Good article - thanks for sharing. I was impressed by the Fig. 14 card table - used on a yacht .. and one-thing-leads-to-another ...
Dang it ... I gotta get off the computer ! :-) John T.
That falls in with the myth that the "old craftsmen" loved to use inaccurat e, manual tools that took longer to perform a task, were harder to master, and made the work days much longer.
At this point in my young life with about 45 years in the trades, I have ne ver, ever, once heard any professional say that they prefer to use manual t ools versus pneumatics or electric. Having the manual skills to perform a certain task are a tremendous advantage, but no one but the home educated c raftsman thinks it is better to cut dadoes with a dado plane, put brads in with a hammer and nail, drill holes with a brace and bit, and cut boards to length with a hand saw.
From custom cabinet makers, casement makers, on to house framers and form s etters, everyone is looking for a way to make a basic task repeatable. And faster, easier, with as small a learning curve as possible.
I read once that the required skills needed to complete furniture in the da ys of Phyfe, Hepplewhite, Chippendale, etc., at the level of craftsmanship needed made it impossible for ONE person to build a piece. There were draw er makers, top makers, joint makers, finishers, etc., all involved in just one piece. No one person made the famous stuff.
And rest assured, anytime an advancement was made in metallurgy creating hi gher quality tools that made a task go faster, I have no doubt that anyone "in the business" took quick advantage of it.
Robert
no surprise they got it all wrong
it should read
this new house
and
old yankee workshop
norm and fine woodworking and staple guns
maybe hemifine or semifine
or
good enough and not let perfect get in the way
Regardless of taste, Quality is always in style. ;~)
Kids generally take on the tastes of their parents, it's all about what they get comfortable with. With obvious exceptions.
This topic kills me, I was just reading an email about a young man, son of a carpenter/WW who has 20 years experience he says and Woodcraft Mag, I think it is, who posted his video's, an overall one for the project, combined with a series of videos on the work broken down to see exactly how he did it.
He purportedly uses all hand tools and is a skilled craftsman. I watched the overall video just to see, and he was using all powered hand tools. Not that I blame him, and his chair, while unusual looked decent. I saw the flaws he made and covered up. :) Which everyone does from time to time, but "Hand tooled Craftsmanship"?
He also has links to all the tools he used.
Except that this kid has a wife. ;-)
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