We are starting a series of blog posts that will be from various “old but good” books on woodworking. The following comes from William Noyes’s book, Handwork in Wood. William Noyes, M.A. was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Industrial Arts at the Teachers College, Columbia University during the early 1900s. From the Publisher Originally published […]
The following comes from William Noyes’s 1910 classic, Handwork in Wood. See also “Handwork in Wood” – Wood Hand Tools Part One: Traditional Cutting Tool Concepts. In the modern chisel, all the grinding is done on one side. This constitutes the essential feature of the chisel, namely, that the back of the blade is kept perfectly flat and […]
The following comes from William Noyes’s 1910 classic, Handwork in Wood. See also “Handwork in Wood” – Wood Hand Tools Part One: Traditional Cutting Tool Concepts and “Handwork in Wood” – Wood Hand Tools Part Two: Chisels. In sharpening a chisel it is of first importance that the back be kept perfectly flat. The bevel is first ground on the […]
The following comes from William Noyes’s 1910 classic, Handwork in Wood. See also “Handwork in Wood” – Wood Hand Tools Part One: Traditional Cutting Tool Concepts and “Handwork in Wood” – Wood Hand Tools Part Three: More Chisels, Gouges, Knives. The object of the saw is to cut thru a piece of material along a determined line. Its efficiency depends upon […]
The following comes from William Noyes’s 1910 classic, Handwork in Wood. See the whole Handwork in Wood series here. The block-plane, Fig. 108, gets its name from the fact that it was first made for planing off the ends of clap-boards, a process called “blocking in”. The names of the parts of the Bailey block-plane are: The block-plane was […]
The following comes from William Noyes’s 1910 classic, Handwork in Wood. See the whole Handwork in Wood series here. Some boring tools, like awls, force the material apart, and some, like augers, remove material. The brad-awl, Fig. 125, is wedge-shaped, and hence care needs to be taken in using it to keep the edge across the grain so as to […]
The following comes from William Noyes’s 1910 classic, Handwork in Wood. See the whole Handwork in Wood series (so far) here. More to come. Chopping Tools The primitive “chopping tool”, which was hardly more than a wedge, has been differentiated into three modern hand tools, the chisel…the ax, Fig. 139, and the adze, Fig. 141. The ax has also been differentiated into the hatchet, with a […]
The following comes from William Noyes’s 1910 classic, Handwork in Wood. See the whole Handwork in Wood series (so far) here. More to come. Pounding Tools The hammer consists of two distinct parts, the head and the handle. The head is made of steel, so hard that it will not be indented by hitting against nails or the butt of nailsets, punches, […]
The following comes from William Noyes’s 1910 classic, Handwork in Wood. See our previous Handwork in Wood posts here. B. Tools for holding other tools: Wood Braces The brace or bit-stock, Fig. 185, holds all sorts of boring tools as well as screwdrivers, dowel-pointers, etc. The simple brace or bit-stock consists of a chuck, a handle, and a knob, and is sufficient for […]
The following comes from William Noyes’s 1910 classic, Handwork in Wood. See our previous Handwork in Wood posts here. Winding-sticks, Fig. 205, consist of a pair of straight strips of exactly the same width thruout. They are used to find out whether there is any twist or “wind” in a board. This is done by placing them parallel to each […]