tools-msg - 2/3/08
Period and modern tools. Sources for tool illustrations. Toolboxes.
NOTE: See also the files: woodworking-msg, wood-bending-msg, tools-bib, lea-tooling-msg, glues-msg, craft-supplies-msg, bellows-msg, bone-msg, horn-msg.
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NOTICE -
This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.
This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org
I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter.
The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors.
Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s).
Thank you,
Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous
Stefan at florilegium.org
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From: tip at lead.aichem.arizona.edu (Tom Perigrin)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: 10th century bellows
Date: 10 May 1994 17:34:16 GMT
Organization: Department of Chemistry
eric-smith at ksc.nasa.gov (Eric C. Smith) wrote:
> Jennifer/Rannveik wrote:
> >
> > Failing tenth century does anyone know of any later sources for
> > bellows? (The best I've managed so far is 18th-19th century).
>
> A book called 'Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel: Technology and Invention
> in the Middleages', has some information about belows, including a few
> pictures from manuscripts. The authors are Franses and Joseph Gies. I
> don't have the ISBN right now, but if you want it I'll see if I can find
> it.
>
> Maredudd
CALL # T17 .G54 1994
AUTHOR Gies, Frances.
TITLE Cathedral, forge, and waterwheel : technology and invention
in
the Middle Ages.
OTHER AUTH Gies, Joseph.
EDITION 1st ed.
PUBLISHER New York : HarperCollins Publishers, c1994.
SUBJECTS Technology --History.
Inventions --History.
NOTE Includes bibliographical references (p. [329]-343) and index.
DESCRIPTION 357 p. : ill. ; 22 cm.
ISBN 0060165901 (cloth) : $25.00.
Courtesy of your local Gopher
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: rzex60 at email.sps.mot.com (Jason Magnus)
Subject: Re: Using Hand Tools - Sources?
Organization: The Polyhedron Group
Date: Mon, 27 Jun 1994 22:13:46 GMT
millsbn at mcmail.cis.mcmaster.ca (Bruce Mills) wrote:
> Anybody have any source material or references on how to use hand tools
> (period or not)?
>
> Since I have next to no experience, best to start with overview type stuff.
>
> Akimoya
Several other good sources have already been mentioned. Another is 'Bob
Villa's Toolbox'. Bob's been the host of several season's worth of
home-improvement / remodeling shows, notably 'This Old House' and 'Home
Again with Bob Villa'. While Bob isn't what most folks would call a
craftsman himself, he has been exposed to the information available from a
wide range of contractors, finish carpenters, and woodworkers. 'ToolBox' is
aimed at beginners, and starts with the essential tooks for a kitchen
drawer - stuff you need to change a light switch or do other light
maintenance around the house. He works his way up into a variety of
general-purpose and specialized hand and power tools. All the way he tells
the reader what each tool is for, and how they are used. As a maker and
designer of furniture, I have a -lot- of reference books in my library on
tools, tool histories, woodworking and other shop topics. If I was going to
hand a novice just one of those books, it would be 'Toolbox'.
--
Regards, Jason Magnus (aka Jay Brandt) <rzex60 at email.sps.mot.com>
In the SCA, HLS Jason of Rosaria, JdL, GdS, AoA (Member # 3016)
From: roman321 at aol.com (Roman321)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: HELP REQUESTED - Books on ancient woodworking techniques
Date: 18 Jul 1994 09:27:04 -0400
David Mann <mann49 at delphi.com> writes:
There is a book titled "Ancient Carpenters Tools" by (I think) Henry
Mercer that contains just this sort of information. It was published in
about 1950 and should be available through interlibrary loan. Good Luck
Arlof, Count of Aranmor, In fealty to the Byzantine throne
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: rzex60 at email.sps.mot.com (Jay Brandt)
Subject: Re: Period foods? tools?
Organization: The Polyhedron Group
Date: Tue, 16 Aug 1994 16:07:05 GMT
Hokay, I guess as something of a long-time member I should put in my two
cents worth here. This is just my opinions, and your mileage may vary
depending on who else you talk to. I'm on more solid ground near the end of
this, where I'm talking on tools and technologies, as that is my main area
of research lately.
In article <1994Aug15.151754 at usht01.hou130.chevron.com>,
> What of Aluminum, and high-grade steel? Bronze is obviously acceptable, but
> how about Zinc, Brass, and other alloys?
Depends on just how authentic you want to be. No on Aluminum and on very
high grades of steel. They did have some forms of steel, but mostly
forge-created blades, rather than cast alloys or sheet steel. Bronze and
brass are acceptable. I'm not sure on zinc, but I think so. There are some
good period books on metalurgy, such as 'de re metalica', which could shed
more light on that. Sounds like a good starting point for some serious
library research. :-)
> What tools are appropriate?
One could write a book on that topic, and several people have. I'll again
recommend a visit to a good library there. Most blacksmiths tools haven't
changed since the SCA's period. Most hand woodworking tools are OK, at
least in function. Hand planes (the tools that shave thin layers off of
wood) would be wooden bodied rather than metal bodied. The same is true for
spokeshaves and similar tools. Adjustments tended to be by wedges rather
than by screws. Saws tended toward bow saws and 'turning saws' (a bow saw
where the blade can be rotated on its long axis to get the frame out of the
way of the cut). The modern carpenters panel saw wasn't used, as they
couldn't keep the blade flat and stiff unless it was under tension.
> What kind of machines (old definition) and tools were in common usage, or
> were being invented?
There were specialized carts for moving logs, various types of workbenches,
and several clamping systems. Bench vises were of the wooden screw type.
Many, in fact most, craftsmen used systems of pegs in the bench top and
wedges between the pegs and the work to hold items while working on them.
Holdfasts, an L-shaped iron peg still available today, were used to hold
work down on the bench top. Most modern shop machinery did not exist, such
as table saws, drill presses, and 'eggbeater' drills. The first table saw
was invented by a Quaker woman in America, decidedly post-period.
> What were the common fasteners; screws and/or bolts,
> or just nails?
Rivets were the most common metal-to-metal fastening, and fairly common as
a means of fastening metal to wood as well. Hand-cut, flat-headed,
blunt-pointed screws with a slot head were known in late period, and used
on some metal assemblies with threaded holes or square nuts when the
assembly needed to be taken apart later. Flat bladed screwdrivers only, no
phillips or allen or torx screws. Metal screws were still fairly coarse
threaded. Screws were generally not trusted for woodworking, and neither
were nails, though both were used on cheap work. Most quality woodworking
(from furniture to houses and ships) depended on good joinery and wooden
pegs. They had some decent glues, but rarely trusted to glue alone for a
joint's strength. Hinges on chests and boxes were commonly a pair of
cotter-pin shaped devices, with the legs of one pin driven at an angle
through a hole in the top edge of a chest's side and clinched on the
interior, and the other pin linked eye-to-eye and clinched into the lid.
Doors and large cabinets or chests usually used strap hinges, held in place
by rivets or clinched nails going through the door.
--
Regards, Jay Brandt --- Austin, Texas, USA --- <rzex60 at email.sps.mot.com>
In the SCA, HLS Jason of Rosaria, JdL, GdS, AoA --------- (Member # 3016)
Owner / Designer / Craftsman ------------------------- Bear Paw Woodworks
From: tip at lead.aichem.arizona.edu (Tom Perigrin)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Period foods? tools?
Date: 16 Aug 1994 21:42:27 GMT
Organization: AI in Chem Lab
hkoeh at usht01.hou130.chevron.com (Mark Koehler) wrote:
> What of Aluminum, and high-grade steel? Bronze is obviously acceptable, but
> how about Zinc, Brass, and other alloys?
Aluminum way OOP. Okay, one could argue that it MAY have been produced,
but there is no evidence of it, only a few suggestions of a light silver
metal that may been aluminum or a zinc alloy.
Bronze and brass both well known. They are considered different metals, and
both were used by the Romans for coinage. However, the alloys are poorly
controlled, and so bronze and brass varies a lot from batch to batch.
Zinc is known in alloy, and perhaps to a few alchemists, but not as a
metal.
Other alloys? Tin, pewter, silver, gold, electrum, red gold, white gold,
copper (unalloyed), soft copper, lead, hard lead, drossel, billon, etc...
> Greetings and Salutations! I suppose an introduction is in order... I am
> researching for a persona out of freshly Normandized Saxony (England during
About 1100?
> but realizes he has a real talent as a handyman (Tinker?).
> What tools are appropriate? I assume he would be able to provide assistance
> and maybe borrow either a blacksmith's or woodwright's facilities, but he
> could construct a makeshift shop using his own tools in a moment's notice.
Errr, well, don't bet on it. Tinkers were considered pretty low people. A
smith is a wealthy man, a pillar of the village or even of a keep, and has
little use for a tinker. It's not just the training, it's also social
standing, etc... Same for a woodwright.
Tinker's carried their shops on thier backs... some hammers, pliers,
nippers, tongs, a blow pipe, some solders, sheets of metal to make repairs,
a file or two, some clay to make tinkers dams, a piercer, an awl, some
needles and thread, maybe a small mandrel.
> What kind of machines (old definition) and tools were in common usage, or
> were being invented? What were the common fasteners; screws and/or bolts,
> or just nails?
One of the previous gentles answered correctly about joinery, except that
he is thinking too late for your period. During the early 1100's, etc.,
the primary furniture construction is planked construction, simple boards
and nails. Joinery, as witnessed by the Mayor of Paris's decree in 13XX (I
have the exact date elsewhere), was a very rare and expensive form of
construction, mostly limited to church and royalty. A commoner had a
boarded chest and damn little else. The nobility and even parish churches
might have had mor furniture, but it was pretty crudely made. The
furniture and construction renaissence really startd in the mid 1300's.
Before then, it was surprisingly crude and rare. He had the hinges
right... cotter pins, with the legs banged clear through the wood and
clinched over. Looks "primative". I lost a lot of points at an A&S
tourney once because of how crude my hardware was... *sigh*
Bolts were very very rare... how do you plan to cut the threads on the
nut? When I make a nut for a spinning wheel reproduction, I cut the
threads in a rod with a file, get a bar YELLOW hot, and then quickly bang
it around the threads. Then you have to file it square, work it so it
threads on and off, and do a lot more work. NOT easy. I require 2 days
to produce a bolt and nut. I imagine somebody good could do it in a half
day? More common were long pins with a slot that could take a wedge,
much like a tusk tenon in wood. This is much easier for the blacksmith to
make. Look at pictures of cannons... up until 1800 most of the metalwork
uses this type of wedge. Even fine work such as astrolabes used a slotted
post, held by a wedge typically shaped with a horses head on the end. The
entire wedge is called "the horse". The posts for clocks and watches were
also pinned, rather than using screws.
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: rzex60 at email.sps.mot.com (Jay Brandt)
Subject: Re: Tools
Organization: The Polyhedron Group
Date: Wed, 17 Aug 1994 18:26:38 GMT
J.N.DEakin at sheffield-hallam.ac.UK (Jim N. Deakin) wrote:
> Greetings from Niall of Stone Ford,
> In a recent, very interesting note, Jay Brandt <rzex60 at email.sps.mot.com>
> said:
> > ...the first table saw
> > was invented by a Quaker woman in America, decidedly post-period.
>
> What we over here call the circular saw is indeed post-period, but the
> origin given here is not correct. The story is that it was invented by a
> _Shaker_ woman, and it is presented as fact in tours of Shaker communities
> etc. The trouble is it's wrong. There was a discussion on rec.woodworking
> some time ago which mentioned earlier examples. Unfortunately I didn't save
> the notes, and I can't mail to newsgroups so I can't ask there.
I stand corrected. Thank you, as I wouldn't want to spread misinformation.
I was citing from memory while at work, rather than quoting from an
authoratative source while nestled in my research library. You are indeed
right that the usual attribution was to a -Shaker-, as opposed to Quaker,
woman. Several rather authorative books on tool histories that I have in my
collection contain that attribution. I'll not argue whether someone else
perhaps deserves credit for an earlier 'invention' of that device, as you
may well be right. That is certainly the case with a number of inventions.
I think perhaps hers was the first 'commercially viable' table saw.
Certainly others in Europe were already cutting wood with circular blades,
but as I recall, none of their arrangements allowed the wood to slide on a
table, nor for the blade height to be readily adjusted. Unfortunately, I
missed that discussion on rec.ww. I truly wish I could have read it.
Incidentally, in her design, it was the table that moved to adjust the
blade height, rather than moving the blade and power source. Quite clever!
--
Regards, Jay Brandt --- Austin, Texas, USA --- <rzex60 at email.sps.mot.com>
In the SCA, HLS Jason of Rosaria, JdL, GdS, AoA --------- (Member # 3016)
Owner / Designer / Craftsman ------------------------- Bear Paw Woodworks
From: doug_brunner at om.cv.hp.com (3/28/95)
To: markh at sphinx
RE>Medieval Tools Info????
Well Mark,
This could be your lucky day. I just got this and I'm glad to pass
it on. I'll let you do the same for me if you hear of something.
Bruno
>Lucky Bruno! woodworking tools are fairly well documented due to a >twist of
fate, St. Joseph was a carpenter, so he is portrayed with >the appropriate toos
in much christian iconography. Most of the >pictures I list can be found in a
large number of places, I've listed >my sources just to help. (Keep your eye out
for Noah building
>the Ark, building of the Tower of Babel and building of various >cathedrals)
>
>_Daily Life in the Middle Ages_ by Clara and Richard Winston,
> pg 31, brace&bit, auger, chisel, saw! from "The Annunciation with
>Donors and St. Joseph" Robert Campin
> pg 32 bad repro axe + ? note baby walker! "The Holy Family at Work"
>from "Hours of Catherin of Cleves"
> pg 33 building scene
>
>_A Medieval Book of Seasons_ by Marie Collins and Virginia Davis
> pg 53 building scene with pit sawing, hewing, a crane and a >level!
British Library, London, ADD MS 19720 f27 "Rustican", French, >late 15th century
>
>_Antiques_, edited by Elizabeth Drury
> pg 20, planes, saws, dividers, chisels, mallet, try squares,
>braces&bits, lots of good stuff, (inc: lady spinning), from "Work" by >J.
Bourdichon, 15th century
> pg 22 spring pole lathe from a book of trades published in >Zurich in
1548 by Johann Stumf
>
>may I also comment to your attention: >
>_On Divers Arts_, Theophilus, trans by J.G.Hawthorne and C.S.Smith
> Dover reprint, pg 26 cheese glue and a discription of a drawknife >
12th century
>
>"The Debate of the Carpenter's Tools" anon, 15th century, Bodleian Library,
>Ashmole 61, also found in the back of _The Woodwright's Work Book_,
>by Roy Underhill.
>
>and from his bibliography:
>_The History of Woodworking Tools_, W.L.Goodman
>_The Development of Carpentry, 1200-1700, An Essex Study. Cecil Hewitt; >
Newton Abbot, David & Charles Devon
>_Ancient Carpenter's Tools_ by Henry Mercer >
>and two last ones:
>_The Carpenter's Tool Chest_ Thomas Hibben, tertiary at best; lots of >un
documented line drawings
>
>and one to inspire work
>
>_Masterpieces_, Richard Ball & Peter Campbell, subtitle: Making Furniture From
>Paintings, 20 projects: ISBN 0-688-02488-2, Hearst Books, New York
>copyright 1983
From: aodhan at dobharchu.org (Aodhan Ite an Fhithich)
Date: 18 May 95 08:14:12
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Blacksmithing materials?
Organization: Lough na Dobharchu' BBS - Loch Soilleir, Ansteorra
Dia duit!
[Replying to a message of PATSY DUNHAM to All]
PD> We are searching for sources for tools & materials for a small smithy
PD> operation which we are setting up (if you want period hardware for
PD> your woodwork, you have to make it yourself, eh?)
PD> We are seeking _period_ equivalent tools, too, not 18-19th century.
PD> Also looking for materials sources: coal, bronze, etc.
Chimene
Write to the following and request their latest catalog. While I cannot vouch
for how period their tools are, they offer a great many, as well as supplies
and books.
Centaur Forge, Ltd.
117 North Spring St.
PO Box 340
Burlington, WI 53105
Feicfidh me' ari's thu',
Aodhan
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Baron Aodhan Ite an Fhithich aodhan at dobharchu.org
Master of the Laurel Lough na Dobharchu' BBS 1-713-338-2570
Dobharchu' Herald "Your Information Roman Road"
mka David H. Brummel 1:106/22 180:11/22 762:2200/2
SCA Member 02245 Barony of Loch Soilleir, Ansteorra
http://www.phoenix.net/~dbrummel
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From: Gerekr at aol.COM
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Woodworking (was How Do You Know?)
Date: 28 Sep 1995 14:57:42 -0400
McNutt at gateway.ce.utk.edu wrote:
>You said it. Try and find documentation on the nature and use of woodworking >tools prior to 1600.
>
>Oh, there's stuff to be found, but the way the secondary references run,
you'd >think woodworking started in 1700!
Try this: Goodman, W.L. _The History of Woodworking Tools._ New York: David
McKay Co., 1964. I would be willing to pay a fair amount for a copy of this.