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. 16 -- July 3, 2001
Contents:
- News
- The Chairmaker's Tools, Part Two
- excerpts from "Common Sense" by Thomas Paine, 1776
- Love Those Planes, by Lynn Hummel
NEWS:
Here is the continuation of our discussion of chairmaking tools. I still have a few more to talk about, and that will come in the next issue. If you missed the first part, you will find it in Signpost #15.
In honor of the Fourth of July I have chosen a few excerpts from Thomas Paine's "Common Sense." Paine was born in England and first came to America in 1774 at the suggestion of Ben Franklin whom he had met in London. In January, 1776, he published his famous 50-page pamphlet which, more than any other publication, paved the way for the Declaration of Independence, unanimously ratified on July 4, 1776.
Finally, I have another essay from Lynn Hummel of Homespun magazine. If you email or write to Homespun Publications, they will send you a free copy. Check it out!
Until next time,
Bob
The Chairmaker's Tools, Part Two
Drawknife
The drawknife is among the simplest of tools, just a blade which is pulled across the wood with a slicing motion. It is used in all three aspects of Windsor chairmaking: the seat, the back and the legs.
After a seat blank has been sawn out with the bowsaw, the first task is to round-under the edge. The drawknife starts this process, removing most of the wood and bringing the edge roughly to shape.
Legs, and other turned parts, begin as sections split from a birch log. These blanks are trimmed with the drawknife to a rough octagonal shape before they are ready to be mounted on the lathe.
The spindles, as well as the bows and arms that will be steam-bent, are split from oak logs and then rough-shaped with the drawknife.
The tool pictured here was part of the collection I inherited from my grandfather. There is no maker's or manufacturer's name on it, just a single mark stamped into the metal, like a somewhat ornate number seven. It is 14" long across its maple handles; the cutting edge is 7" long.
Spokeshaves
The spokeshave is another tool which is used extensively in Windsor chairmaking. Mostly, it is a follow-up to whatever has been roughly shaped by the drawknife, much as the smooth plane cleans up what the coarser planes have left behind. On the seat, it completes the rounding-under of the edge. Some bows are finish-shaped with the spokeshave before they are put into the steambox. Spindles are extensively worked with the spokeshave both for shaping and to fit them into seat and bow to which they will be joined.
The metal spokeshave shown here is made by Record, an English toolmaker. About fifteen years ago, before I had ever thought about becoming a chairmaker, I asked a woodworker friend if he had a spokeshave I could borrow. He didn't, but he got the idea to buy this Record and give it to me for Christmas. For a few years it mostly gathered dust, but it has been in almost daily use for the last decade. It is 10" long overall.
I picked up this wooden spokeshave (as well as another slightly smaller one) at an antiques shop in Salem, Massachusetts. Like the drawknife, it has no maker's marks on it. I have mostly used this tool on the edges of seats. Both of my wooden spokeshaves are made of beech, and both have a brass inlay just ahead of the blade to prevent (or severely limit) wear as the tool is drawn across the wood. It is 11.75" long.
Gutter Adze
Once a seat has been cut out and the edge has been shaped with the drawknife and spokeshave, it is time to start excavating. This process begins with the gutter adze. I place the seat on the shop floor and then stand right on it and swing the adze -- rather gently -- between my feet. I work along the grain, chopping toward the middle of the seat. Once I've removed some wood from one direction I turn around and work back toward the original chops, then turn again to the original direction, and so on until a rough approximation of the final shape is achieved.
I bought this adze new when I first decided to give chairmaking a go. The manufacturers name was on a glued-on label which is now too badly damaged to read. The head is 9.5" long; the handle is 18" long.
Scorp
Also called an inshave, the scorp is very much like a drawknife that has been bent into a "U." This is the second tool used to excavate the seat. Starting near the edge of the excavation, I pull the tool towards me, stopping before I cross that point where I would would be digging into the grain. At first I am only interested in cleaning up the very rough surface left by the adze. Once that is complete I can work on the shape of the excavation, extending it right out to the edges, making sure it symmetrical across the seat, seeing that it is as deep as I want it -- about 5/8" or so at its deepest point. (I often use a very small "spoon-bottom" spokeshave to help with some of the tighter spots.) Finally, I work the whole surface lightly to smooth out the worst of the remaining tool marks. Of course there will always be a certain unevenness left over; that's the handmade character.
The scorp shown here, made by AMT, was bought new when I was just starting out. It measures 7.5" across the handles.
Froe and Froe Club
As mentioned above, the spindles, backs and turned parts are rived directly from logs. Although the initial splitting is done with iron wedges and sledge hammer, the more careful work is performed with a froe. The froe is little more than a steel bar, sharpened on one edge (the lower edge in the picture), with a handle mounted at a right angle. The blade is 16.75" long overall.
The froe's sharp edge is laid across the end of the piece of log and driven in with a wooden club. Once the blade is firmly into the wood, the handle may be pushed or pulled in order to twist the blade, forcing the two halves of the log apart. Or, you can continue to drive the blade down through the wood with the club.
The froe is struck with a wooden club, rather than a metal tool, to prevent damage to the upper edge of the froe. Of course this work is tough on the club, but it is an easy thing to make. I make mine from ironwood, which is common locally. I mount a 13" long section of 4" diameter trunk on the lathe, turn a handle, and I have a club. They last a couple of years.
excerpts from Common Sense
by Thomas Paine, 1776
from,
IntroductionThe cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind. Many circumstances hath, and will arise, which are not local, but universal, and through which the principles of all Lovers of Mankind are affected, and in the Event of which, their Affections are interested. The laying a Country desolate with Fire and Sword, declaring War against the natural rights of all Mankind, and extirpating the Defenders thereof from the Face of the Earth, is the Concern of every Man to whom Nature hath given the Power of feeling; of which Class, regardless of Party Censure, is the author...
from,
Thoughts On the Present State of American AffairsVolumes have been written on the subject of the struggle between England and America. Men of all ranks have embarked in the controversy, from different motives, and with various designs; but all have been ineffectual, and the period of debate is closed. Arms, as the last resource, decide this contest; the appeal was the choice of the king, and the continent hath accepted the challenge...
The sun never shined on a cause of greater worth. 'Tis not the affair of a city, a county, a province, or a kingdom, but of a continent - of at least one eighth part of the habitable globe. 'Tis not the concern of a day, a year, or an age; posterity are virtually involved in the contest, and will be more or less affected, even to the end of time, by the proceedings now. Now is the seed-time of continental union, faith and honour. The least fracture now will be like a name engraved with the point of a pin on the tender rind of a young oak; the wound will enlarge with the tree, and posterity read it in full grown characters...
I have heard it asserted by some, that as America hath flourished under her former connection with Great Britain that the same connection is necessary towards her future happiness, and will always have the same effect. Nothing can be more fallacious than this kind of argument. We may as well assert that because a child has thrived upon milk that it is never to have meat, or that the first twenty years of our lives is to become a precedent for the next twenty. But even this is admitting more than is true, for I answer roundly, that America would have flourished as much, and probably much more, had no European power had any thing to do with her. The commerce, by which she hath enriched herself, are the necessaries of life, and will always have a market while eating is the custom of Europe...
Alas, we have been long led away by ancient prejudices, and made large sacrifices to superstition. We have boasted the protection of Great Britain, without considering, that her motive was interest not attachment; that she did not protect us from our enemies on our account, but from her enemies on her own account, from those who had no quarrel with us on any other account, and who will always be our enemies on the same account. Let Britain wave her pretensions to the continent, or the continent throw off the dependence, and we should be at peace with France and Spain were they at war with Britain. The miseries of Hanover last war ought to warn us against connections...
But Britain is the parent country, say some. Then the more shame upon her conduct. Even brutes do not devour their young, nor savages make war upon their families; wherefore the assertion, if true, turns to her reproach; but it happens not to be true, or only partly so and the phrase parent or mother country hath been jesuitically adopted by the king and his parasites, with a low papistical design of gaining an unfair bias on the credulous weakness of our minds. Europe, and not England, is the parent country of America. This new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from every part of Europe. Hither have they fled, not from the tender embraces of the mother, but from the cruelty of the monster; and it is so far true of England, that the same tyranny which drove the first emigrants from home, pursues their descendants still...
But admitting, that we were all of English descent, what does it amount to? Nothing. Britain, being now an open enemy, extinguishes every other name and title: And to say that reconciliation is our duty, is truly farcical. The first king of England, of the present line (William the Conqueror) was a Frenchman, and half the Peers of England are descendants from the same country; therefore, by the same method of reasoning, England ought to be governed by France...
I challenge the warmest advocate for reconciliation, to shew, a single advantage that this continent can reap, by being connected with Great Britain. I repeat the challenge, not a single advantage is derived. Our corn will fetch its price in any market in Europe, and our imported goods must be paid for, buy them where we will.
But the injuries and disadvantages we sustain by that connection, are without number; and our duty to mankind at large, as well as to ourselves, instruct us to renounce the alliance: Because, any submission to, or dependence on Great Britain, tends directly to involve this continent in European wars and quarrels; and sets us at variance with nations, who would otherwise seek our friendship, and against whom, we have neither anger nor complaint...
The authority of Great Britain over this continent, is a form of government, which sooner or later must have an end...
(from Common Sense by Thomas Paine)
The following is reprinted with permission from Homespun magazine
Love Those Planes
by Lynn Hummel
I was mowing the lawn the other evening and a low flying helicopter flew over me and hovered not far away. I stopped mowing and stood there with my mouth gaping open in fascination. My angle was poor for seeing the people inside, but I just know if I’d been able to see the pilot and I knew he could see me, I would have been waving like a kid. As a matter of fact, I felt like a kid standing there in awe.
When I was a little kid growing up in the ‘40s, planes flying over our little town were rare. When we saw one fly over, we’d run and wave at it and holler, "Give me a ride, give me a ride!" Then we’d stop and stand there looking up into the air with our mouths gaping open.
I had my first plane ride when I was about 10. A celebration was coming to town -- the Town Frolic -- and my friend Bill and I knew there were going to be plane rides, so we started saving our money. Also, we practiced many days for the three-legged race, won it at the Frolic and picked up a few dollars in prize money. So we went out to the airport and had our plane ride. We flew in an old two-wing plane with open cockpits. The wind was blowing in our faces, and we even flew upside down. We couldn’t talk to one another, but we were thrilled.
My next plane ride was with my dad when I was 12. The year was about 1949. My dad needed a truck for his bulk oil and gas business and in those days you didn’t just go buy a truck, you ordered on and you waited. When Dad’s truck finally arrived, he had to go to St. Paul to get it. So we flew from Bismarck on a commercial plane that seemed huge but probably didn’t seat more than 30. I was thrilled about two things -- I got a ride on a big plane and I was pleased that my dad had taken me along. While we were in the Cities we got to see the Minnesota Gophers play a football game (remember Leo Nomellini, Clayton Tonnemaker and Billy Bye? -- we saw them) then we drove home in the new truck. Not like Disney Land, but a grand experience for a 12-year-old at that time.
About two years later, I spent part of a summer with my friend Truman working as a flag boy or spotter for a crop sprayer. The sprayer pilot was from the hills of Arkansas and he couldn't subtract 15 from 30, (Truman and I watched him put 30 pencil marks on the side of the plane, then cross out 15 of them and count the marks that were left.), but he could fly like an ace. He came skimming across the top of a grain field, actually brushing the ground from time to time, then got to the end of the field and cranked it straight up to clear the power line. The fascination with planes was still there.
When I was about 19 I took Air Force tests to see if I might qualify for pilot training, but I couldn’t get past those color charts. When you're color blind, no amount of glaring, staring, will power or brighter light will enable you to see the numbers that everybody else can see in those colored dots. And if you can’t see the numbers, you can’t fly Air Force planes.
But I have flown. I called my friend, Jeff, to do an aerial photo job for me and when I met him at the airport he asked, "Are you flying or am I?" I said, "You are -- I don’t know the first thing about flying." But before the project was completed, he’d flown and I’d taken pictures, then he taught me to fly (but not take off or land), so I flew and he took pictures. While I was flying I was as thrilled as I’d been when I rode in that first biplane.
When it comes to planes, I’m still a boy. I love to read about Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart and I can’t resist a fighter plane movie. So when you fly over me in your ultralight, sitting there in the open with nothing but wings, a frame, a seat and an engine, you will have my full attention. That will be me running below you with my mouth open in awe and hollering, "Give me a ride, give me a ride."
Also from Homespun:
- Happiness... One Book at a Time by Lynn Hummel in Signpost #4
- A Dog's Best Friend by Lynn Hummel in Signpost #5
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
- Common Sense by Thomas Paine
- Homespun magazine (free copy available)
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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