Full Chisel Blog

The economic conditions in the world at the beginning of the nineteenth century had different effects on different countries.  In England the focus was to find a substitute for wood as they ran out, the focus in America was what to do with all the wood.  Wood was only second to Cotton as the most valuable American export.  Europe had a lot of cheap labor and America didn’t but made up for it with inexpensive resources such as wood, which was expensive in Europe as the original growth was being used up or was already gone.

It is interesting that in 1840 there were over 30,000 sawmills in America, and every census since then show a decline in the number of sawmills with a continuing increase in wood prices. Apparently the Dutch in Manhattan built a sawmill in the 1630′s a full 30 years before one was built in England.  This I find interesting. 

The Wholesale Lumber Index (normalized index) during the nineteenth century increased from 24 in 1800 to 53 in 1857.    (Based on 1910-14 original price index =100)  The Lumber index today (9-22-08) is 216.  The per capita consumption of lumber in America went from 58 in 1800 to 259 in 1857.  England consumption went from 10 in 1800 to 79 in 1857. Europe talked of the wasteful lumbering practices in America as criminal.

An English gunsmith imported the newly invented Blanchard Lathe from America to use in his shop.  After trying it one time, it was abandon as being too wasteful.  It was cheaper to pay a man to shape it by hand rather than purchase the wood it took to ‘turn’ out a gun-stock.

Also during the early nineteenth century, the price of iron began to decline, that also includes the price of steel declining at the same rate (steel was 5 times the price of iron).  The ability to begin to manufacture it in larger more consistent quality and and larger quantities.  Iron was basic wrought iron, with its grain and slag inclusions and steel started to become available in more grades; Cast Steel, Blister Steel, German Steel, Shear Steel and other types.

And in America innovations in toolmaking, both metallurgy and woodworking saw the introduction of nail making machines.  Prior to that time (around 1795) hand wrought iron nails were $0.25 a pound and dropped to below a half dime (Nickle introduced in 1866) by the 1840′s. 

This together with sawn lumber lead to the building of balloon frame houses, quickly replacing the mortise and tenon, post and beam constructed buildings that had dominated.  These could be build by less skilled craftsman than the laborious and heavy timber frame construction.

About the middle of the nineteenth century it was realized that a great deal of wood was becoming sawdust.  And there was an effort to make finer saw blades.  With the advent of the band saw a much thinner saw kerf allowed for less waste.  It is estimated that prior to the introduction of thinner blades for every one inch of wood (allowing for removal of rough saw marks) 5/8″ ended up as lumber and 3/8″ as sawdust.

Stephen

Having worked for a number of years in museums, mostly living history museums, I was amazed at just how little people know of the past and how primitive people’s views are about their ancestors.  One day I was pounding a nail into a board and someone said ‘They didn’t haven’t have nails back then!’  I stopped, contained myself and said ‘well they didn’t peg Jesus to the cross.’ 

There were also comments about people not using nails or screws in furniture back then.  One of my favorite stories didn’t take place in my shop but in the Blacksmiths shop.  A woman asked what a particular tool was, the blacksmith was working so didn’t see what she pointed to, so he asked her which tool she had enquired about was and she said the one that looks like an anvil.  With tongue well bitten he said ‘an anvil’. 

I am constantly surprised at peoples response when they find out that their ancestors were not knuckle draggers.  The Dark Ages apparently lasted longer for some folks.  The nineteenth century was after all the time of the Industrial Revolution (brought about by the potato, but that is another topic) and woodworking machinery starts to make its general appearance.  Prior to the nineteenth century the common power source for tools were human first, then water and wind (wind to a lesser extent) power.  Animals were also used to power woodworking shops, saw mills and mills and shops for other trades. 

Then as the nineteenth century begins the introduction of the steam engine.  With this there were no longer seasonal problems of a water source freezing in the winter, flooding in the spring, the steam engine works well in cold weather and were available.  And smaller woodworking shops did not require the high pressure steam engines (like on steamboats), so they were much safer.  The nineteenth century saw the introduction or substantial refinements in woodworking tools especially machinery. 

The circular saw invented in both England in the 18th century and America in the early nineteenth century, were first used for veneers and the size of logs they could cut were small.  The larger blades would heat up, wobble and it was difficult to make a straight cut.  Initially they were used to trim the edge of boards that had been cut in an up down saw mill.  This was the most common type of mill, later the Muley saw was introduced and started to replace the slower sash mills.  The muley was a much stouter blade that didn’t require the surrounding sash, so it worked with less resistance and much faster.  The kerf was quite wide, but that was of no concern during this time period.  In the 1860′s it was reported that English saw blades were half the thickness of American saw blades.

And while the band saw was invented by Newberry in 1808 in England and again in America a bit latter, but it wasn’t until after the American Civil War that the technology existed to produce band saw blades that would (not) easily break.  Other advancements in tool and metal technology lead to other improvements and innovations in sawing machinery.  The second area where much attention was focused was that of planing the lumber. 

In the early nineteenth century there were a number of patents issued to planing machines; carriage planers, parallel planers, etc., then in 1828 William Woodworth patented and then for the next  nearly 30 years vigorously defended his patent for a planer with roller feed and cylindrical knives.  Because of his extensive patent his idea was almost impossible to get around and he did quite well.  The Danial Planer was a lateral planer with a carriage and was meant to surface large timbers, e.g. railroad ties, mill parts, wagon parts, &c. 

Other areas where the technology met the demand were making mortises.  The reciprocating mortise machine was an early one, based on the foot powered mortise machine, then the hollow chisel later on. 

Then there is one very unique part of woodworking.  Now perhaps it is because I have a fondness for turning or perhaps turning was a widely practiced trade.   The turning lathe was delineated in Charles Plummier’s L’art de Tournier in the 1790′s shows the advancement of lathes in the period, the only difference between today’s lathes is the power source.  Both metal and woodworking lathes are depicted.  Index heads, slide rests, screw advance and overhead power head that worked in the slide rest, there isn’t much difference between then and now.  But I think the real development of lathes was done by Thomas Blanchard when he made his pattern lathe. 

This is a back action copy lathe.  A pattern is placed in the mechanism, the index head activated and a pass is made with the spinning wooden wheel with steel cutters around the edge removes the wood.  The wood and pattern are indexed and another pass.  This is continued until the work is completed. 

Developed in 1822 this lathe was originally made for making shoe lasts, tool handles and wagon wheel spokes.  But by 1829 it had been adapted in the Springfield Armory to make gun stocks.  Not only could it shape the stock but with their developments when the stock came off the lathe it was ready to receive its metal parts.  This lead to interchangeable parts which is something the military was interested in doing. 

It is interesting to see the advancements in woodworking technology during the early nineteenth century and how it effected the trade.  This was the Golden Age of Woodworking, the best of both worlds, the beginning of the Industrial Revolution but before the large mass produced factories started to replace shop built furniture.  It is for this reason that I decided to study and devote my life to the pursuit of understanding Nineteenth Century Woodworking.  And the style of furniture at the time is attractive with its Classical influences. 

Instead of a rock, I have a fine Gentleman’s hammer, I have replaced the flint saw with a Spears & Jackson and bone awl with a steel brad awl.  But there are the throwbacks, I still lash with rawhide on occasion and use hide glue.

Stephen