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***Signpost***
Issue No. 13 -- April 5, 2001
Contents:
- News
- Bending the Windsor Back
- Dueling in Early America
- April Fool's Day
NEWS:
Continuing with our current series, this month's lead story is about the Windsor chair's bent back and how it got that way. Next is a short history of dueling and then the story behind April Fools Day. Enjoy.
Until next time,
Bob
Bending the Windsor Back
One of the features common to nearly all Windsor chairs is the use of bent wood -- the backless stool being the most obvious exception. It is the bent parts which describe the shape of the back, and the shape of the back which distinguishes one style from another. Some styles, like the rod-back, do not have any radical curves, but others (think continuous-arm) have really impressive bends and one may wonder how the wood was ever talked into such a shape.
No piece of wood thicker than a few sheets of paper really wants to be bent. Of course all woods have natural flexibility -- trees sway in the breeze all day long -- but when it comes to the kind of bend required for a Windsor chair we are asking a lot. Wood selection is obviously very important.
Only the strongest hardwoods will suffice: oak, ash and hickory are the common choices (I use oak). But species is not enough. We also need perfectly straight grain throughout the length of the bend, and the only reasonable and consistent way to acquire such wood is to rive (split) it directly from a log. Generally speaking, this involves splitting the log in half, then splitting one of those halves in half again and then again and again, always splitting down the middle until you have pieces small enough to be worked into the parts you wish to make.
You may have noticed that handmade Windsors can be distinguished from the factory-made sort by (among other things) the thickness of their bent parts. Handmade chairs have fine, thin parts which are nevertheless very strong because they are made from straight-grained woods. At the factory, they saw these pieces from lumber with little concern for grain. They deal with the inevitable cross-grain by sawing to beefy dimensions, and then using a little sorcery, such as back-banding, to prevent a split from starting on the outside of the bend.
So we have our riven pieces of wood; now it is time to take one over to the shave-horse for some basic shaping. This is accomplished with the draw knife. For most of the bows I make, the draw knife will do all the shaping that is needed before the bend. Others, such as the sack-back bow, need to be further worked with a spoke-shave to give it a round cross-section. In any case, the amount of work at this point is kept to a minimum; there is inevitably some breakage in the bending game and the more work you've done on the piece, the more you stand to lose.
I am told that hickory, when it is still green, can be bent cold. All other woods, however, must be steamed before they become pliable enough to survive what awaits them. Steamers are generally homemade contraptions and take various forms. Mine is a plywood box about 6" X 6" and 72" long. On the bottom are two holes, each just big enough to hold a "two-pound" coffee can. The cans rest on the burners of an electric hot-plate (see pictures in Signpost #17). As the water boils the box fills with steam. From a cold start, I run the steamer for two hours -- probably a little longer than necessary, but not so long that the wood gets too soft and collapses into folds on the inside of the bend. When ready, a piece is pulled from the box and quickly wrapped around the proper form.
Later, when the wood has cooled and dried out (assuming it was green to begin with; it doesn't have to be), the final shape can be worked into it. The sack-back bow, for example, is tapered on the ends to fit into the arm, while the bow-back bow is rounded on the back edge and beaded on the face.
Of course you wouldn't have a back (or a Windsor) without the spindles. These, too, are riven from oak, hickory or ash logs, rough-shaped with a draw knife, and finished with a spoke shave. An arm-chair also needs two arm-posts and four short spindles, but these are all turned items which were discussed in issue #12.
Dueling in Early America
In 1838 the Maine legislature passed a law which made it a crime to ridicule someone who refuses to fight a duel. This came after a Maine congressman was killed by a congressman from Kentucky who had taken offense at something the northern legislator said about him on the floor of Congress. The Kentuckian demanded satisfaction, and as the code of honor demanded, the two fought a duel.
The gentleman from Maine escaped with his honor but not his life. His fellow congressmen were so shocked and saddened they declared a national day of mourning, but they did nothing to punish his killer, the congressman from Kentucky.
Men no longer regard affronts to their honor with such deadly seriousness, and anti-dueling statutes seem quaint and no longer necessary today. Once, however, they helped a young nation stem a tide of blood flowing from an ancient, violent custom that seems unthinkable now, but was common in the 1800's, even among our national leaders.
Especially in the early 1800's, dueling was a popular and expected way to settle disputes over certain questions of personal honor among "gentlemen."
The custom had come to America with European settlers and was especially venerated in the South where ancient divisions between "gentlemen" and others were maintained more strictly than in the rest of the country. Military officers and politicians were especially prone to resort to the "God of Battle."
Aaron Burr, of course, killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel. Tennessee’s Andrew Jackson also killed a man in one duel, fought in at least one other and was nearly in a couple more.
Former Tennessee governor William Carroll fought a duel with the brother of Missouri senator Thomas Hart Benton, and Tennessee’s first governor, John Sevier, narrowly escaped having to duel Andrew Jackson. (The two were bitter political enemies, and in one argument Sevier called Jackson a "poor pitiful pettifogging lawyer." Jackson responded by accusing Sevier of being a land swindler. A duel was scheduled, but fortunately, friends prevailed upon them to cancel it.) Sam Houston was expelled from the Nashville Masonic Lodge, while he was governor, because of a duel he had fought the year before he took office.
In the more egalitarian North, politicians were not so prone to fight and were thus less willing to travel to the field of honor to settle their disputes. Because many southerners took this as a lack of courage and of respect for personal honor, they viewed Northern politicians with contempt and felt sorry for them.
But even though the practice of dueling remained popular throughout the South prior to the Civil War, Tennessee legislators tackled the problem early on, passing the nation’s first serious anti-dueling legislation in 1801. Tennessee duelists, however, got around the law by traveling to Kentucky and staging their duels there. So in 1809 Tennessee legislators responded with a statute prohibiting duelists from holding public office. They strengthened that prohibition in 1817 by requiring that all state officials take an oath upon taking office that they had not engaged in dueling since the passage of the 1809 law. Then in 1829 they set the punishment for dueling at ten years in the penitentiary.
By this time other states had begun to make the practice illegal as well, and slowly, but surely, the barbaric practice died out. Some historians say the main reason it did was not the advance of civilization, however, but rather the simple fact that state after state made it against the law and thus, exposed it for the murderous practice it was.
Adapted from an article by Clayburn L. Peeples,
District Attorney General from Maine, September 22, 1997
The following is courtesy of the United States Information Agency
April Fool's Day
In sixteenth-century France, the start of the new year was observed on April first. It was celebrated in much the same way as it is today with parties and dancing into the late hours of the night. Then in 1562, Pope Gregory introduced a new calendar for the Christian world, and the new year fell on January first. There were some people, however, who hadn't heard or didn't believe the change in the date, so they continued to celebrate New Year's Day on April first. Others played tricks on them and called them "April fools." They sent them on a "fool's errand" or tried to make them believe that something false was true. In France today, April first is called "Poisson d'Avril." French children fool their friends by taping a paper fish to their friends' backs. When the "young fool" discovers this trick, the prankster yells "Poisson d’Avril!" (April Fish!)
Today Americans play small tricks on friends and strangers alike on the first of April. One common trick on April Fool's Day, or All Fool's Day, is pointing down to a friend's shoe and saying, "Your shoelace is untied." Teachers in the nineteenth century used to say to pupils, "Look! A flock of geese!" and point up. School children might tell a classmate that school has been canceled. Whatever the trick, if the innocent victim falls for the joke the prankster yells, "April Fool! "
The "fools' errands" we play on people are practical jokes. Putting salt in the sugar bowl for the next person is not a nice trick to play on a stranger. College students set their clocks an hour behind, so their roommates show up to the wrong class - or not at all. Some practical jokes are kept up the whole day before the victim realizes what day it is. Most April Fool jokes are in good fun and not meant to harm anyone. The most clever April Fool joke is the one where everyone laughs, especially the person upon whom the joke is played.
"The first of April is the day we remember what we are the
other 364 days of the year." Mark Twain
Sources
- Make a Windsor Chair With Michael Dunbar by Michael Dunbar
- United States Information Agency
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