woodworking-msg - 2/13/08
Woodworking tools and techniques.
NOTE: See also the files: wood-msg, wood-bending-msg, wood-finishes-msg, tools-msg, tools-bib, tools-lnks, merch-woods-msg, Tool-Making-art, Sharpng-Tools-art, mkng-a-p-lathe-art, p-lathes-bib.
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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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Subj: Spears and shafts_
Date: 24 Feb 92
From: tip at lead.aichem.arizona.edu (Tom Perigrin)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Organization: University of Arizona UNIX Users Group
Unto Lothar the Wanderer, doth Thomas Ignatius Perigrinus send his
humble greetings,
My Lord, thou speaks most truely when thou doest say that ash is a goodly
wood for to use in hafting a spear. An it would'st please thee, may I
add a few points to thy message?
First, thou dids't mention a lathe as to the rounding of the shaft. May
I suggest that this may not be the method of choice for several reasons:
Imprimus; turning a shaft of 2 fingers thickness but more than 6 cubits
length woulds't be most difficult. The wood would tend to flex most
severly, and would retreat from the tool, leading to an action that turners
do call "whip". I'faith, were the shaft long enough, I would fear me that
the shaft would whip itself free of the centers, and strike thee a sharp blow
as it did fly from the layth.
Secundus; Even my largest lathe be but 5 cubits in length, and longer are
most difficult to find.
Thus, an it doth please My Lord, may I suggest the following in it's stead?
First, hie thee to a goodly wood cutters, and beg to examine all their
stock. Find thee a board of goodly thickness, such as 8 quarters or 10
quarters. Cant it up upon the ground, and site thee the length, and proove
that there be no cup, nor wind, nor other deviations from good straightness.
Then, lay down the board, and look thee at the grain.... Assure thyself
that the grain be good and straight, with little or no wave or cant.
Then buy thee this board, and take it to one who has a goodly rip saw (a
bandsaw shall function most excellently) Now cut thee a strip but 1/4
inch in thickness from the edge, running the full length of thy board.
Take up this strip, and grabbing it firmly between thy hands about 1
cubit apart, see an thou mayst bend it unto the half part of a right angle.
An it doth hold, then move thy hands a lngth, and test again, and so forth,
until thou hast proven the whole length.
An it doth break, thou hast purchased a brash board, and it is useless
unto thy purpose. Nor can'st thou apprehend a board which is brash by any
simpler examination. I have taken two oak planks that to all outwards
appearances were brothers, yet one was brash and did in all cases break as I
did assay to make the rim of a great wheel of it, yet it's brother was sweet,
and did bend well without the slightest crack or plaint.
Now that thou hast found a sweet board, saw thee a square billet the
length of thy board. Then, find thee a goodly drawknife, or a spokeshave.
I myself do prefer the former since one can cut both thick and thin, and
pare most cunning fine, whereas the the spokeshave is limited in it's bite.
Then affix thy billet in a vice, and begin to shave thy shaft.
The vice that thou woulds't use should not be a common joyners vice, for
that woulds't bite too deeply and mar the wood, an it is not quick to release
the wood. In it's stead thous shoulds't use a shaving horse, or a shaving
bight. The latter is most easy to make, an so I shall describe it thus;
Find thee a beam that doth sit horisontal. The rail of a fence, or a
beam affixzed in a joyners vice shall serve. Then take thee a loop of
rope, neither so short that thou cans't neer pass both beam and shaft
throu't, nor so long that it doth hang so loose, but just such a length
that when thou dost place the shaft and the beam through the loop that they
do lie snugly, but thou can'st turn thy shaft. Then, cant thy shaft around
so that it comes to make an angle with the beam - this shall tighten thy bight,
and thou shalt find that thy shaft is held firm from turning, until
thou does't walk it back unto alignment with the beam.
Then, take thee thy knife or shave, cant thy shaft until it lies snug,
hold the free end of thy shaft under thy arm, and begin to shave thy
shaft.
With a drawknife, thou shouldst use the flat side, so that thou does not
bite too deeply. Thou shoulds't consider the shape that thous wouldst thy
shaft to have - and it be round, it may notbe so easy to grasp when it
is wet or thy hand is gloved gainst the cold... I would humbly suggest that
thous does't shave it of 8 or 12 sides.
When thou shavest thy shaft, draw it not straight an plane, but consider
the grain in thy wood. Where it doth rise slightly, then leave that
slight proud, so that thou hast not cut cross the grain... this shall
give thee much more strength than thou mightst come to expect, for that
a crack in would doth almost always progress from some point where the
grain has been cut... Avoid thee cutting the grain, and thou shalst have
the greastes strenth of thy wood.
Once thous hast drawn it to thy shape, then consider thee the finishing of
thy wood. My good Lord Lothar did suggest that one should first to oil
their wood, and then to apply some resin or varnish. I might suggest
that therein can lie disaster, for not all resins nor varnishes will adhere
to an oiled bit of wood. It can be repelled so that none may stick, else
it may rise up and crack, or it may form large flakes which dot remind one
of a lepers skin under the noon day sun. An thou woulds't to follow this
advice, first take thee a small amount of thy wood, thy oil, and thy
varnish, and prove it aside afore tthou dost commit thy greater work.
I faith, I myself do favor the following finish, which, although it is
not so hard, nor so glossy as many brews that do abound this day, is
true and tested, and has been in use since antiquity...
Take thee a pound of good beeswax, and warm it gentle until it has melted.
Then take thee a quart of good tung oil, and mix it with a quart of good
turpentine, and then cast these into the wax with rapid stirring. As it
doth cool, it shall give thee a pleasant smelling paste which shall enter the
wood freely, and after a day may be buffed unto a dull warm glow. Tis not
a hard finish, but it doth smell well, an when tis damaged, may it can
be repaired by so simple a means as buffing more on. Thou shoulds't store
that which thou has not used in so tight a can as thou may find, for the
air do cause it to harden.
And thus, in short and in plano, is how I might process to make such a
shaft as to which enquiries were made. I fear me that I have left out
much of the process, for the use of a drawknife is such that may be best
learned at the hand of a master, and not by reading a missive upon the
Rialto. But mayhaps my humble efforts at expostualting my course will
help thee upon thine. And thus, I remain,
thy humble and thankful servant
Thomas Ignatius Perigrinus
From: brettm at execu.execu.com (Brett Miller)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: period woodworking
Date: 12 Oct 93 19:44:36 GMT
Organization: Comshare, Inc. Ann Arbor Development Center
I might warn anyone seeking to work in "period" styles that if you're going to use the original tools/techniques (let's
say about pre-1600), you're going to need a fair amount of skill.
Much embellisment was done through carving while most joinery
was done using simple mortice and tenon joints. Planes were
simple at best. In fact, most tools hadn't changed a whole lot
from Roman times. To put things in perspective, many early wood
workers refused to use a saw because they believed that it showed
that the workman had insufficient skill to use an axe.
As for me, I'm kind of a modern guy. I use 18th-19th
century woodworking tools.
Brett
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Brett Miller
Comshare Inc, Ann Arbor MI
brettm at comshare.com
From: timsmith at oasys.dt.navy.mil (Tim Smith)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: period woodworking
Date: 12 Oct 93 22:07:39 GMT
Organization: David Taylor Model Basin
Poklon k Fiammetta Attavanti (y Rialtogradu) ot Timofeya Ivanovichya!
A very useful text is:
Author: Goodman, William Louis.
Title: The history of woodworking tools [by] W. L. Goodman. New
York,
D. McKay Co. [1966, c1964]
Description: 208 p. illus. 26 cm.
Subjects: Woodworking tools -- History.
Other entries: Woodworking tools.
Call numbers: UCB ForestPrd TH5618 .G6 1964
I've also found Roy Underhill's Woodwright books to be very useful. A
lot of his stuff is nineteenth century, at the very apogee of
traditional woodworking technique and technology, but the roots extend
much, much deeper.
I believe it's
11. Underhill, Roy.
The woodwright's eclectic workshop / Roy Underhill. Chapel Hill
:
University of North Carolina Press, c1991.
UCB Forestry TT185 .U52 1991
that starts with an illustrated essay on "The Debate of the Carpenter's
Tools," a 16th century bit of doggerel that, Underhill argues, was
clearly written by a carpenter. (Who else would think a plane and a
broad axe were nearly identical tools?)
Good luck, and may the cuts on your hands heal quickly.
Dosvedanya,
Timofei Ivanovitch Ponte Alto Atlantia
From: tip at lead.aichem.arizona.edu (Tom Perigrin)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: oak spears?
Date: 24 Mar 1994 18:59:19 GMT
Organization: Department of Chemistry
jab2 at stl.stc.co.uk (Jennifer Ann Bray) wrote:
>
> In the "lawsuit" thread I saw a mention of oak spears being banned in
> SCA combat on safety grounds. I'm curious as we fight with metal
> weapons and use wooden spear hafts with metal tips (for hand held
> spears not for throwing). The most popular wood is ash, but I have
> seen all sorts used, and whilst they occasionally break it's never
> been a real problem. It's pretty obvious when a spear's broken & you
> just drop it and either grab a back up weapon or leg it.
[snip]
>
> Anyone know what happened with oak spears that caused them to be
> banned? If there's a potential problem that we haven't run across yet
> I'd like to know about it.
Oak can be "brash". You can have two seemingly similar pieces of oak,
and one will bend without breaking and return elastically to the original
shape, while the other one will bend to the same point and then suddenly
shatter, yeilding a large number of splinters and a couple of splintery
ends. I can see how long splinters and splintered ends could be dangerous
in a melee.
Furniture shops that steam bend oak would love to be able to spot brash
boards, as the sudden failure not only causes the lass of a workpiece, but
it can also damage the machine or the workers due to the sudden release of
tension. Unfortunately there is no reliable method of spotting brash oak.
Note that brashness doesn't imply that the only change is a significantly
reduced modulus of elasticity - it also implies a significant change in the
mode of failure. A brash failure is a nearly explosive release of tension
rather than a more normal break occuring at reduced deflection.
If I remember correctly, white oak has a worse tendancy towards brashness
than red oak. Ash does not have this tendancy towards brashness.
A good source for more information would be Bruce Hoadley's book:
AUTHOR Hoadley, R. Bruce.
TITLE Understanding wood : a craftsman's guide to wood
technology.
PUBLISHER Newtown, Conn. : Taunton Press, c1980.
SUBJECTS Woodwork.
Wood.
NOTE Includes index.
Bibliography: p. [248]-250.
DESCRIPTION xiii, 256 p. : ill. ; 29 cm.
ISBN 0918804051 : $17.95.
On a personal note, I have steam bent red oak for walking wheel rims. I
found that about one out of six of the boards I used were brash.
Humbly, I remain your servant
Thomas Ignatius Perigrinus
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: rzex60 at email.sps.mot.com (Jason Magnus)
Subject: Re: Rope beds
Organization: The Polyhedron Group
Date: Fri, 24 Jun 1994 21:48:07 GMT
In article <1994Jun24.100402.33171 at hulaw1.harvard.edu>,
schuldy at zariski.harvard.edu (Mark Schuldenfrei) wrote:
> keegan at netcom.com (Tim Bray/C. Keegan) writes:
> My own rather limited experience leads me to conclude that Tage Frid is
> right; if you have mortise chisels and know how to use them, chopping a
> mortice out by hand is the fastest method. In softer woods, I believe it
> is faster than boring and chopping/paring. In hard wood (like oak) it
> may be faster, for large mortises, to bore out first and pare to the lines.
In my experience making furniture, it's -consistently- been much faster to
make mortices with mortise chisels than it is with drills, etc., in either
softwood or hardwood. In fact, hardwood goes -faster- than softwood, and
does a cleaner job. The only time I bore out a mortice first now is when
I'm doing something huge, say the size of a 2x4. Even then, I -might- do it
by hand.
I followed the instructions in one of Tage Frid's articles in Fine
Woodworking, and found it rather an easy skill to pick up. For tenons, I've
found it a toss-up between hand and power tools. If I'm only doing a few
tenons, I use hand tools. If I'm doing a production run with a lot of
duplicate pieces, I'll use my tablesaw and a tenoning jig that I've made.
Either way, with practice and the right tools, it's a breeze. And it's FUN,
too!
--
Regards, Jason Magnus (aka Jay Brandt) <rzex60 at email.sps.mot.com>
In the SCA, HLS Jason of Rosaria, JdL, GdS, AoA (Member # 3016)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: rzex60 at email.sps.mot.com (Jason Magnus)
Subject: Re: Tusk-tennons
Organization: The Polyhedron Group
Date: Thu, 23 Jun 1994 21:05:51 GMT
Suze.Hammond at f56.n105.z1.fidonet.org (Suze Hammond) wrote:
> BM> In article <keeganCrq582.Jrt at netcom.com> keegan at netcom.com (Tim
> BM> Bray/C. Keegan) writes: >Jason Magnus (rzex60 at email.sps.mot.com) wrote:
> > Tusk-tenons are period and work really
> >well for knockdown joinery, but I haven't worked out how to design a
> >joint to use them in this application.
> >
> >Regards,
> >Tim
>
> Can anyone describe these? My friend Ed is a cabinetmaker, recently become
> interested in period techniques, and never heard of this one...
A 'normal' tennon, also called a blind tennon, does not go all the way
through the morticed item. They may be fixed in place with glue, with pegs
from the side, with a water-swolen friction fit, or with small wedges that
brace against the bottom of the mortice and spread the tennon as it is
forced into the hole (this last type is called a 'fox wedged' tennon).
A 'through' tennon does go through the morticed item, and usually stops
flush with the far surface. Often these are fixed in place with wedges
driven in from the far side, or less commonly with pegs from the side.
A 'tusk' tennon is a period joint for knock-down furniture. It is often
found on trestle tables and other furniture that must be repeatedly
assembled and disassembled, but which needs to be sturdy. Look for examples
where the streacher rail of a trestle table meets the leg. In some cases it
is also found in timber-frame architectural woodworking as a decorative
joint.
Start with through-tennon that extends past the far side of the mortice and
which has a hole piercing top to bottom (or side to side) through the
tennon. The mortise is a square or rectangular hole that goes all the way
through the leg or rail that the part with the tennon is to attach to. The
tennon is the narrowed-down end of the rail that goes into this hole, and
in this case goes several inches past the far side. What makes it a 'tusk
tennon' is the hole in the tennon, which has a tapered peg (the 'tusk') in
it, locking the joint together. This hole is placed so the side toward the
mortice remains a bit within the mortice, while the rest of the hole is
exposed. The tennon is held firmly in place in its mortice by a tapered peg
through that hole, that acts against the far side of the mortice. When
assembled, the tennon end with the peg piercing it sort of resembles the
head of a tusked mammal, thus the name.
I'd be happy to field other questions on period woodworking and joinery.
I've got a fair amount of reference materials, research, and practical
experience in that area.
--
Regards, Jason Magnus (aka Jay Brandt) <rzex60 at email.sps.mot.com>
In the SCA, HLS Jason of Rosaria, JdL, GdS, AoA (Member # 3016)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: keegan at netcom.com (Tim Bray/C. Keegan)
Subject: Re: Tusk-tennons
Date: Fri, 24 Jun 1994 04:56:40 GMT
Suze Hammond (Suze.Hammond at f56.n105.z1.fidonet.org) wrote:
: BM> In article <keeganCrq582.Jrt at netcom.com> keegan at netcom.com (Tim
: BM> Bray/C. Keegan) writes: >Jason Magnus (rzex60 at email.sps.mot.com) wrote:
: > Tusk-tenons are period and work really
: >well for knockdown joinery, but I haven't worked out how to design a
: >joint to use them in this application.
: >
: >Regards,
: >Tim
: Can anyone describe these? My friend Ed is a cabinetmaker, recently become
: interested in period techniques, and never heard of this one...
: .. Moreach | Suze.Hammond at f56.n105.z1.fidonet.org
Hmmm.... Have him look them up in a book such as "Tage Frid Teaches
Woodworking, Vol. 1: Joinery," Taunton Press. Or some such. Basically,
a tusk-tenon (also sometimes called a wedged through-tenon) has a tenon
that extends all the way through a mortise and some distance out the far
side. A hole or slot is chopped or bored through the projecting part of
the tenon just at the point where it emerges from the mortise, and a
wedge or tapered pin is inserted through this hole to tighten the joint.
There are a jillion variations on this joint; it can be oriented in a
number of ways, and the tusk-holes can be vertical, crosswise, single,
double, etc. It is extremely versatile for knockdown joinery, becasue
you just withdraw the pin or wedge to disassemble the joint.
Tusk-tenons have been applied to everything from fine furniture to
barns. They can be any size, from less than an inch to more than a foot
in any dimension. They can sometimes be