Toolemera Blog

The Toolemera Press Website

The Toolemera Press website, the companion to the Toolemera Blog, features the books, trade catalogs, photographs and ephemera of early tools, trades, crafts and industries.

A Most Fortunate Ship

I never knew that Horatio Hornblower's ship the Hotspur was a real warship. Well, it was. Not that Horatio was real, unless you count the imaginations of readers worldwide. I discovered this tidbit of reality while reading A Most Fortunate Ship: A Narrative History of Old Ironsides, Revised Edition, by Tyrone G. Martin, a narrative history of The Constitution, the oldest commissioned warship in the world, AKA Old Ironsides.

A Most Fortunate Ship tells the tale of this famous ship from it's inception as an idea to it's place in history. What I found most enjoyable and fascinating about this book was the focus on what made a ship work, and the men who crewed it. There is a detailed examination of all the bits and pieces that make up what we now know as a Tall Ship. All this detail is put into the context of the crew, the ship, the politics of the time and the function of a Frigate as a naval vessel, defensive and offensive. In fact, although the politics that brought about the creation of The Constitution are a part of the story, The Constitution itself is the main actor in this story. Crews and Captains come and go with regularity and the ship sails on.

Instead of a dry explanation of why rigging rigged, why sails sail and how a wooden hulled ship managed to stay afloat, A Most Fortunate Ship gradually introduces you to the world of the ships of war that sailed during the early 19th Century. The author takes the time to explain new terms, to describe why something was necessary or a was a bad idea and exposes just how fragile these ships really were. Spars break, masts rot, hulls leak and the ship sails on.

In fact, so much of The Constitution has been replaced over it's lifetime it's a wonder the ship still looks as it almost always did. I say almost, but you'll have to read the book to discover what I mean by that vague statement. In fact, I began to feel sorry for the ship's carpenters and joiners. At times it seemed that in every other page these poor, beset souls were rebuilding what they had repaired or rebuilt just a few moments before.

And besides, if you do purchase this book through the Amazon link, you are supporting this blog, which is always a good thing.

A Most Fortunate Ship: A Narrative History of Old Ironsides, Revised Edition

Till next,

Gary

Evenfall Woodworks Blog

Evenfall Woodworks, the blog of Rob Hanson, should be on your RSS feed, bookmarks, stickies, links page, bloglinks or whatever is the current buzz-thingy for keeping track of the impact the internet has on our daily lives.

Rob manages to pack a load of good stuff into the confines of the Blog, that virtual voice we have come to both love and loathe. Love it for the opportunity to experience the thoughts of people we most likely would never have met... loathe it because we most likely still won't meet them in person. But, that is the cruel, cruel life of the blogger.

It's a pain to try and fit your thoughts into this narrow little window. Rob does a really nice job of fitting a lot of words in without wasting his breath. I'm not sure if you can waste breath in a blog. Words perhaps. Back to Rob. His latest post, Creativity In Hardware Storage, gives you a reason why you should make this a regular stop-in. At first glance I assumed Rob would be covering that age-old conundrum: "What do I do with all these extra nuts 'n screws 'n doodads left over from assembling Junior's tricycle?". I figured on an interesting review of some modern hardware storage cabinetry, some new fangled gadget from one of the modern tool-makers or a new magnet with the gravitational force of jupiter for storing your extra hardware on a pegboard.

No. Instead what I found was a thoroughly enjoyable and light-hearted review of the history of hardware storage, followed by a truly librarianish (yes, that is a compliment) description of making hardware storage equipment from every-day castoffs. All done with a totally straight face no less. Rob manages to take the most mundane topics, as well as some of the most vexing (when is square really square?) and turn them into readable prose. Such as "it is a good shop practice to sneak up on the final sizing you need". I am putting on my rubber soled shoes, pulling a black mask over my face and sneaking up on a jointer as you read this...

This is not to say that Rob takes a light approach to his topics. The core of his content is totally serious and eminently useful for the beginner, average or advanced woodworker. Rob succeeds in taking complex or esoteric topics and making them readable and understandable. And that my friends, is harder than it sounds.

If you have not yet left my superb blog to check out Evenfall Woodworks, you really should. Now.

I have one question for Rob... who is the Agnes in the post "Sharpness Flatness Godness Agnes!"?

Till next
Gary

PS: Rob informs me that Agnes was the end word of a saying his great-grandmother used to use: "Goodness Gracious Godness Agnes". Although I still don't know who Agnes was...

A Nation Of Shopkeepers

A Nation of Shopkeepers: Trade Ephemera from 1654 to 1860 in the John Johnson Collection: The Bodleian Library of the University of Oxford.

Most likely I don't have to explain why I love this particular site. I will anyhow. John Johnson (1882-1956) was for many years the Printer of the University of Oxford (that's the other side of the Atlantic, or the same side depending upon which continent you are standing on, unless you are in Australia in which case just read and enjoy). Mr. Johnson saw the importance of Ephemera, the "transient documents of everyday life" and made it his responsibility to collect, and arrange the throwaways of society.

What began as a simple shoebox sized hobby, grew into an internationally recognized collection of importance. The University of Oxford provided Mr. Johnson room for the collection, support in the process of acquisition and ultimately named the collection after him. He had originally named the collection after one of his early benefactors.

This is one site that you can return to time after time (apologies to Cindy Lauper) and still learn something new. Or just enjoy riffling through the online selection.

For a good introduction to ephemera, nothing beats the works of Maurice Rickards, such as his book Collecting Printed Ephemera. If you are interested in a hard copy of the exhibit catalog, pick up a copy of A Nation of Shopkeepers: Trade Ephemera from 1654 to 1860s in the John Johnson Collection.

Till next,
Gary

Unplugging with Luke Townsley

Unpluggedshop.com. Is really one heck of a place to hang your hat. Created by Luke Townsley as a shelter from the cruel world of bits and bytes, Unpluggedshop.com has evolved into a one-stop-shop for the hand tool woodworker. Yea, even for the Electron driven woodworkers who dream of ditching their power cords and saving their ears (and fingers) from the depredations of blurringly spinning metallic teeth.

My guess is that Luke must have been a librarian in a former life. It's really a tough job to pull together material spread across the internet, organize it in a fashion that is both sensible, navigable and readable. All too often, aggregator sites start out with a good heart but get lost in the ever expanding array of choices... blogs, forums, auctions sites, online merchants, video offerings, &c., &c. Luke has succeeded in creating an enjoyable read along with opening a window to what is out there for us true believers.

Much as I would prefer that you spend the bulk of your online time at either my blog or website, hop over to the Unpluggedshop and learn something new. Just don't forget to come back here!

Till next
Gary

The Missing H

After a break to campaign for a local Library Board of Trustees seat (which I did not win... lost by 180 votes to the Town Custodian... oh! the pain of it!) I'm back.

For some reason, the derivation of peculiar word-working terms has stuck in my head. While (or whilst, if you are British) reading a book on the history of the English Language, I came across Cannel, a version of Channel. My friendly Online Etymology Dictionary says of Channel:

c.1300, "bed of running water," from O.Fr. chanel, from L. canalis "groove, channel, waterpipe"

Of course I jumped to the conclusion that the notorious In-Cannel and Out-Cannel gouges (sometimes even spelled with one N) should really be called In-Channel or even In-Chanel gouges. At least this would be true if the French had their way. What happened to the H? Were did the extra N come from?

Clearly, this momentous discovery requires a special page devoted to the Weird Words of Word-Working.

Do you have any Weird Words of Wood-Working that come to mind? Send them in and the first 100 entries will receive a free pass to the Toolemera Blog, good on Weekends only.

Till next
Gary