Toolemera Blog

Appreciations

Part two of A New Old Website...

A long, long time ago, in a town far, far away, I had this idea of selling books and ephemera to old tools fanatics. Online. Through an email list and through posts to the Oldtools eMail list. The fledgling idea took shape as The Toolemera Press. Email was easy, posting on Flea Market Monday was easier (for the uninitiated, FMM was the first Monday of each month). Jump ahead a bunch of years and the fledgling Toolemera Press website. Version 1.0 was a fairly basic, straightforward content driven site with few bells and whistles. Let's say my web site development skills were less then rudimentary.

Periodically I became dissatisfied with the layout of the website and re-worked it. That became a yearly ritual as I learned a few new things and as the software advanced. Along the way people responded to the Toolemera Press site with words of support and thanks for making the material available. Based upon responses, I tried to steer the site towards what people wanted most, along with my own attempts to educate as well as introduce people to new stuff. Opening the site to contributors (aka: people how have something they'ld like to see shared online but who don't have a site of their own) furthered the goal of the site as public resource. Plus it brought in material that I didn't own... of which there really is quite a bit. So far.

Looking back, some of my education and work in libraries rubbed off on the site. Information Management, Content Management, Knowledge Management or whatever yesterdays buzzword is, the goal always was to organize material in such a way that people can both find what they want and be introduced to stuff they didn't know they wanted.

Then came blogs. At first, I really dis-liked blogs. They seemed to be mostly hollow words thrown out for all to read. Any Harry or Harriet could set up a blog and trumpet their opinions. Then blogs became a standard in the corporate world for disseminating information. I checked out a few options and settled tried Blogger... but scratched that in favor of Typepad (Blogger just didn't have some features I desired). A light bulb went off in my head... very belatedly after the world had already turned to blogs. Blogs could be a real nice way to reach people in ways the classic web site didn't. So I tried it out as the Toolemera Blog and found the pundits to be right. Blogs do work.

Where is the appreciation in all this blabber? If it wasn't for the people (yes, that means You, the reader) who check and read the Toolemera Blog and The Toolemera Press website, neither would exist today. It's one thing to toss a website or blog up on the Net. It's another thing to garner an appreciative audience for what is, shall we say, a topic of very narrow focus.

My thanks to all who read the Toolemera Blog and visit The Toolemera Press website. My thanks to all those who contribute material, leave comments, send emails in lieu of comments and who monitor my musings through RSS readers. Developing the two services has been a gas, and will continue to be one.

With much appreciation,
Gary Roberts

New Old Toolemera Site

Possibly because I have so much time to spare, I rebuilt The Toolemera Press website. Changes in color combinations, some changes in navigation aids and a lot of background stuff that may not be apparent but makes my life easier. The site has a lot of individual pages and a whole lot more display items. I knew that at some point I would have to split the site into sub-domains... and that time came.

This design is the first step in sub-domaining the entire web site. I use Freeway Pro, a Macintosh only WYSIWYG site developer which is great, but has it a few peculiar limitations that I needed to work around. So, goodbye left side vertical navigation bar, hello all purpose horizontal navigation bar. For those of my readers (woohoo doesn't that sound impressive, 'my readers') who are worried about bookmarks or links, the vast majority will stay the same. PDF files must still be downloaded from the site, and not from hot links (sorry but some people got carried away and linked directly to a whole lotta PDF files, thus 'borrowing' bandwidth without taking full responsibility for their actions. Life is too cruel.).

Back to The Toolemera Press version umpteen. I really felt the interface was getting too cluttered with graphics and stuff, so I opted for more text in the side bar. In time I'll be playing around with the layout, adding and subtracting, largely because a static site is too boring. At least it is for me. My tolerance for sameness runs out roughly every 12 months.

As niche sites go (internet buzzword for a site interesting to only the iconoclastic, idiosyncratic few of focused obsessions) the web site pulls around 5500 visits per month and approximately 5 Gb of bandwidth. A number of those visitors are the ubiquitous search bots, but a fair number are real live people. Although, on the internet it may be questionable who is a real live person and who is an avatar of some sort. But I digress. As usual. The Blog pulls around 3000 visits per month. Those are direct visits. There is no way to count people who read from afar through RSS links. Please RSS people, don't just read the excerpt, come visit and let me know my pontificating is both eloquent and oft quoted.

Over at the website, I plan on working in some focused advertising space and finally, yes, finally, getting the eStore running. After my Father-In-Law passed away last fall, things became quite busy around here. Lots of chores and planned work had to be put aside for a number of months. Things are slowing down enough to allow time to get the virtual side of life back in order.

The blog will remain pretty much as it is, with the occasional change in color schemes, layout, content, etc. Which, I guess, is saying that constant change is remaining pretty much what it is.  I have grand plans of bringing the blog and the website into sync with each other such that they will blend into One Great Empire! Sorry, got carried away there for a moment. For now,  please do let me know of your comments, critiques, suggestions and such regarding The Toolemera Press site redesign.

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

Who's On First?

File under "There ain't nothin' new under the sun". While looking up sources for the term "tabling" (yes, I am still harping on that Table Saw), I came upon an instance of the sort that gives bookworms and librarians headaches. A simple quote:

"But many seem to aim at making the beam stronger that if it were one piece: and this inconsiderate practice has given rise to many whimsical modes of tabling and scarfing, which we need not regard."

You'ld think that a statement as peculiar as this one would appear once and then fade away. Whimsical is not your everyday woodworking term, unless your specialty are toys or weathervanes. So let's take a look at this one simple phrase...

1822 - A System of Mechanical Philosophy. Robison, John; Watt, James. Page 531
1824 - Encyclopedia Britannica. Page 638
1827 - Introduction to the Mechanical Principles of Carpentry. Hale, Benjamin. Page 165
1853 - Elementary Principles of Carpentry. Tredgold, Thomas. Page 176
1867 - Treatise on Architecture... Hosking, Ashipitel and Tredgold. Page 224
1888 - Encyclopedia Britannica. Page 478
1907 - Encyclopedia Britannica. Page 427

What is most annoying about this viral plagiarism is that no one, and I mean No One, explains how to do it! Why? Because everyone was too busy lifting the quote from someone else to actually put the effort into spelling it out. Msrs. Robinson  & Watt must surely have known of whence they spoke. All the rest thought this was a nifty quote and so included in their treatises.

Which brings me to my complaint. You can't trust what you read any more. I wonder just how much of the 'experts' such as Tredgold lifted from earlier works without verifying the content? Makes you stop and think for a moment. We base so much of our current "knowledge" on the so-called classic books of carpentry and joinery yet we don't know how much the authors actually wrote and how much they borrowed. Holtzappfel is responsible for so many engravings of tools and processes that it's impossible to track the authors who borrowed his work. Or to fully track from whom Holtzappfel borrowed his stuff.

Here and there we find a quote or an image that clearly was created by an earlier author. The unsettling part is knowing what is bona fide good practice and what is simply filler to make the book more impressive. Let's not blame the authors of the classics. This kind of plagiarism is rampant today in research. I can't count how often I come across some thesis or scholarly article that has a stack of referenced quotes of which some are bogus. Upon tracking those quotes back to the original author, it sometimes happens that many of the latter authors have simply lifted the quote.. and the referenced article... from someone who made a mistake in the attribution. The mistake proliferates. So what's the big deal? It means that the latter authors may never have read the original work, instead relying on another author for some level of veracity. Oops, one of those experts didn't read the original work. My bad.

Upon graduation from the Simmons College of Library and Information Sciences, we were all given diplomas and a coupon for a lifetimes supply of tylenol.

So know I can safely say that Tabling is a verified term for joining two pieces of wood, particularly used in ship-building (mast making used this technique) and in timber framing. But I still haven't found a reference that explains why there is a Table Saw and even if this saw has a clear relationship with Tabling. And it's all their fault.

Till next,
Gary

You can't always get...

Warning! Digital Archives Rant Follows!

Got up real early (for me) on a Saturday morning and hightailed it down to a tool auction, about an hour away. Unfortunately, a snow squall slowed things down so it took nearly two hours to get there. Nice scenery though, what with all the snowy trees and everything. There was one particular item I was interested in, a mid 1800's hardware store ledger complete with numerous entries for local tool makers. Edge tool, Plane, Saw, etc. I thought to myself "Self, this would be a great item to scan and make available online". Instead of the more usual, though still rare, tool makers catalogs and price lists, this would be an opportunity for some Reverse Archival Engineering. A chance to see what the tool maker purchased from the local hardware store, and what was sold to that hardware store.

Alas, there was another gentleman (with whom I am acquainted) there to bid on behalf of a local museum. This particular ledger was from the proper geographic area and topical realm for inclusion in the holdings of this museum's library. Shouldn't I step aside and not bid against such an august institution? That thought crossed my mind for but a moment. You see, the problem was that once in the collection of this museum, the ledger was destined to be carefully preserved and housed, waiting for some interested person to go to the Museum and examine it. "Go to the museum" is the operative phrase.

I find myself at war with myself over this situation. On one hand, I work in a library and archives. On the other hand I collect. On the other other hand I try to digitize and make available similar material online for public consumption. The ledger is now held safely and securely for anyone who wants to travel to examine it. But it could have been fully digitized and made available as an online resource (by me). Of course, the ownership part of collecting did not come into play (Hah!). What a quandry. Good old Google Books is busy digitizing tons of books. How I wish that there was a similar project to digitize the massive holdings scattered throughout the USA in town and museum archives and libraries.

At least I got to hold the ledger for a few minutes and examine it. But I still have this itch that I can't scratch and it's really bugging me...

Till next
Gary