Toolemera Blog

Some guys have all the luck

So now I am going to tie together woodworking, ephemera, the EAIA, Chris Schwarz' new Workbench book and the Holidays. Let's start with woodworking. As woodworkers, we all have a passion for workbenches. Fancy new hold-down gadgets. Anodized aluminum and shiny brass. BLO finishes versus wax versus home brewed magic forumulas. Figured woods, walnut, douglas fir. Emmert vises, Roubo, Diderot and Ulmia. Enough name dropping. Take a look at a workbench that John Miller recently acquired...

Skip over to Galoot Central for the rest of the images. John promised a photo of the bench in full regalia sometime soon. For now, you can see the details of what makes a bench that saw real use.  This bench was made by C. Christiansen in Chicago sometime around the turn of the 19th Century. We know this because his name is emblazoned on the metal retaining ring of the front vise. We know where he worked because I checked the EAIA Dictionary of American Toolmakers (DAT), digital version from which I extracted this information:

CHRISTIANSEN, C. Chicago IL 1895 1917
TOOL TYPES: Other
TEXT: A C. Christiansen made work benches in 1912. Although possibly not the same man, a Carl Christiansen who worked as a cabinet maker 1895 1917 seems to be a probable candidate. Even if he is the right man, he may not have made benches before 1900.

We have some knowledge of Christiansen based on reviews of books and ephemera, such as city directories, newspaper advertisements, etc. Plus the original DAT was a hard print version, now available as a PDF on CD... another type of ephemera. Check out Chris' new Workbench book and you'll find images and discussions of the type of bench shown here. One thing that you can certainly tell from this bench... it was heavily used and well cared for. All these years and it is yet in working order. It shows the marks of real life use yet it is as operational as it was the day it was purchased.

And now we come to the Holidays. At a loss of what to buy for someone you know who likes wood, likes  tools, likes the history of tools and who has a strong streak of morality? Buy a copy of the EAIA Digital Directory of American Toolmakers as a present. You get a tax deduction, your giftee gets to enjoy one of the best research resources out there and the EAIA gets to validate their foray into the digital realm. While you are in a spending mood, buy a copy of Chris Schwarz' Workbench book. Better yet, if you don't have your personal copies of the Workbench book or the DAT, buy two copies of each and keep a set for yourself.

While you're at it, subscribe to my blog so I can get that warm and fuzzy holiday feeling we all long for.

Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas and a Joyous Kwanza to one and all.

Till next
Gary
www.toolemera.com

PS: Did I put enough plugs in this post?

Workbenches, Chris Schwarz & better late than never

Alas and alack, my fledgling review of Chris Schwarz's new book “Workbenches: From Design & Theory to Construction and Use” takes second fiddle to an excellent review on Amazon.com.  I received mine earlier this week and immediately dove into it. Unfortunately for me, the remains of a mild concussion (never argue with a mailbox, it will win) seriously slowed my intellectual processing power (Please enter your 'oh so sorry to hear that' comments here _____ ). Never-the-less, I too will jump in with a few words of effusive approval. Mind you, I did review the expected appearance of this book a few weeks back. Unlike the fledgling mercantile leanings of Chris' progeny, my copy will remain with me.

Everybody loves workbenches. Everybody loves articles and books about workbenches. Lots of everybody's love to build workbenches worthy of artistic commentary. Few everybody's have spent the time Chris has in pondering the functional behavior of workbenches, the historical development of workbenches through 'form follows function' as well as the nationalization of workbench design through the ages.

Let's assume for a moment that the modern workbench is the offspring of the manufacturing and marketing process. Ever try to fit an eight foot workbench into a UPS shipping box? Ever try to market a manufactured workbench that doesn't have loads of do-dads and gadgets to set it apart from the masses?  Ever try to tell someone that your workbench won't necessarily make them a better woodworker but it will look great in the photographs?

Sure, other books have discussed the development of the workbench. What sets this book apart is Chris' focus on his personal observations while building and using each bench.  He has considered the 'why' of bench design when the bench functions as just another tool in the shop, albeit a vital one.  Don't just skip to the dimensioned plans with visions of making your own perfect workbench. Read the book carefully. Read it again and pay attention to the discussions of why a design does what it does... or does not. Chris took the time to carefully study old photographs of workbenches in action, to visit working shops that care more for functionality than for the BLO surface and to distill all this into one book.

I must confess that before Chris asked to use some images from my collection, I had never really examined them with attention to the workbenches. My focus was on the people, the hand tools, the tool chests, the stuff being produced. The workbench simply supported the woodworking planes that held my attention. It provided a convenient arm rest for the patternmakers while they posed for the camera. After reading this book, my eyes are more attuned to the nuances of the positioning of the bench within the shop, the placement of the wood stock on or in the bench and why the hand tools are scattered as they are around the work area. While reviewing an image for scanning, I had missed that the benches in the shop displayed a distinctly Holtzappfel design (the last image).

Upon reading this book, you will discover that there is a rhyme and a reason to the interaction of the bench as a work surface and a work-holder. These classic designs are neither rudimentary nor primitive. Chris exposes these functions through his review of design development and through hands-on experience. Many years ago Fine Woodworking published an article on the building and use of a Roubo style workbench. The presentation of this article was 'oh! look what those old craftsmen had to use and isn't it amazing that they could produce anything that looked so nice from something so rough. Imagine what they could have done with a modern workbench.'

These classic workbench designs are not the remainders of 'traditional' (read: old fashioned and out-moded) shops. Chris explains what is good, what is not so good and more importantly, how you can choose your own design based upon reason rather than marketing. Plus, yellow pine smells so much better than does maple.

I'll close with a paraphrase of one sub-chapter title: 'Understanding the (French, English, -add your own term here-) Bench". This book is not just about how to build a workbench, it's about how to understand why you should build one of a particular design with particular attributes that are both time-proven and practical. For the purposes of full disclosure, I did have an Emmert vise years ago and sold it. If I ever decide to take up patternmaking, than I might get another one. Or I might just stock up on wedges and battens for my next Schwarz Bench.

Till next
Gary

My Kingdom For A File!

Everyone has a bunch of rusty, dirty files and rasps sitting at the bottom of a toolbox, rattling around in a drawer or taking up valuable space in a tool rack. We typically consider these beasts to be the poor cousins to the exotic and desirable planes, the shiny sharp chisels and the magnificent handsaws. Files and rasps are sort of like sandpaper. Only rubes turn to them when a mistake is made or a short-cut is needed. Sometimes I think that this is due to the relatively cheaper cost for files and rasps. Use them up and throw them away. Who sharpens a file? Who would even dream of sharpening a rasp? What would you use? A file file? A rasp file? Who would you send them to? Mike Wenzloff? Did Belsaw make a file sharpening machine? Which came first, the saw tooth or the file?

Peter Evans recently sent a set of cute little 1889 Nicholson File Company Price Lists to me. I've been researching some stuff for him about Nicholson Rasps. Turns out I have a bunch of Nicholson material that I have ignored in favor of the fancy stuff. Then Chris Schwarz comes along and does a piece on the closing of a fine old French rasp shop, Auriou and that got me to thinking some more.

I realized that while some tools come and go, my 'collection' of files and rasps has steadily grown. I never upgraded one, just purchased a specific model to fit a particular restoration task. If I have had to fit a recalcitrant tenon to an off-kilter mortise, I am likely to pick up a series of files rather than a shoulder plane or a chisel. A gentle swish with a fine double cut file will leave a clean, level very glue friendly surface. Adam Cherubini speaks to the historical accuracy of a 'good fit' and 'visually proper' fitting of dovetails, tenons and even drawer fronts. If the joint will not be seen, it needs to fit the mechanics of the piece, not the visual impact of the piece. No one is going to look inside a mortise and tenon, nor remove molding to check out the dovetails.

Somewhere along the way, we began to think of the handwork of furniture making as a means to replicate the precision of machine made work using dimensioned and engineered lumber. Oh, wait... remember those machines from way back then. Their purpose was to replicate the cutting of dovetails, tenons, mortises, etc with alacrity to expedite the manufacturing process. Now we use machines to produce precision joints because we can't produce the same precision with hand tools. Unless you are a master cabinetmaker whose muscle memory is such that the task of cutting a dovetail is second nature. Next time you are at a Shaker Village, take a close look at the furniture. You won't see the machined precision that is expected of us now. What you will see is an example of visual harmony at it's best. All the little not-quite-perfect details work in conjunction with the selection of wood, paint and proportions to trick the brain into thinking that there are perfect joints. Why?  Because we expect to see such perfection in a piece of furniture that is so visually appealing.

Back to Nicholson.  Do you think a company making files and rasps would have grown to such prominence unless there was a pressing and wide-spread need for their product?  Take a look through these two brief price lists. The variety of tools alone puts modern day woodworkers to shame. Even in the 1878 Nicholson "A Treatise on Files" (sorry, not scanned yet but it will be) there are 57 distinct file types listed, each available in a variety of sizes, profiles and cuts.

So next time you find that tenon to be a hair to wide, pick up a good quality file and do the job right. We spend a lot of energy obsessing over plane blade angles. Why not spend as much energy learning the nomenclature of files and rasps and using them as they are intended to be used... as shaping and finishing tools.

I may lend some handtools, but I will never lend a file or rasp. Go buy your own.

Till next
Gary Roberts
www.toolemera.com

Why I Like Old Photographs

This particular image is a Cabinet Card that holds more than it appears to. On the surface, it's a rare image of a ship under construction. On close examination, things get fuzzy. First off, there are two small triangular black areas at the bottom left and right hand corners. These tell me that this is an Albumen photograph (a photograph made with egg white, no bacon please) of a Tintype photograph (no tin, just a sheet of iron with a collodion coating... go figure). It was not uncommon for photographers to make copies of earlier images either for resale or by request. The Tintype would have been a full-plate, a rarity in and of itself. Most Tintypes that we see are actually sections of the full plate. Cost was a factor as well as the work involved in producing the larger image. Most full-plate or half-plate Tintypes are outdoor scenes.

Back to this image. While found in New England, identifying this image is difficult. It could be from most anywhere. I don't know much about ship design, so that compounds the problem. Sometimes you can go by the clothes people are wearing, but in the case of the average worker, it is doubtful that people bought the latest fashions for wear while building a hull. My current guess is somewhere in the 1880's but I could be off by a decade. The image is of a clearly hilly or even mountainous region so that leaves Florida out of the running. No palm trees either. The hull is made up of some very substantial timbers, so I assume that this is a heavily forested area too.

But what kind of ship is this? Some folks have suggested it is a barge, given the profile and flat bottom. Another suggestion is that this was a Great Lakes Lumber Schooner, again given the profile, flat bottom and cutout at the tip. Some research turned up the possibility that this was a Great Lakes Consort Barge, a beast that was either purpose built or at times a converted schooner. Interestingly enough, The Great Lakes Lumber Schooner has a fairly flat bottom, two masts, and a profile that resembles this one. The Consort Barge also resembled the schooner with the exception that it was unpowered. Hence no masts.

Looking at the tools in the hands of the shipwrights doesn't tell us much either. There are mostly the common tools of any period: axes, saws, squares, augers, etc. So all that I can say at this point is that the hull was made in a local setting rather than a major shipyard, the area is hilly or mountainous and close to some substantial forests, there are deciduous and connifer trees in the area and someone was feeling brave, judging by the guy kneeling under the hull.

On the rear of this Cabinet Card is stamped "R. W. Heilmann, Artist". Apparently an artist who labored in obscurity as I have not yet found his name referenced anywhere.

And that's just part of why I like old photographs. The detective work in identifying the image is a challenge and a joy. Sometimes we get lucky and there are identifying marks but usually it's a lot of educated guesswork. So if you have any good educated guesses, or recognize the hull or even someone in the photograph... drop me a line and I'll add your comments to the Toolemera Press.

Until next time
Gary Roberts
www.toolemera.com

Workbenches: From Design & Theory to Construction & Use

"Workbenches: From Design & Theory to Construction & Use" (Popular Woodworking Books) is on it's way to my greedy little palms. The new book from Chris Schwarz is now available. Why another book on workbenches, you ask? There is this mystique about workbenches that at times supersedes the making of furniture. Some workbenches look to be as finally made as furniture. Some furniture looks like a workbench (ok, so the era of 2x4 furniture is a bit out-dated). I'll sum up this book by lifting a quote from Chris' blog:

"...before you can make a good workbench, you have to understand the different kinds of workholding devices – from single-point planing stops to Emmert patternmaker's vises – and what they are useful (and not useful) for. Then you can select the vises and devices that suit the tasks that you want to accomplish." And therein lies the rub. Which comes first, the workbench or the holding device? Getting the two to work together in a seamless fashion is a large part of what the eventual design will be. Then there is the final purpose: furniture; wheels; carriages; boats; shaker boxes etc., etc.

Anyone can knock together a workbench in a weekend with stuff from the Big Box store, also known as The Workbench if you watch Reaper on TV. Putting together a workbench that compliments your work style and the stuff you produce takes some forethought and planning, not to mention a good dose of the history of the development of workbenches. Chris ably ties all these varied parameters together, not just be showing a bunch of spiffy shiny workbenches but by discussing the development of style and function. If I don't have the book in hand yet, how, you may ask, do I know this? I had the fortune to supply some of the images that Chris used in his book. By his selection, I can see the path his mind took in tracing the development of design and functionality in real life workbenches. Not just the manufactured varieties, but the workbenches used in shops both small and large. This book will be a worthy addition to the current pantheon of workbench tomes already available. I just love sticking stuff like 'pantheon' and 'tomes' in a blog. Makes Google split a gut trying to figure out how to categorize the content.

Head on over to the Woodworking Magazine Weblog and see what I am talking about and order a copy, order two or three for holiday presents. Don't leave Chris holding the books. He's a nice guy and he does try hard. Or better yet, step over to that Amazon widget in the right-hand nav bar, buy a copy there and support a poor blogger.

Until we meet again...
Gary Roberts
www.toolemera.com