffel, of The Holtzapffel family fame, saw fit to add a chapter on the use of the hand saw as well as to sell the book through the family store, alongside their Holtzapffel lathes and accoutrements.

Reprinted by yours truly at original size, in glorious black & white, as was the original (with the addition of a variety of grayscale images to replace the half-tone photographs), you can now own your personal copy for only...

$14.00. Yes, that's $14.00 because the full retail price is $20.00. It's the typical 30% Shop discount you see.

Shipping and Handling is, as always, additional. Shipping to Australia, Great Britain and the EU will be at very reasonable standard local rates.

My thanks to all who continue to support The Toolemera Press.

Gary

Lastly, the cover of A Manual Of Wood Carving

And that's about it. The cover and the content are uploaded. The proof is ordered. The fingers are crossed. It's time for some GF mac & cheese and the next episode of River Monsters.

Till next, Gary

Draft Introduction to Leland: A Manual Of Wood Carving

Just in case you didn't know, Charles Godfrey Leland was not your average Joe. Not by a long shot. This is a very heavily edited version of his life. The long version is a book unto itself...

Introduction to the Toolemera edition of A Manual Of Wood Carving.

Charles Godfrey Leland was, by his own admission, a distinguished linguist, folklorist, historian, educator and author. He included in his accomplishments a knowledge of witchcraft and sorcery along with a close familiarity with various ethnic cultures who, according to Leland, viewed him as a member rather than as an outsider.

Born 1824 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and died 1903, Leland was educated at Princeton and in various institutions in Europe. He pursued the mystical beliefs popular at the time, studied “lesser” cultures as a career and wrote numerous texts based upon his travels and studies. His books and articles were both accepted and criticized during his lifetime and thereafter for their first person content as well as for the extent to which his personal beliefs colored his writings.

Leland later became involved with the Transcendentalist movement and later converted to a Pantheistic view of faith that encompassed an Anglo-Saxon sense of mythology. In other words, he was a scion of the newly wealthy merchant class of the day. 

Of his numerous books, seven were focused on the burgeoning Arts & Craft movement of the late 19th century:

• Drawing And Designing
• A Manual Of Wood Carving
• Elementary Metal Work
• The Minor Arts: Porcelain Painting, Wood-Carving, Stenciling, Modeling, Mosaic Work, Etc.
• Leather Work: A Practical Manual For Learners
• A Manual Of Mending And Repairing
• Practical Education

A Manual Of Wood Carving was first published by Whittaker & Co, London, in 1891, with a revision by John J. Holtzapffel, who added a chapter on the use of the hand saw. Wood Carving was an expansion of Leland’s earlier book of 1890: The Minor Arts: Porcelain Painting, Wood-Carving, Stenciling, Modeling, Mosaic Work, Etc.

A Manual Of Wood Carving displays Leland’s interest in Celtic, Anglo-Saxon and Gothic ornamentation. While the selection of carvings ranges from the heavily Gothic through the Celtic, they always retain the naturalistic themes that typified the Arts & Crafts ideals.

Leland was an artist and carver in his own right, as indicated by a number of his well executed designs in A Manual Of Wood Carving. His descriptive text, unlike many self-educational books of the period, is fully developed and progresses in a sensible manner. His intent is to provide the student of wood carving with the technical foundations of the craft as well as to introduce the philosophical themes of craft work.

Of interest is that Whittaker & Co, London, also published the books of David Denning, author of The Art And Craft Of Cabinet-Making, another popular craft book of the late 19th century. Denning’s book is offered by Toolemera as part of it’s series of Classic Reprints.

Holtzapffel & Co., Charing Cross, London, manufacturer’s and purveyors of the finest turning equipment of the day, offered A Manual Of Wood Carving for sale at their shop. Given that John J. Holtzapffel added the chapter on hand saws, this is not a surprise.

The sole difference between the 1901 edition of A Manual Of Wood Carving and the earlier editions is the addition of a single, 19 line page at the very end addressing Pressed And Raised Wood.

The Lesser Known Moxon: Mechanick Dyalling

For reasons wholely unkown to yours truly, few people speak, or write, of the Mechanick Dyalling chapter of The Doctrine Of Handy-Works. If you put your mind to it, Joseph Moxon was known for his skill in making scientific and philosphical appartti of this very sort.

For that matter, us moderns seem to focus on the hand tools sections of Handy-Works, seemingly overlooking the overall import of the book as being an introduction to the building of a house. Sure, there are some very swift and nifty phrasings of various obscure and scure tools but if you take the time to delve into the makings of the building itself, you'll find just as much obscure and interesting information.

Trust me, I've read it way too many times during proof readings and am doing so again.

Back to Dyalling. The final chapter is devoted to the making of sun dials, or, as those sexy 17th century guys liked to say, Sun Dyalling.

    

Here are three nearly raw scan samples from Sun Dyalling. No touch up yet, no adjustments of any sort other than a minor bit of edge trimming for the blog post. If I was one to understand the mathematics behind the creation of a sun dial, I would make one.

Being somewhat two left footed (no offense to the sinister of the world), I also have a book entitled which provides some additional information on how to create a ready to wear sun dial: The Timepiece of Shadows : a History of The Sun Dial by Henry Spencer Spackman; New York : W.T. Comstock, 1895.

The sun is finally out and perhaps, just perhaps, a Sun Dyal will grace the grass this year.

Till next, Gary

Gary Goes Hollywood

Yes, I went and had a face lift. A partial face lift. One little part of one eyelift lift. No, not really a Hollywood eye-lift lift, more a medical necessity type of lift lift.

Thanks to numerous other ocular procedures my poor beleaguered left eye has been subject to over the years, the lids had taken on a life of their own. The time had come for some surgical intervention to return them to a semblance of their original selves.

Such surgical intervention now makes me wonder why in _ell anyone would put themselves through any sort of face lift at any time? I resemble a raccoon after a bad night at a bikers bar. I have discovered a new found respect for the makers of certain powerful pain relievers and that the meaning of life can be found in a bag of frozen peas artfully placed over various post-surgical swollen face parts.

I can also attest to the absolute fact that I would never, never, never have a face lift for any reason what-so-ever even if my face was down around my ankles.

My assessment of the Hollywood elite is that they are all masochists.

Till next, Gary

How large or small should students hands be for carving?

Mr. Leland addresses this question in his treatise on Wood Carving and rightly so. It's one of those questions that has clearly perplexed teachers, sensei and masters of crafts for centuries:

"It is a question among experts as to whether the tools for beginners should have long or short handles, which is as sensible as if they should debate whether the pupils should have large or small hands."

Such is the depth to which Leland considers the gravity of the selection of tool handles. This statement comes at a time when a certain school of Manual Arts theorists have moved towards uniformity in instruction, constancy in equipment and sameness in production.

Leland, heavily under the influence of the Scottish school of the Arts & Crafts masters, poo poo's this idea. Yes, he poo poo'd the idea of uniformity and constancy. I have it on the best authority. He had the gaul to suggest that the child, lady or other individual embarking on wood carving choose a tool that fit their hand.

Imagine the shock and dismay that tsunamied through the aether at this suggestion!

If you take it upon yourself to read Leland's book on Wood Carving, you will discover for yourself more world shaking but enlightening ideas such as this.

Consider yourself warned. If you are much too impatient to wait until the Toolemera reprint hits the stands and must read this treatise sooner than later, there is always the Google Books online version of the 1891 edition here.

The Toolemera is nearly complete except for the cover art and the introduction.

Till next, Gary