Signpost is a free ezine from Bob Dillon Windsor Chairs. It is the mission of this monthly ezine to explore the history and contruction of Windsor chairs as well as other aspects of life in early America. For more information please go to Signpost Info. To SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE, see below.
An Ezine from Bob Dillon Windsor Chairs
Issue No. 15 -- June 7, 2001
Contents:
- News
- The Chairmaker's Tools, Part One
- An Old No.4 (a sidebar)
- America's First Newspaper courtesy of Archiving Early America
NEWS:
Under the heading of "Why Didn't I Think of This Before" -- a Summary Page. I have compiled the basic measurements for all my chairs onto one table to make it easier to compare the apples to the oranges to the bananas. I hope it proves helpful.
With this issue I start talking about chairmaking tools. There are quite a few of them and there will be pictures of each one, giving Signpost a new "graphical" look. The tiny pictures on the page are just thumbnails; click on them to get the full size pic. (A suggestion: right click on the thumbnail, then click "Open In New Window.") This series should take three or four issues to complete.
The last article, "America's First Newspaper," comes from the good folks at Archiving Early America. Don't forget to give them a look.
Until next time,
Bob
The Chairmaker's Tools, Part One
One of the key aspects that attracted me to Windsor chairmaking was the use of hand tools. At the time I started making chairs I had been working in a small production woodworking shop for about ten years and was looking for something to take out on my own. At the old job we used table saws, routers, shapers, sanders... all the usual modern machinery. And when I played around at home "making stuff" I used pretty much the same methods. While it was fun and satisfying to make things -- for the house, for Christmas gifts, as potential commercial products -- the processes used to get there were becoming increasingly unattractive. Meanwhile, tucked away in a cabinet in my shop, were a bunch of unused hand tools I had inherited from my grandfather.
In the fall of 1988 I borrowed the July/August 1988 issue of Fine Woodworking magazine from a friend. I can't even remember why I wanted to read that particular issue; I had never borrowed one before. But fate, or something, was clearly at work. Page 32, "The New England Windsor Chair." The sub-title really says it, at least in retrospect: "A tradition captures the imagination of contemporary makers." It sure grabbed me, not the least because these guys were making chairs with hand tools, some of which were already in my possession, gathering dust and begging to be used again.
Still, it is quite a leap from the router to the spokeshave and it was a bit more than a year before I acted. In the winter of 1990 I bought a copy of "Make a Windsor Chair with Michael Dunbar," a wonderfully clear and generous explanation of the chairmaking process. I was on my way.
I live in a house which I built myself, but that first chair, a sack-back, seemed a far greater accomplishment.
Scrub Plane
This 9.75" long plane is a Stanley No.40 manufactured somewhere between 1936 and 1962, probably closer to 1962; I knew the original owner and have reason to suspect he bought it new. The No.40 is a very simple plane with no fine adjustment for the cutting depth -- not because it is a low-quality tool, as some might suspect when finding one at an auction or flea market, but because none is needed. This plane is for rough work only.
The scrub has a thick, narrow iron (blade) ground to a distinct curve (see photo at right). This shape allows the plane to take a deep bite into the wood. And that is this tool's specialty: removing lots of wood quickly. When a plank dries it cups and sometimes twists. These irregularities must be corrected by physically removing some of the wood. The scrub plane does most of this work, but it leaves a deeply scalloped surface behind.
This is the first plane I use when I begin to turn a raw section of white pine plank into a Windsor chair seat.
An Old No.4
When my grandmother died her belongings were divided up and the "Farm," my grandparents' 200-year-old house in Maine, was sold. Later, a box arrived in Minnesota -- a collection of some of my grandfather's tools. He had been a carpenter, as had his father. His uncles had been furniture makers and carvers.
Among the planes, handsaws, chisels and carving tools (and more) was a paint-spattered Stanley No.4 smooth plane with a split in the rosewood knob and, worse, a crack in the iron body starting at the mouth (the slot where the cutting edge emerges through the bottom) and continuing up the cheek. Stamped onto both cheeks of this plane were my father's initials. So, it seemed, he had added a tool of his own to the box.
The first welder I talked to about repairing the crack said he'd "give it a try." I was underwhelmed by his willingness to experiment and didn't pursue it further. One day I drove by a welding shop that advertised marine propeller repair. This sounded like a guy who could work with something more exotic than mild steel, and in fact he accepted the job without a blink. I told him it didn't have to be neat, and he took me at my word. For a few dollars the old No.4 was back in service.
One winter day, standing with my Dad at his garage workbench in Massachusetts, I thought to ask him about the plane I assumed he had added to his father's stuff. No, he said, all those tools had come from the Farm. What about the initials? He reached into his open toolbox and pulled out the very stamp that had made the marks. I remembered it now -- it had always been kicking around among my Dad's tools. "This was my grandfather's," he said. "I was named for him."
It's just a simple Stanley No.4, in worse condition than many, but now in the hands of a fourth generation -- and back in almost daily use.
Jack Plane
The 1939 Stanley catalog declares that "jack" is short for "jackass... an appropriate name for the plane that is used for the hardest and roughest kind of work." Others would say it is a jack-of-all-trades, the true general-purpose plane. Perhaps this is especially so in the hands of a carpenter who occasionally needs to trim a board or round-over an edge. Of the several planes I inherited from my carpenter grandfather, it was the jack (not the one pictured) which showed the most wear.
The jack plane shown here was made by New York Tool. Planes like this, most of them manufactured by one of a few large makers from the mid-19th to the early 20th centuries, are common at flea markets, second-hand stores and antiques shops. It is 16" long with a 2.25" wide iron.
I use this plane to remove the worst offenses of the scrub plane. Though the jack plane's iron is also ground to a curve, it is a much gentler curve than that shown for the scrub. If you run your fingertips along the underside of one of my seats -- across the grain -- you will feel the gently scalloped surface left by the jack plane. This degree of finish is all that is necessary for the hidden surfaces of a piece of handmade furniture.
Smooth Plane
The smooth is the smallest of the "bench" planes, the family of flat-bottomed planes (smooth, jack, fore and jointer) used for flattening surfaces. This is the one that cleans up the mild undulations left by the jack plane and leaves, at most, minute ridges where successive strokes of the tool overlap. These slight imperfections may offend those accustomed to modern machine-sanded furniture, but for handmade furniture, they are a gentle reminder of the woodworker's efforts.
To achieve its purpose, the smooth plane's iron is ground dead straight, or sometimes to the slightest of curves. The surface it creates, especially in hardwood, has a luminous, almost transparent, quality that, alas, only the woodworker ever sees. It is soon erased by fine sanding and finishing.
The plane shown here is a Stanley No.4 which probably dates back to the 1890s or the very early 1900s (see sidebar). It is 9" long with a 2" wide iron. I use the No.4 on the top surface of my seats, but not necessarily over the entire surface. It is only important to plane the area where the spindles and arm-posts enter the seat -- the rest of the seat will be further worked with other tools.
Bow Saw
It is now time to trace the seat pattern onto the hand-planed blank and cut out the seat. A bandsaw would do the job very nicely, but I don't have one. I cut out, on average, only two seats a week, so I would I would be hard pressed to ever recoup an investment into one of these several-hundred-dollar machines. I get the work done instead with this shopmade bowsaw which I built about ten years ago with some scrap wood and a couple of 1/4" bolts. The saw is little more than a 26" section of general-purpose bandsaw blade stretched between two uprights. The blade is made taut with a "Spanish windlass," a few loops of string with a stick through the middle to wind it tight. Once a year or so the blade breaks and is replaced.
see part two, Signpost #16
America's First Newspaper
Courtesy of Archiving Early America (http://earlyamerica.com)
America's first continuously-published newspaper, the Boston News-Letter published its first issue on April 24, 1704. John Campbell, a bookseller and postmaster of Boston, was its first editor, printing the newspaper on what was then referred to as a half-sheet. It originally appeared on a single page, printed on both sides and issued weekly.
In the early years of its publication the News-Letter was filled mostly with news from London journals detailing the intrigues of English politics, and a variety of events concerning the European wars. The rest of the newspaper was filled with items listing ship arrivals, deaths, sermons, political appointments, fires, accidents and the like.
One of the most sensational stories published when the News-Letter was the only newspaper in the colonies was the the account of how Blackbeard the pirate was killed in hand-to-hand combat on the deck of a sloop that had engaged his ship in battle.
Campbell relinquished his stewardship of the paper in 1722 to Bartholomew Green, its printer. As editor, Green devoted less space to overseas events and more to domestic news. When Green died after a decade as its editor, the News-Letter was inherited by his son John Draper, also a printer. Draper proved to be a better editor and publisher than his predecessors. He enlarged the paper to four good-sized pages, filling it with news from Boston, other towns throughout the colonies, and from abroad.
On view here (at left) is the May 14, 1761 issue of the News-Letter. The front page is displayed in its entirety. Notice the credit line Printed by J. Draper appearing under the masthead. As was the custom then, the front page was devoted to events overseas. This issue contains news from London, a speech by the King to the House of Commons, and various accounts from Westminster and Whitehall.
Also displayed from this issue is an ad from the back page for a Scheme of a Lottery. The lottery was created to sell 6000 tickets at $2 each to raise funds to pave the highway in Charlestown from the Ferry to the Neck. Of the $12,000 to be raised, according to the ad, $10,800 is earmarked for prizes and $1200 for paving the highway.
Sources
- The Stanley Plane, A History and Descriptive Inventory (out of print) by Alvin Sellens
- Woodworking Planes, A descriptive Register of Wooden Planes (out of print) by Alvin Sellens
- Restoring, Tuning and Using Classic Woodworking Tools by Michael Dunbar
- Make a Windsor Chair With Michael Dunbar by Michael Dunbar
- Archiving Early America
Further Links:
- My About Windsors Page has links to many online sources of Windsor chair information.
- Signpost Archive
- Bob's Bookstore
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