OldTools Archive
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12128 | Fred Marsteller <psychfm@e...> | 1997‑01‑17 | Re: Delurk and Thin shavings ;-) |
Hi, Time to delurk and reply to Todd's question, so here's a brief bio. Long ago and far away, back in the dark ages (which were lots of fun), I alternated among working as a carpenter and boatbuilder, waging nonviolent revolution and communing with nature. In order to delay the onset of reality, I returned to school at the age of 26, acculumated a pile of very interesting but mostly useless degrees based on studies behavior genetics and evolution. I now work as a psychiatric epidemiologist (anybody got more syllables in their job title :)?). During the hiaitus caused by my education and early professional life, my tools mostly sat accumulating rust -- broken out only occasionally for minor repairs and building bookshelves (lots of bookshelves!). In the past couple of years, since a failing back took the joy out of golf, I've been doing progressively more wood projects -- antique furniture restorations, kitchen cabinets and 1000 sq' of deck. In the process, I've become progressively more interested in learning quality jointery, traditional methods and protecting my ears and lungs. In the process, I'm learning that with sharp hand tools I can do many tasks quicker and very nearly as accurately as with p*w*r "tools" -- not only that, but my screwups are less frequent and easier to recover from. My collection of old tools is limited but growing -- a type 13? #7, a type 14 #5, misc. marking gauges and an oldish set of Buck Bros. socket chisels. More to come! My SWMBO is another academic and very understanding -- she must think that she'll get something out of all of this! Now to Todd's question: Todd Kissam wrote: > Is there a way (easy hopefully) to tell american beech vs english > beech. > > Us early woodies would like to know so when we find an unknown maker > we know which side of the atlantic to look for him on. > > It can also mean serious $$$. The value of the american plane > is 2 or 3 times that of an english. > > Why? - I do not know - folks on Jeff's/Richard's side of the big > pond spend too much on warm beer I guess :^) > > Todd > I just had the pleasure of spending a few days in Williamsburg, with much of my time spent lurking around the carpenters' yard asking lots of dumb questions (I know -- no such thing as a dumb question -- just dumb questioners :)) about 18th century wood technology and tools. One thing that I was told was that by the late 18th century, most of the beech harvested in Virginia was shipped to Britain for use by planemakers. If this is true, then identifying the origin of the wood would probably not be informative with respect to the origin of the plane. Can anyone verify this story? -- Frederick A. Marsteller, Ph.D., GMHI, Room 402W 1256 Briarcliff Rd., NE, Atlanta, GA 30306 Phone: (404) 894-4343 Fax: (404) 894-8502 "The health of nations is more important than the wealth of nations." -- Will Durant |
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12135 | Anthony Seo <tonyseo@p...> | 1997‑01‑18 | Re: Delurk and Thin shavings ;-) |
At 10:21 AM 1/17/97 -0500, Fred Marsteller wrote: > >I just had the pleasure of spending a few days in Williamsburg, with >much of my time spent lurking around the carpenters' yard asking lots of >dumb questions (I know -- no such thing as a dumb question -- just dumb >questioners :)) about 18th century wood technology and tools. One thing >that I was told was that by the late 18th century, most of the beech >harvested in Virginia was shipped to Britain for use by planemakers. If >this is true, then identifying the origin of the wood would probably not >be informative with respect to the origin of the plane. Can anyone >verify this story? > Seems plausible as a lot of other species of woods made their way across the pond. I do remember reading someplace that the English planemakers did feel that the American beech was an inferior wood to the English beech, that the English product was denser. Hard call from what I have seen, although (warning, highly inflammable personal opinion approaching), in the planes that I have handled many of the English planes do seem to have made it through the ages better than their American cousins of comparible age. Now I realise that there are environmental factors at work here as well, but also consider the fact that (and this is based on my readings to date and maybe Jeff can shed some additional light on this), that the manufacture and use of wooden planes in England went on far longer than it did in this country. (almost all the wooden plane makers were shut down by the early 1920's for the US of A vs. post WWII for England.) Tony ___________________________________________________________________ One is an interest Two is a collection Three is an obsession ___________________________________________________________________ |
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12215 | Jeff Gorman <Jeff@m...> | 1997‑01‑20 | Re: Delurk and Thin shavings ;-) |
Anthony Seo wrote: ~ Seems plausible as a lot of other species of woods made their way across the ~ pond. I do remember reading someplace that the English planemakers did feel ~ that the American beech was an inferior wood to the English beech, that the ~ English product was denser. Hard call from what I have seen, although ~ (warning, highly inflammable personal opinion approaching), in the planes ~ that I have handled many of the English planes do seem to have made it ~ through the ages better than their American cousins of comparible age. I'm no timber expert, but the English Beech I have bought has been mostly white, with darker streaks and pretty hard to work. However, I don't have much experience of it since I've mostly ordered Steamed Beech which is pinkish in colour and often of continental origin. Danish and Northern European said to be harder and denser than Yugoslavian or Roumanian. It looks to me as though this is the material from which most planes were made. One reference GS Boulger (1902), gives American Beech, Fagus ferruginea, as considered inferior to English Beech, Fagus sylvatica. ~ Now I realise that there are environmental factors at work here as well, but ~ also consider the fact that (and this is based on my readings to date and ~ maybe Jeff can shed some additional light on this), that the manufacture and ~ use of wooden planes in England went on far longer than it did in this ~ country. (almost all the wooden plane makers were shut down by the early ~ 1920's for the US of A vs. post WWII for England.) When I went to college in 1945, my father bought me a new wooden jack plane, and I recall wooden jacks being readily available for sale for some years after that. I was given an English made Stanley #4 smoother. Some better-off chaps had steel jacks as well. Jeff -- Jeff Gorman - West Yorkshire jeff@m... |
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