Carpentry

[The Chapman]

This is a picture of the decent enough ripsaw I picked up today.

This new thread is about to feature my replenishing my hand tool collection that I used to use when I was a teenager. I was a victim of what you more normal folks might call a 'cult', and spent a good share of my childhood/adolescence using candles, lamps, woodstoves, and most importantly here, hand tools.

The saw and why I picked it:

My old saw was a standard blade configuration, i.e. it looked like a normal saw, tall through the body. But the teeth were kerfed a little more aggressively, and the chisel angle was 90 degrees. Now this new saw is deadly dull, and the blade is warped; but the blade is fixable either by some torch or stove work, or possibly some assiduous heat work by my newfound blacksmith Ken (the brilliant man that he is).

The teeth are eminently fixable with some file work, with only one broken and the crowns even, and despite some abject piece of shit attempting to convert the teeth to a crosscut configuration by overly aggressive filing (changing the attack angle to more shallow than 90 degrees), it's totally salvageable due to the purity of the design. The blade makes me happy. It's elegant. It's simple. It is what carpentry is all about.

It's beautiful. Just look at it.

The reason I picked this little machine is because:

1) The blade is short, i.e. it isn't 'tall', and therefore won't bind nearly as much in wet wood; and therefore won't require as much screwing around with wedges in a long rip.

Properly sharpened, I can rip cut 2" thick oak almost as fast as a circular saw.

I love hand tools, saws especially.

More to come.

[The Chapman]

I was down at Macktown with Rats and a couple others of the Archangel and there was a 'carpenter' set up in a tent.

I wanted to kick his ass. He knew nothing at all about how to use the tools. It was obscene. He had the stuff he'd bought at farm auctions, and none of it was sharp, or tuned, or straightened, or even usable in any way, shape, or form. It pissed me off.

I saw him later in the day with a cheap, pulpwood 1X from Menards, clamped into a bench vise with the shallow edge up, trying to saw through it with a dull hand saw. Unbelievable.

In the above picture, notice the blade configuration is a WEDGE. Make it WORK FOR YOU. Properly kerfed and sharpened, minimal pressure with the top heel of the hand, on a handle worn or shaped to the user, will result in a clean, discrete, repeatable rocking motion, creating consistent cuts.

And that's what people now don't get: REPEATABILITY.

Nowadays, machines do everything; but we forget that previously, trained humans were the machines. Proper training, with the proper tools, creates consistency. Every cut with my saws, with my kit, was the same. And man, I was PROUD of that. So much more proud than hacking through bullshit wood with an electric saw, that had to have power, because the wood was trash that no self-respecting carpenter of even fifty years ago would have put in a house.

I'll be quiet for now, but there will be projects. Talk later.

[Rats]

Well said my friend!!

You're a natural!

Rats

[Gentleman of Fortune]

Cool idea for a thread!

Now if we can just find a cooper!

GoF

[The Chapman]

I'm working a kit for steam bending, and with the proper planes and shaves I see no reason I can't make buckets, etc.

The big problem is finding decent enough wood to be worth working with. Kiln-dried modern lumber is crap. One of the reasons the hand tools are so efficient is because the wood used is properly dried and of sufficient hardness to allow precision. A high moisture content results in endless binding and frustration.

Also, I found that quick-kiln-dried lumber is somewhat brittle. I no like.

Although, up north of me by Juneau is a lumber-yard sawmill that has had signs out for air-dried ash.

Ash... oh yeah. that is nice stuff.

[Capt. Sterling]

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[michaelsbagley]

Cool idea for a thread!

Now if we can just find a cooper!

GoF

I second that.... we need everything from ankers to, and I hope I remember this correctly, butter buckets....

How would a butter bucket differ from a butter churn? Or was that what you were trying to think of Cpt. Sterling?

And what is an anker?

[Capt. Sterling]

delete

[CrazyCholeBlack]

ANYWAY, back on the subject of CARPENTRY (which is a different craft entirely from cooperage and anyone that does a good old google search will find several coopers making PC buckets but there aren't many PC "build your house" carpenters)

I agree that ash is nearly impossible to find these days. That ash borer is doing some serious damage. I'm looking forward to seeing if that place pans out. It would be nice to see something in ash, wax finished, with square nails.

Have you read A Museum of Early American Tools by Eric Sloane? It's pretty good and readily available at most local libraries. I like that it has sketches of the tools, being a visual person and all.

[Rats]

Excellent stuff folks!

making rats look bad with that stolen--- borrowed tablesaw!!

[Patrick Hand]

I can pound and hack something outta wood..... but Eric Sloane's books are cool.....

(dang... I hope that made sence......)

[Gentleman of Fortune]

You may find this interesting

http://www.taths.org.uk/

GoF

[The Chapman]

Looks interesting. I'll pore over that later.

I was going to post a little piece on using hand saws, with pictures, and some issues about sharpening, accuracy, use, cut styles, etc. but now I don't have time this evening to set up.

Later. Well, it's not like the tools are going anywhere.

[The Chapman]

A quite good primer on sharpening techniques for the hand sawyer:

http://www.vintagesaws.com/library/primer/sharp.html

[The Chapman]

I finally got the shop somewhat organized after leaving an unbelievable mess on other projects, using, of course, power tools. I hate power tools. They're fast in use but incredibly clunky and messy, and overpower the work and the wood. Power tools are for hacks. I really believe that.

Something to keep in mind about hand tools: they clean up easy. I have a trip to a supplier tomorrow for a couple things, and then get to start on some projects... I hope.

Some pics on Sunday, I absolutely promise. The tutorial on saw sharp[ening is pretty damn good. Some of it I disagree with, because I am a crank; but it is good stuff and well worth reading.

[NVBarbossa]

Aye,

A good saw is a hard thing to find now a days thats for sure. I am glad I got my grandfathers carpentry tools most over 100 years old now, and nothing beats a well sharpend hand saw, I had the unfortunate experience of a blood sacrafice a couple of years back when one of his saws that hadn't been sharpened in over 50 years fell, I grabbed it blade side before the wood handle hit the floor. who knew it would be that sharp after 50 years. so the blood sacrafice has been paid.

[The Chapman]

HA HA HA HA HA!

That'll teach you!

Yeah, I've got some pretty nasty scars, too. Get careless with these things, and they'll hurt you, if not as instantly or deeply as a mishandled power tool.

I've got tons of scars on my hands, legs, and arms from hand stuff, but the worst one is the scar on the left ankle where my bone stopped the rotation of a circular saw blade, where the guard stuck back and I set it down on the outside of my foot while the blade was still spinning. Chop!

When any hand tool is properly touched up they are far too sharp to touch the edges. When I get a kit put together, and take it to events, there is no way I'm letting any member of the public (or even people I don't know really well) touch any of my working stuff.

I can pick up some dulled-down examples, but I'd get nervous letting normal folks even play with that kind of thing. Dull saws can be just as damaging as sharp ones. I don't know. We'll see.

[Captain Jim]

Power tools are for hacks. I really believe that.

Pretty harsh, especially considering that you just admitted to using power tools.

In the main I agree: hand tools are better and a joy to use. But I still mill out my stock to within a 64th and finish by hand. The result is that I don't have tool marks and rough-out goes faster.

And at any rate a tool is a tool, no matter when it was produced. Use where appropriate. The finished product is what differentiates the hack from the artist.

[The Chapman]

Pretty harsh, you better believe it, and boy, am I a crank when it comes to that subject. I freely and openly admit it, and will not apologize or modify. Too bad, buddy.

Using power tools? I used them almost exclusively for 25 years in the construction business. Why?

BECAUSE I HAD TO.

People expected it! Customers equated skill and efficiency with the shiny toys you showed up with. We called it the bullshit factor. Big shiny yellow chop saw=guy who 'knows what he's doing'. The bigger, shinier, and bulkier the better.

You show up at a $750,000 house to build Mr. Yuppie Lawyer in his lily-white bedroom community his $52,000 precious cantilevered deck out of imported mahogany, and pull out a hand saw? I don't think so. They'd freak out if you used a keyhole saw to edge out posts!

Hand nail stringers? Nail sets? Oh my God, they're PRIMITIVES! Where are all the air tools I saw on THIS OLD HOUSE, with that guy Norm?!

The only hand tools I really carried were squares (unreliable), tape measures (ditto), a pry bar or cat's paw (to dig out the nails that went wrong from air nailers), and a 20 oz. Estwing hammer (to set lousy hits with air nailers).

It sucked. I hate power tools. All of them. Sick of it. For my own work around my own house, I avoid their use at all costs. The only thing they do is save time. And as everyone knows, TIME=MONEY.

Keep in mind here that just before I vacated the business I was drinking beer with Scotty, who is featured on the house in Lake Forest, IL on THIS OLD HOUSE. He built those ceilings. He half-designed that house, along with his boss from Fontana, WI, when the sniveling architect set up plans WITH BLANK SPACES IN THEM, with notes about 'to be determined on site', i.e., by US, not some overpaid, pasty desk-sitter trying to make a name for himself.

He hated air nailers, and only used them because he had to, for speed and show.

Oh; and why, oh why, does it matter if any given board is planed to 1/64th? Who cares? I don't. If it's smooth, it's good.

[The Chapman]

Okay, that was mean, but I spent decades working in the field.

Herein lies the rub. I am explaining something modern people don't know. Measurements? Standardisation? Inches, centimeters, feet, etc. means nothing in this time period, and nothing when you are building to order.

A piece of string; a 90 degree angle. I kerfed saws with a squared-face cut nail and a rawhide hammer, because the rawhide gave better bounce.

Rec-room carpenters now think 'precision' in fractions of a commonly accepted unit makes a craftsman; it does not. That is not thinking in the 'proper' way. It's not. Piece fits piece; square means fitting; and most importantly:

PROPORTION AND USE (what we now call the 'science' of ergonomics) is EVERYTHING.

Proportion! The 'Golden Rectangle' is what dictates the dimensions of a try square even now.

People don't get it. They just don't. They think duplicating some soulless factory piece is 'precision'. It isn't. It's what I hated so much about churning out plastic houses made out of petroleum products and punk wood for years. We all knew it was pointless. We'd discuss it. We'd say to each other, working on $2 million houses, "You know this is all crap, and everything we do will be junk and mush in twenty years". It was depressing and demoralizing.

Finely finished furniture? Don't care. I can eat sitting on a tree stump with my plate on my knees. Can you keep the rain and snow off your head with power planes?

Think FITTING,

not MEASUREMENTS.

I can't stress that enough. It's a completely different way of thinking, which you can't get without actually doing the work. I'd rather build a box for a friend than a house for a recreationalist.

Chapman

[The Chapman]

Now that I'm all done being a jerk to everyone within reach, I'll try and get the time to take some respectable pictures of the wood stock I'm getting from the lumberyard outside of Juneau, WI.

Oh, man, it's like a candy store. It's all old growth, it's all air-dried, and it's all absurdly cheap. Their cherry wood is out of this world. Beautiful stuff. Gorgeous. The black walnut is, while not appropriate for my uses right now, totally suitable for something like rifle stocks. Nice stuff.

Weird thing about that area of WI; the next nearest town is Waterloo, back roads have UK names like Welsh Drive, and on TRK 19 there is a recently shuttered English Pub complete with sign featuring the Union Jack.

...which may explain the appearance in South-central WI of so much cherry, ash, and white oak.

But come on, 5/4, air dried, clear ash for $1.00 @ board foot? I'd take it all if I could.

[Captain Jim]

*Drool*

[The Chapman]

I got to go to Berland's House of Tools in Schaumburg today.

Oh, my.

I really wanted to see some brace drills to replace the good one, meaning no ratchet action, I used to have (although, I have to admit I preferred and loved my 24" breast drill, with the selective double gearing).

Notable tools seen (My camera, which I share with The Girl's mother, is elsewhere):

An actual framing chisel (big sonofabitch) made, naturally, in England, Sheffield, to be exact. Most of the hand tools I saw were made in Japan, England, or Germany. The framing chisel was so unusual I had to note it. But for my money (close to $200.00) I'll grind down a vehicle leaf spring and wrap it with leather.

A lot of indifferent planes.

A good one is that magic number, again, $200.00. I'm buying hickory stock (yes, beech is traditional, but...) from the amazing wood supplier and making my own block planes. Despite the insistence on chip breaker arcs, I almost think the arc is unnecessary. The dowel in the body is the key to setting the wedge, and I really, really, feel the fine-setting screw is both unnecessary and counterproductive. I say this from a childhood of playing the cello; a good plane body is, in my opinion, extremely similar to the body of a musical instrument; some rosin to hold the (replaceable) wooden wedge, and you're good to go. I do not like iron or steel bodied planes. they don't resonate or hum. They don't feel right.

To me.

But, some cool, cool planes, if a little too 'machiney' for me (I am reminded of a children's book I read over and over when I was about, oh, seven or eight years old: 'SIR MACHINERY', with the word machinery pronounced as a Scottish name, 'MacHinnery'. It was about a robot made in a past magical age by a wizard, brought to functionality for the purpose of defense against demons. Just an old, old thought).

Oh, and I also don't like the modern plans for block planes, where they want you to build the thing out of SEPARATE PIECES, with the sides a different wood. They only tell you to do that so nobody screws up the angles, which you can set on your expensive power chop saw.

Well, you know what? You can rechisel or reline a mouth and throat cut from a single piece of stock; but you CANNOT reset the two ends of a block plane when assembled wrongly. Your work was in vain.

I hate the intrusion of machining into woodworking. Not right. Okay, enough crankiness. On with the tool erotica.

Oooh, that came out wrong, but I'm leaving it!

No brace drills. Damn! I just wanted to see if anyone made them anymore. Guess not. I don't want to make my own, but so much of the antique-store stock is junk, and overpriced, and the good stuff is bought up by half-assed 'collectors' who have no intention of using it.

The Girl played with reel chalk lines, and made me guess passwords to get through aisles (sample passwords: Tool; Drill; Hammer. I love my daughter).

What did I eventually buy? Well! I had to collar an employee to OPEN A CASE!

...I bought a 6" try square, made out of stainless (philistine, I know). Made in India (where all the good stuff comes from anyway, ever), and oh, baby, is it beautiful. And I lifted a fistful of Tootsie Rolls.

For The Girl, of course!

And I bought yet another hand saw. Aagh! I can't help it!

I need the camera back. Details to come.

[MorganTyre]

This is a little late for GAoP but it does fit in with the hand-tool thread (though back to maritime tools)... Navigational instruments, ship details and rig details, etc. are easy to find histories on but the actual tools of the trade such as the palm, the steel sail needle (with triangular cross section), the caulking mallet, steel marlinspike, wooden fid, and the like are damned hard to find references to. Does anyone know at what point the "modern" caulking mallet became the standard tool for that job? I'm always adding to my collection of tools and am currently considering making a caulking mallet - a tool I actually have a need for at the moment. Does anyone have any general dimensions or descriptions? Also, does this tool date back far enough to include in my kit or should it be confined to my toolbox?

[The Chapman]

I have seen (In my picture references) a variety of mallets. Now, as to what was 'regulation', or more common than not, a relatively small-bodied wooden (what kind of wood? Don't know! This is the major problem with this kind of issue; the idea of the occupation of 'Forester'... Okay, not boring anyone with that right now) mallet for that job would, of course, have varied. However, it was likely a small-diameter (2" or smaller, possibly flared head, possibly not)) diameter head, perhaps banded with iron, rawhide, or wood, or of simply wood, attached to a shaft of handy length.

It would seem to me that, much like all repetitive-use hammers, the usable head is large, the diameter of the head is reduced for lightness of weight. My personal favorite for roofing was a 12-OZ Rocket of large face and small diameter, the better for fitting in a 'hammer-holster'.

In pictures of these mallets the haft is almost always short. This is for constant, repeatable action.

The wrist would have been in motion, not necessarily the entire arm. You're not looking to brutally hammer a nail into wood; you're looking to continuously pound a resilient compound into a crack.

Some hammering noises:

Tap WHAP tap WHAP tap WHAP (This is the sound of shortish roofing nails being 'fed' by hand into roofing material and driven first, to 'stick' the sharp point of the nail to set it upright, and second, to set it home. Tap Whap, tap Whap). Bounce the head of the hammer off the material to avoid penetrating the roofing.

Story:

It WAS 36 degrees F and raining. I could hear over the peak of the roof: 'Tap WHAP, tap WHAP'. I heard, tap THUNK! and Larry walked up over the peak, his left hand draining blood:

"Man, that's gonna hurt like a bitch when that hand warms up".

A hammer is not necessarily used for brutal fixation; it was most often used, in the period, for relatively gentle insertion of fitments. Caulking certainly fits the bill.

You know, for insertion of wood pegs, or dowels, you don't need a 20-oz hammer made of tensile steel. A wood mallet is what you need.