Yesterday I had the privilege of visiting the workshop of Richard Arnold. I’ve long been a fan of Richard’s work as a joiner working in the traditional technique, especially as I knew he had a love of vintage hand tools. The open day was a chance to purchase some tools brought along by others, and some put up for sale by Richard himself. All proceeds went to the Macmillan Cancer Trust. Many thanks for all involved, the day was a complete delight.
There is a Stanley 71 for sale on eBay at the moment, although you wouldn’t particularly recognise it! It’s a custom re-tooling job by Abiel Rios Wong, a self-taught Cuban machinist who has been modding and creating his own tool creations from scratch since his twenties.
Check out the link on Fine Woodworking for a great video about him.
I won’t have any tools for sale during December, due to some insane schedules in my ‘day job’ as an art director on a magazine. However, I’ve been taking the time to see what’s out there on the web in terms of practical woodwork instruction. I’m very interested in how woodworking is taught through good use of visual language.
I stumbled on the ‘Chairmaker’s Journal‘ section of the Brian Boggs website last night and it’s well worth a blog post.
The journal is a very well laid out section of the site, with lovely detailed pics, excellent graphics and detailed descriptions of how to build chairs. The blogger for the journal section is Jeff Lefkowitz, you can follow him on Twitter as @jlefky, (who also took the shot I have used above of the parts laid out for the student Rocker chair project).
Jeff also mentioned the class manuals that he designs. If you take a chairmaking class with Brian or Jeff, you will get one of these manuals to refer to and to take notes in.
You can see the manuals here. Good, clear, graphic design. Nice one Jeff.
I’m very pleased with the way my sawhorses are coming together. They are from a design by Paul Sellers, who has a great, methodical walk-through on his website. From relatively cheap stuff (4×2) from the local yard, you end up with some substantial and well-made sawhorses, which are definitely a cut above the B&Q plastic rubbish.
This sawhorse is halfway through. I have to put gussets on the ends for strength and level up the legs, but the sawhorse is already rock solid. The design calls for a two-part compound cut, one for the fore/aft rake, (which you make on the top), and another one on the legs, (to create the leg flare). When these two angles come together as a joint, I must say it is very, very satisfying. For reasons I won’t go into, I had to cut my joints balancing on a bit of garden furniture, but they still clicked into place!
If you want to make some workshop items that will last, that are environmentally a little more sound and that are just fun to make, I would definitely recommend this project.
Fairly busy with the day job at the moment, but in my spare time I’ve been reading some excellent woodworking books and been giving a bit of thought to how things open and close. The drawings and captions below are from the excellent ‘Woodwork Joints’ by William Fairham. Very interesting to see some variations in shutting joints described in details. So often you get your best impression of a piece of cabinetry by how well the doors or drawers close. I like the attention to detail and variation in these closing joints.
One of the other books I’ve been reading is the superb ‘Modern Practical Joinery’ by George Ellis. In his book, Mr.Ellis writes with great clarity about on airtight case work. If you are one of those people (like me), who spends as much time studying the superb cabinets in museums as studying what’s inside them, it’s a very interesting chapter. I’ve made a pdf for download if you are interested to see it, as the book is now out of copyright.
I’ve seen various moulding planes over the years that can help you achieve dustproof joints and recently saw a lovely set of airtight case moulding planes, which I wish I had bought. If you have a proper set (they need to be paired planes), then I would be interested in seeing them. For the time being I’ll have to swoon over this lovely line-up until another set surfaces somewhere…
I would also be very keen to have the chance to study some good quality airtight cabinets built from the late 19thc and to take some photographs of details. Perhaps someone can help with access to the basements of London’s museums, or a kindly antique dealer might have a few dismantled carcases stored in a room. I know the renowned makers Holland & Sons of Mount St were supposedly charged with making good cabinets for some of London’s museums. However, the last time I saw some of their work for sale, the prices suggested there won’t be many of those left lying around!
In the meantime, big thanks to a reader of the blog by the name of Tom Kenyon. He read this post and suggested other readers might benefit from reading the chapter on making airtight cases from Volume 7 of The Modern Carpenter and Joiner and Cabinet Maker edited by G Lister Sutcliffe and published in 1902. He’s right, the drawings are superb and are paired with excellent explanatory copy. He has been kind enough to provide me with scanned pages as a downloadable pdf (10.5mb). Thanks Tom. (I think this is out of copyright now, so is ok to share for educational purposes).
(Addition)
Pictures below show a group of 9 airtight case-making moulding planes by MOSELEY of London, part of a private MOSELEY collection.
The gentleman’s ‘curio cabinet’ of the 19th century was developed and enlarged by museums to house their exhibits. Well before the days of air conditioning and effective chemical methods of conservation the main emphasis was placed on reducing the flow of air and associated dust and damp which could otherwise lead to the decay or degradation of fragile exhibits. Hence the airtight joint was adopted by the museum sector.
This group includes a set of three planes to make single joints plus a set of three to make double joints. Because of the accuracy required all planes were fenced. A fourth plane, the combined hollow and fillet, was used to form a separate piece inserted to the head and foot of the case and forming a stop.
The other type of plane required to form the joints where the door stiles meet is the hook joint plane, this group includes the two fully boxed and long brass fenced examples shown above and below.
Airtight planes sometimes appear, mainly as single items and rarely in completes sets in excellent condition such as these.
Further details on airtight case-making and these specialist planes by Mark Rees can be found in The Tool and Trades History Society’s Journal No.4 from 1987.