Journeyman's Journal

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You’ve all seen my brass one, and I loved it until I ran out of glue in the middle of a project. As you can see, the inner pot is small, and I’d been looking for a cast iron one for quite some time. I could have purchased the large one that would normally be used in a busy shop, but that would have been overkill given that I am not mass producing. So I looked for a medium-sized one. By chance, I came across this one. An antique dealer gave me a Disston D-100 saw from the 1960s to restore. When I saw him the following week, I noticed this gluepot being used as an ash tray under his desk. I carefully examined it for cracks and leaks, and there were none to be found. There was some rust flaking, but there were no leaks, so I was confident it wasn’t a lemon.

I went to the local fruit stand and purchased some lemons. I squeezed the juice out and poured it directly into the inner and outer pots when I got home. I let it sit for about three days. I should have let it sit for a week, but I was curious how well the lemon juice was working. I was pleasantly surprised at how well it cleaned it. I still had to scrub it lightly, but as you can see in the photos, both the inner and outer pots are spotless. That’s pretty much how it would have looked when it first came out of the factory in 1904. You’ve got it now. Another non-destructive method for de-rusting your tools is lemon juice.

In a class by itself is the manufacture of reproduction period furniture. The best work in this field is of an extremely high standard; and, although it often has to make concession to modern materials in using veneered plywood or laminated board for parts, it usually follows traditional methods of construction, at least where visible machine work would be obvious. On the other hand, all veneers are put down in a press, mouldings worked on the spindle moulder, and shapes cut on the bandsaw or jigsaw.

It is in this work that wood carving is chiefly used. Because of its high cost, carving has largely disappeared from modern commercial furniture, but to the manufacturer of reproduction furniture it is an obvious necessity. From early times and certainly from the 17th century, wood carving has been a separate trade. A highly skilled calling, it demands artistic sense as well as manual dexterity. It has become divided into classes of which furniture and indoor decoration represent only one branch, with further subdivision within the branch.

In the commercial grade of furniture there is wide variation in quality, from the lowest priced goods to high-grade items in which individual hand workmanship is used for processes where the quality would suffer if the machine were used. Thus drawer dovetails are cut by hand, and sometimes even hand-cut joints are used.

Two technologies important to furniture making are storage and transport. The space taken up by furniture in relation to the actual material used in its construction is disproportionately large; when furniture is mass-produced an enormous amount of storage space is required. This applies equally to its transport, especially when it has to be shipped abroad. Consequently a great deal of furniture is made of the “knockdown” type; that is, it can be taken to pieces and stacked flat. A wardrobe made in this way may occupy only a quarter of its assembled space when disassembled. Originally, parts were joined by screw fastenings, but a whole range of fittings has been devised to achieve the same result more easily and with more precision. Most such fittings require little more than recessing or the boring of holes, operations easily machined. Most work on cam, screw, or wedge action.

Woodworking machinery

The decline of the direct link between customer and maker, due to the rapid development of retail trade, was largely made possible by the invention of several woodworking machines, mostly steam powered. Much handwork remained, however, and only large manufacturers could afford major machinery installation. In the early 20th century it was still possible for a cabinetmaker in Britain or Europe to earn a living, though in most cases he installed a basic machine such as a circular saw or worked in a district in which machine shops were available. Thus in Shoreditch, London, whole streets of houses were occupied by cabinetmakers, often several in one house, who made pieces that varied from the finest individual items to the cheapest, turned out in pairs or perhaps six at a time. These men had their machining done in the trade machine shops that abounded in the district. The shops produced nothing themselves but performed any machining that was brought to them: sawing, spindle moulding, fretting, turning, planing, and so on. These practices continued up to the beginning of World War I and for a time afterward, although most of the large stores also had their workshops where they made not only individual items for customers but also furniture in quantity to pattern.

But in the U.S., the development of mass-production furniture manufacture was already well advanced, with the principal manufacturing centres at Grand Rapids, Michigan; Jamestown, New York; and High Point, North Carolina. “Grand Rapids” became a byword for inexpensive furniture of reliable quality. Furniture factories have never become large in comparison with the huge production units in such industries as automobiles and steel—few today employ more than 100 persons—because of the continuing need for some hand operations. But their machines for many purposes and the volume in which they operated gave them insuperable advantages in cost over the old-fashioned craftsman. Mass-produced furniture began to have a serious impact in Britain and Europe between the wars.

The shortage of timber during and after World War II made conditions extremely difficult for the furniture maker; but in the 1950s there was a gradual return to more decorative furniture, marked by the introduction of new materials, new machines, adhesives, and finishes.

Modern commercial furniture production may be roughly divided into groups: general furniture—bookcases, wardrobes, tables, etc.; chairs and upholstered suites; and specialized items. Each of these may be further subdivided according to quality and type. In addition to this commercial furniture there are the specialized items made by a few hand craftsmen to special commission. Such goods are necessarily expensive, partly because they are individual pieces made singly to design and also because the best selected materials are used. Furthermore, hand methods are largely used that are costly because they are time-consuming. Even in this field, however, the machine has encroached to an extent. Thus a circular saw is invariably installed because its advantages are so obvious. There is no merit in laboriously ripping boards to size when a machine will do the work as well or better.

Though furniture produced by modern hand craftsmen is beautifully made from the best materials, it often requires considerable discernment to detect the difference between it and the best commercial furniture.

WRITTEN BY Charles Harold Hayward

Materials

Modern methods of furniture construction are largely based on the availability of man-made materials such as reliable plywood, laminated board, chipboard, and hardboard as distinct from natural solid wood. It is not merely that manufacturers prefer the one to the other but rather that these substances are free from the great drawback fundamental to wood—movement. Natural wood shrinks as it dries or swells as it absorbs moisture from an atmosphere more humid than itself, and this movement must be allowed for in the method of construction. Unless this is done troubles may arise: splits along the grain or open joints on the one hand or jammed drawers or doors on the other. Over the years cabinetmakers have worked out ingenious systems to avoid these troubles in the use of solid wood, but today made-up materials may be regarded as inert if of good quality. To an extent solid wood has still to be used, notably for items that have to be turned, cut to shape, or moulded, and for lippings to conceal the edges of manufactured boards; but virtually everything in the form of flat panels is made up.

Natural wood

The increase in the demand for reasonably priced furniture has placed a premium on the economical use of wood. Natural wood is extremely wasteful as a material. Hardly more than 25 percent of the natural substance of a tree actually goes into the furniture made of solid wood. When account is taken of the loss in sawdust in conversion from the tree trunk (taking off the outer slab portions and sapwood) and the further loss in bringing the lumber to usable size in the workshop (the offcuts, waste in sawing shapes, in turning, in planing, cutting joints, and final cleaning up), it becomes evident that much more wood is wasted than used.

Plywood

In making plywood, the veneers are peeled rotary fashion from the log by a long knife fitted to a lathe like machine. The resulting veneer can be of unlimited width to be cut up as required. There is no loss in sawdust, and the peeling is continued until only a pole like centre is left. Much the same applies to laminated board in which both the core material and the outer plies are peeled. In the case of chipboard the timber is merely regarded as raw material to be reduced to fine chips that are dried, compressed, and assembled into boards, with resin glue as an adhesive. Where a natural wood grain is desired, a veneer is flat sliced from a flitch (longitudinal section) selected for the beauty of its grain.

Certain materials, notably chipboard, must be machined, because trimming at the edges by hand almost always shows as a deterioration. It cannot be planed; the plane merely forms dust rather than taking shavings and, owing to the abrasive nature of the material, the edge of the cutter is quickly lost. Consequently, when a panel of a certain size is required, it needs to be machine sawed to size, no further trimming being needed. This is only practicable with a precision saw capable of fine adjustment. Furthermore it requires a saw blade having tungsten teeth to resist abrasion. The same applies to any plywood or laminated board assembled with resin glue.

Another influence on the construction of furniture is the introduction of new types of adhesives in place of the traditional animal glue. Many are highly water resistant, some waterproof. Some can be applied cold, avoiding the complication of heating joints before assembly. They can be cured by heat in a matter of minutes, leaving presses and other apparatus free for other work.

Other materials

Although wood has always been regarded as the traditional material for furniture making, several other materials are now used, either entirely replacing wood or combined with it. Plastic laminate, widely used for table and other tops, is obtainable in various colours and designs and in photographically reproduced natural wood grain. Its advantages are that it resists all liquid stains, is largely heat proof against burn marks, is mark free, and is easily wiped clean. It is laid as a form of veneer on any of the man-made materials—multiply, laminated board, or chipboard, usually with a contact adhesive. As a plastic edging is needed that must be applied before the main top is put down, an essential machine tool is the portable router with veneer-trimming unit. It trims the overlapping edges of the main plastic panel without cutting into the edging.

Metal is also used to some extent, particularly for the stands and legs of furniture. Iron is generally preferred, the parts joined by welding.

Finishes too have been revolutionized. French polish, the traditional finish of the Victorian period, and indeed up to the 1930s, has been largely replaced by gloss or eggshell lacquers, which are sprayed on and are heat and water resistant and are so hard as to be practically mark free.

Upholstery and covers are used on furniture designed for sitting or lying on. From the East, Europeans learned the use of wickerwork, which provided a ventilated and resilient background for loose cushions. The upholstered chair is a genuinely European phenomenon that achieved its most distinguished and logical form in England during the 18th century. Poor heating systems in houses, general prosperity, and a desire for comfort were the conditions that gave rise to a number of imaginatively varied types of upholstered armchairs in which the only wood visible is in the legs, with the back closing right up against the sitter and side wings affording protection from inevitable drafts.

The upholstered chair created a new effect that depended almost entirely upon the craftsmanship of the upholsterer. The upholstered chair or sofa has remained a specialty of the Anglo-Saxon world; club life in particular contributed to its popularity and resulted in heavily stuffed forms including that of the so-called chesterfield.

By mid-20th century, new materials such as foam rubber and various types of plastic composition had inspired independent methods that dispensed entirely with traditional upholstery techniques. Upholstery was succeeded by moulded plastic forms and by sacks filled with plastic balls that are able to conform to the changing positions of the body.

Upholstery, materials used in the craft of covering, padding, and stuffing seating and bedding. The earliest upholsterers, from early Egyptian times to the beginning of the Renaissance, nailed animal skins or dressed leather across a rigid framework. They slowly developed the craft to include cushions, padding, and pillows—stuffed with such materials as goose down and horsehair.

The medieval upholsterer, who was primarily concerned with fabrics, made mattresses and hangings. In the 17th century beds were draped with sumptuous fabrics and ornate trimmings; as these beddings became less fashionable, chairs and sofas were in turn elaborately upholstered with velvet, silks, and needlework.

Springs, which permitted soft, bulky shapes, were first used by upholsterers in the 18th century; helical by the mid-19th century, they were later flattened for maximum resiliency. Upholstery techniques were revolutionized in the 20th century with the introduction of moulded sponge rubber, dirt and liquid retardants, plywood, Naugahyde, and synthetic fibres, which created new springing, cushioning, and covering materials.

While I was planing several legs at 77deg angle it dawned on me that I would plane them quicker and just as accurate on a shooting if I used a bit of off cut planed at that angle. Watch the video to see what I mean. It’s only a minute long

Inlaid woodwork, in which decorative material such as wood or ivory is set into the surface of the veneer, has accompanied the art of furniture making for thousands of years. Ivory inlay can be seen in Egyptian furniture, particularly in small, meticulously executed toilet caskets, but it is difficult to locate in Greek and Roman furniture, today known almost exclusively from pictorial representations.

In medieval Europe, inlay work gave way to wood carving and then experienced a rich period of development during the Renaissance in Italy. Italian intarsia (mosaic of wood) work found particular favour in panels over the backs of choir stalls and in the private studies and chapels, or oratories, of princes. An intarsia study of the Duke of Urbino, an Italian nobleman and patron of the arts, is still preserved in the palace of Urbino, and a corresponding room, originally at Gubbio, is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Together with illusionism, linear perspective (the technique of representing on a plane or curved surface the spatial relation of objects as they might appear to the eye), which had just been discovered, achieved triumphs in Italian intarsia work.

Ivory was used on both Renaissance and Baroque cupboards, sparingly to begin with, lavishly later on. Inlay work was especially used in the many splendid German and French cabinets of the period. In the Netherlands and England an extremely rich form of marquetry (patterns formed by the insertion of pieces of wood, shell, ivory, or metal into the wood veneer) was developed, incorporating floral motifs in various kinds of exotic wood on walnut. English grandfather clocks made around 1700 often had richly inlaid cases. It was in France, however, during the Rococo period especially that inlay work reached unprecedented levels of quality. The serpentine sides and fronts of commodes were veneered with costly woods whose often relatively simple grain patterns formed an effective background for richly ornamented mounts of gilded bronze.

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Quran stands are a necessity for Muslims, with the utmost importance of reading the Quran with correct postures. The Quran Book Stand Holder is a beautiful Moroccan design that suits any home décor. The holder has a generous sized top, perfect for reading the Qur’an in its entirety. The legs are cut into a decorative serpentine shape typical of Morocco furniture with another added beautiful decorative feature of scrolled flowers. This stand is made entirely by hand. The finish used is an all natural non-toxic finish that gives it an antique, rustic, attractive look.

The Quran Book Stand Holder measures 19″ x 11 1/4″ x 15″ or 482 x 285 x 381mm

Price AU$70 plus shipping.

For international shipping please email for actual shipping quote.

DRY MIX RATIO/DENSITY OF HIDE GLUE

Some practical hints and helps:

The following weights and measures are approximate and intended to give some basic guidelines for preparing hide glue without using sophisticated equipment.

1 cup of dry glue weighs 5 ½ ounces (155-160 grams)

¾ cup of water weighs 5 ½ ounces

2 ½ tablespoons of Urea Prills weighs 1 ounce

1 ½ tablespoons of salt weighs 1 ounce

To prepare various glue solutions use:

            1 cup glue to ¾ cup water for 1 – 1.  

            1 cup glue to 1  cup water for 1 – 1 ½

            1 cup glue to 1  1/3  cup water for 1 – 2

To extend the open time (tack life) of the 1 – 1 mix, add ½  – 1 teaspoons of urea or salt.  Use a little less for the 1 – 1 ½ and 1 – 2 mixes.

To make liquid (room temperature) hide glue of the 1 – 1 mix, add 2 ½ tablespoons urea (or 1 ½ tablespoons salt) for each cup of dry glue.

Mixing procedures:

            add glue to cold water and stir.  Allow to soak for 30 minutes minimum.  Heat gently (double boiler or water jacket preferred) to 140^o F, stirring occasionally.

For a basic unit, simply mix the glue in a glass pint jar and heat in a saucepan of hot water.

Lower gram strength glues generally are slightly denser and different production techniques will affect the density values so the above mixtures will vary slightly with the grade.  However, variables of temperature and water loss during use of the glue probably will have a more significant impact on concentration ratios than dry glue density.