Because of a cancellation, there are two spots open in my “Hammer in Hand” class at The Center for Furniture Craftsmanship on July 16-20 in Rockport, Maine.

The class is $695 and we will build three (yes, three) projects: A Moxon double-screw vise in maple, a very useful shooting board and the dovetailed Schoolbox in Eastern white pine, my favorite project from “The Joiner and Cabinet Maker.”

For more details on the class, or to sign up, click here.

The class is during a particularly fun time to visit Maine because the awesome Lie-Nielsen Open House occurs during the Friday and Saturday before the class. The factory is a short drive from the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship. I’ll be at the open house, as will people far more talented, including Chuck Bender, Christian Becksvoort, Tico Vogt and Matt Bickford. (Speaking of Mr. Bickford, we will be showing off the galley proofs of his upcoming book “Mouldings in Practice.” Yes, it’s done.) Get all the details on the open house event here.

So do what I did: Blow off your job and come to Maine next month. Or as Evelle Stokes says in “Raising Arizona”: “H.I., you’re young and you got your health, what you want with a job?”

— Christopher Schwarz

There are several spots open in the “Hammer in Hand” class that runs Sept. 4-8 at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking in Franklin, Ind.

The class is perhaps poorly named – it’s not just about nails. Instead, the course is as much instruction on building traditional casework by hand that I can cram into five days. During the class we build three projects: A Moxon dovetailing vise, a shooting board/bench hook and the dovetailed Schoolbox from “The Joiner and Cabinet Maker.”

The class is open to all skill levels of woodworkers. I’ve had students who have never picked up a tool before, and I’ve had professional woodworkers who want to learn hand techniques.

The class is structured to challenge your ideas about handwork. Most people get the impression that it is slow, perhaps a little crude or that you need years of training to do basic things. Not so. Here’s some of stuff we learn in the class.

1. Sharpening. Get it done in three minutes and get back to work. It’s more fun to make tools dull than it is to make them sharp.

2. Flattening by hand. How to quickly flatten boards with planes by paying attention to only a couple key surfaces and ignoring the rest.

3. Shooting. How to shoot boards for accurate joinery with a simple appliance.

4. Dovetailing. Learn what’s important and what’s not so you focus your energy and attention in the right place. Find out where people make their biggest mistake (it’s not sawing or chiseling).

5. Traditional glues. Why hide glue is the woodworker’s friend.

6. Truing up an glued carcase without spleching the corners.

7. Nails. Why you should love cut nails. They are an important part of the hardware, like a lock or pulls.

8. Cut dados by hand. It’s a snap. No dado plane needed.

9. Make basic mouldings by hand – both with complex moulders and hollows and rounds.

10. Mitering by hand. You don’t need a chop saw.

So if you have a free week, we’d love to have you join the class. It’s the only class I’m teaching in 2012 that has any open spots. To register or get more information on the class, click here.

— Christopher Schwarz

After building a half-dozen versions of The Schoolbox from “The Joiner and Cabinet Maker,” I’m beginning to dial in the design of the small chest to suit my taste.

I am still enamored with the overall proportions and scale of the chest, but I’ve tweaked the decorative details. Here’s a summary of my alterations.

1. Instead of a flat chamfer on the mitered base moulding, I switched to a 3/8” square ovolo. Also instead of mitering the corners, I dovetail them and carve the corners with a chisel.

2. On the lid, I use a cove (made with a No. 6 round) instead of a chamfer. These two changes to the mouldings make the chest look more like a nice piece of furniture than a traveling chest for a kid heading off to boarding school.

3. I’ve not yet found strap hinges that I like that are the right size – the ones I used on the first version are too big. Until I get a blacksmith to make me some, I’ve switched to these gorgeous iron butt hinges from Whitechapel Ltd. They come with great old-school screws.

4. I added two small iron chest lifts. They look nice and make the chest easier to pick up and move. The ones shown on the chest are vintage, but Horton Brasses make lifts that look exactly the same and are the same small size. Click here.

I’ll be building another one of these Schoolboxes at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking  Sept. 4-8, so I’ll have another opportunity to try some other changes, perhaps to the dovetail spacing. There are still a couple spots open in the class. More details are here.

— Christopher Schwarz

The reason I’m not answering your e-mails or phone messages this week is that I’m teaching the “Hammer in Hand” class at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking.

We’re building three projects this week – a shooting board/bench hook, a Moxon dovetailing vise and the Schoolbox from “The Joiner and Cabinet Maker” book. And with the pace that this class is on, we might have to add a fourth project.

With more than a day and a half left, most of the students are working on the moulding for the piece.

That’s not supposed to happen until tomorrow.

So I think we’ll carve some garden gnomes tomorrow. Can’t have too many garden gnomes.

— Christopher Schwarz

The first project that young Thomas builds in “The Joiner and Cabinet Maker,” is a packing box, which was meant for a customer who was taking some books to the countryside.

Most modern-day readers skip building the packing box and move right on to the second project in the book, the schoolbox. And that’s too bad, because the packing box is great fun and has some good lessons in working entirely by hand.

One reader came up with a great use for a packing box. I love it. The box mimics the box on the cover and in the book. Great idea.

— Christopher Schwarz

At long last I’ve found my favorite pieces of hardware for the Schoolbox in “The Joiner and Cabinet Maker.” It only took me about 10 tries.

The hardware shown in the photos is from Horton Brasses. (Yes, I paid full retail. As always.) It consists of some heart-shaped iron chest lifts (CL-5S) and a pair of iron butt hinges (HF-30).

Both pieces of hardware are worth the price. The hinges have thin leaves and give you a tight seal at the back without any swaging. And they have nice facets on the barrels and some file work on the edges of the leaves.

The lifts have a lot of the same details.

I added both to a walnut version of the Schoobox I built earlier this month at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking while teaching a class on traditional joinery. This week, I hope to finish up the project.

Perhaps with a polissoir.

— Christopher Schwarz

Next week we will be able to sell the leather editions of “Mouldings in Practice” in our Lost Art Press store. There will be 26 to 30 copies available (depending on how many survive the binding process) and they will be $185 postage paid to any address in the United States.

The books were delayed by the leather supplier – Ohio Book said it took three weeks to secure the brown leather we use for these books. I suspect a bovine rebellion was the real cause.

So for those of you who have itchy mouse fingers, you can relax this weekend. Monday will be the earliest they will be available. As always, it is first-come, first-serve on leather editions.

So while I’m explaining myself, here is a quick update on some other projects we are working on:

“To Make as Perfectly as Possible” aka, the Andre Roubo translation. This book is entirely in my hands right now. The translators have done their job. We have paid an obscene amount of money to get every single plate digitized. The essays are complete. I’m the problem.

“By Hand & Eye” by George Walker and Jim Tolpin. This has been edited and flowed into the InDesign layout files. All the images are digitized. I’ve edited it once. But once again, I am the impediment here. I need to get the design work underway.

Audiobook of “The Joiner & Cabinet Maker” as read by Roy Underhill. This is fully recorded and about 25 percent edited. What’s the holdup? It might surprise you that it is me.

Other books that are a little further out:

“Virtuoso” or the H.O. Studley book: Our team is going back to visit the tool chest again next month to take the final photographs. Then the real work begins.

“Furniture of Necessity:” This is my own book. I’ve shelved all my writing projects until I get caught up on editing the titles above.

“Campaign Furniture:” Ditto.

All our other titles are still being written by their authors – except one. That one is being designed right now in hopes of getting it out by the end of the year. More on that title as we get things firmed up.

— Christopher Schwarz

In addition to the A.J. Roubo translation of “L’Art du Menuisier,” we have been working on lots of other projects. Here’s a quick look at what the Lost Art Press extended family is doing in the final days of 2012.

1. The 6-board chest chapter from “Furniture of Necessity.” It’s complete, but I’m messing with it a bit as I worked on a chest for a customer this weekend. I’ll post it this week for a free download.

2. New LAP T-shirts. We have a new design and slogan. We’re ordering the shirts this week and they should be in the store by next week. They will be green and made in America. Details to come.

3. “The Joiner and Cabinet Maker” audiobook as read by Roy Underhill. John Hoffman has finished up the editing on this project for me (thanks John!). It goes to get mastered this week. So it should be in the store before the end of the year.

4. A new book from Christian Becksvoort. Yup, we’ve been keeping this one under wraps. Chris revised one of his earlier books that is now out of print. The design is complete, thanks to Linda Watts, and we are working on the final editing.

5. “By Hand and By Eye” by George Walker and Jim Tolpin. That book is edited and just about ready to go to Linda to be designed.

We’re working on a bunch of other projects that aren’t listed above, H.O. Studley, my campaign furniture book and etc. I don’t, however, have any updates on those projects this morning.

— Christopher Schwarz

We have just received stock on the CD version of “The Joiner & Cabinet Maker” read by Roy Underhill on three CDs.

The three-CD set is $27, is made in the USA (like all Lost Art Press products) and comes in a protective clamshell case. We are offering free domestic shipping on this item until Feb. 15, 2013. As mentioned above, the item is in stock and ships immediately.

Click here to see the item in our store.

“The Joiner & Cabinet Maker” is the almost-lost 1839 text that tells the fictional story of young Thomas West’s apprenticeship in a rural English workshop. Since we republished an expanded version of the book a few years ago, its pages have opened up the world of hand-tool woodworking for thousands of people.

The book’s anonymous author detailed the day-to-day workings of a hand-tool workshop in the early days of the 19th century as a way to guide children who were thinking about entering the woodworking trade.

The book begins with instructions on how to sweep the shop, tend the shop’s fire and help the other journeymen. It ends with the hero, Thomas, building a full-blown chest of drawers as a journeyman.

The original text is extremely rare and was unearthed by Joel Moskowitz, the owner of Tools for Working Wood. He brought it to the attention of Lost Art Press, and that partnership resulted in the publication of print version of “The Joiner & Cabinet Maker.”

The Lost Art Press version of this book includes the original 1839 text, a historical commentary on the trade by Moskowitz and a detailed explanation of how to build the three projects featured in “The Joiner and Cabinet Maker.”

The audiobook version of the book consists of the original text only, read by Roy Underhill. Lost Art Press was particularly pleased to get Roy to read the book for us. Not only is he a student of early trades, but Roy is also a long-time thespian, and he brought his many voice talents to the project.

As a result, the 215-minute audiobook version of “The Joiner & Cabinet Maker” is a joy to listen to once you become accustomed to the early 19th-century way of explaining things.

We also offer this audiobook as an mp3 download for $22 here.

You can order the book here for $29, or the book with an accessory data DVD here for $34.

— Christopher Schwarz

My favorite project from “The Joiner and Cabinet Maker” is the Schoolbox. I like its simple lines, its perfect proportions and its robust joinery. I’ve made at least 10 of them since reading, editing and publishing the book.

But what is the project good for if you aren’t going to school?

I use the original as a small tool chest for household tools. Other people have told me they use them as jewelry boxes, book boxes or a place to hide their weed.

However, David wrote to me today to tell me what he did with his Schoolbox:

I enjoyed the book, “The Joiner and Cabinet Maker.” However, I suspect that many of the readers of the book are like me, and dislike the idea of working on a project without an intended use. I could not think of a use for the schoolbox.

But I needed a new lunchbox. The construction of my lunchbox is similar to the schoolbox.  The only major differences is that it does not have a stopped dado. I cut several through-dados for removable partitions. The partition walls warped slightly after construction,
which is perfect – the spring of the boards keeps the partitions from rattling, but they are still easy to remove.

I’ve used the lunchbox for almost a year now, and it is far better than any other canvas lunch bag I’ve used. Plus, it gets a lot of compliments at the office.

The sides are all 1/2″ thick and the removable panels are 1/8″ thick. The moulding is also 1/2″ thick, but I would consider making it thinner if I were to make it again.  The inside dimensions are 10″ wide, 5-1/8″ deep, and 4-1/2″ tall. The partition dados are at (from left) 3″, 5″, 5-3/4″, but you can add more. It is handy to have more dados than partitions. The leather handle allows the box to fit into a backpack, and the stop-hinges prevent the top from opening too far.

The handle is from BrettunsVillage.Com and the hardware is from smallboxhardware.com.

The recent flood in Deggendorf, Germany, was rough on the woodworking workshop of Dictum GmbH. Though the employees got the machinery out, the flood buckled the floors and split the workbenches.

The flood also tried to ruin a copy of “The Joiner and Cabinet Maker.”

To my relief, the book survived fairly well. Only one or two pages came loose. Thanks go out to Phil Nanzetta at Signature Book Printing for making sure our books are well-bound.

— Christopher Schwarz

Danny with a jewelry box he made for my mother. It is made out of poplar, African mahogany and cherry. It is dovetailed at the corners and has a tray that lifts out to allow for more storage. The tray is dovetailed at the corners with houndstooth dovetails.

Editor’s note: This summer John Hoffman met young woodworker Danny Spatz at the Lie-Nielsen Open House event in Warren, Maine. Danny is an enthusiastic young woodworker and spent the day working with all the demonstrators at the show.

During the day, Danny mentioned that he had written a book report on “The Joiner and Cabinet Maker” for school, and we have reprinted it here with his permission.

When Thomas starts out in Mr. Jackson’s shop as an apprentice, he is neglected until he could prove his worth. He shows his potential by taking on the odd jobs he is given with pride. This leads to Mr. Jackson giving him the packing box project. One of the major themes in The Joiner and Cabinet Maker, is proving one’s worth. Thomas gets to do this when Mr. Jackson gives him the task of making the packing box.

Thomas first gets a chance to show his potential, when he builds the packing box. When Thomas finishes it in the allotted time, Mr. Jackson is very pleased and says, “‘Well done Thomas, it is a very well made box, square and firm, and nicely put together. You may take it home to Mr. Green yourself.’” Mr. Jackson is delighted to see how Thomas made a good box with time to spare, and how seriously he took a minor project like this. He takes pride in his apprentice, and sees his usefulness. Also, as he is writing out his bills to Thomas for the odd jobs he has done, Mr. Jackson, “Finds the value of his apprentice, and treats him well accordingly.” These small jobs show his master that he is a hard worker, and he allows Thomas to build the next, higher profile job.

By making the packing box, Thomas is considered very highly by Mr. Jackson. Mr. Jackson then thinks Thomas is fit for making the schoolbox, and Thomas uses this opportunity to further prove his worth. Mr. Jackson remarks on the practice dovetail joints that he has cut, “‘Well, really it is not a bad joint, and I am very glad to see it, for I think you will be able to make the schoolbox for Master John.’” Thomas has proved he is worthy of the project, and he has exhibited that he spends his free time well, by practicing in his craft. After Thomas is finished with construction of the box, Mr. Jackson examines it and has no imperfections to point out, “‘Thomas it is a very good job, and for so young a workman you have not been long over it.’” Mr. Jackson is impressed by Thomas’ performance, and realizes his full potential to be a great journeyman.

Mr. Jackson, having seen that Thomas will become very skilled in the craft, begins to pay him after about half of his seven years have passed. Thomas seizes the opportunity to purchase tools of his own, and treats them well, like a responsible journeyman should. “Already Thomas is doing things which bring in profit to his master; and has begun to receive small weekly wages himself.” This proves that Mr. Jackson believes that Thomas is a trustworthy apprentice, and begins to pay him so he can have a full set of tools by the time he is working on his own. Thomas builds a full sized chest of drawers for his master to sell. Mr. Jackson is so pleased with the job that, “Mr. Jackson thinks it is very creditable to his young apprentice, and boasts that it is as well made and handsome a piece of furniture as need be sent out of any cabinet maker’s shop.” Thomas is such a favorite of Mr. Jackson, that he brags about how he has such a great apprentice, building such great projects. By the end of his apprenticeship, Thomas has proved to his master that he will become one of the most skilled craftsmen as could be.

Since Thomas started out in his apprenticeship doing the odd jobs with gusto, he was considered by Mr. Jackson as having potential. When Mr. jackson was presented the opportunity to give Thomas a project that the other apprentices considered was beneath them, Thomas got to prove his worth. This enabled him to take a step further in his education as a joiner.

— Danny Spatz

Our audiobook version of “The Joiner and Cabinet Maker” read by Roy Underhill was a grand experiment. (Is there another woodworking audiobook?) We love the result – I’ve listened to it three times now. But we made a mistake in pricing the CD version. It’s too expensive.

So effective immediately we have cut the price by 50 percent (to $13.50) and are offering free domestic shipping on the three-CD set. This price cut is permanent until we run out of the CDs. After that, the audiobook will be available only as a digital download.

We’ve also reduced the price of the digital download to $13.

You can order the CD set here.

— Christopher Schwarz

Last weekend at the San Diego Fine Woodworkers Association I didn’t have time to install the chest lock on the campaign-style officer’s trunk I built for the organization’s fall seminar.

And so I promised I would post directions from “The Joiner & Cabinet Maker.”

I’m always happy to revisit this particular book because it was such a fun project. Joel Moskowitz at Tools for Working Wood unearthed a very rare copy of this 1830 book that we reprinted. Joel wrote a nice introductory section to the book about woodworking during that period. Then I built the three projects shown in the book.

The pages in the pdf below are what I wrote about installing a chest lock, which is based on the excellent instructions in the original 1830 text.

Fitting_a_chest_lock

— Christopher Schwarz

P.S. Later this week I will post the other thing I promised to share with the club: A video of how to install corner guards and L-brackets on campaign pieces.

Several Lost Art Press authors will be available at Handworks to sign your books.

If you want to get Don Williams and Narayan Nayar to sign “Virtuoso: The Tool Cabinet and Workbench of Henry O. Studley,” they have set up three times during the weekend for signings. The signings will be in nearby Cedar Rapids at the Scottish Rite Temple where the cabinet and workbench will be displayed. Directions here. Yes, there are tickets still available – details here.

Don is obligated to stay with the exhibit the entire time, so don’t look for him at Handworks. You’ll find only other bearded, suspendered men.

Here are the times for the three “Virtuoso” signings:

Friday at 2 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Saturday at 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Sunday at noon to 1 p.m.

“Virtuoso” will be available for sale both at Handworks and at the exhibit.

Roy Underhill and ‘Calvin Cobb – Radio Woodworker!’
Roy Underhill will be at Handworks this year to deliver the keynote address at 10 a.m. Saturday and will be floating about the show at other times spreading mayhem.

We plan to corral him for a book-signing at 11 a.m. Friday morning in the Lost Art Press booth in the Festhalle. Bring your copy of “Calvin Cobb – Radio Woodworker!” or pick one up at the booth.

Other Lost Art Press Authors
Peter Galbert has a booth at Handworks, so you can get your copy of “Chairmaker’s Notebook” signed there. George Walker, one of the authors of “By Hand & Eye,” will be at the show and is always happy to sign books. Matt Bickford, the author of “Mouldings in Practice,” has a booth in the Festhalle. Mike Siemsen, the host of “The Naked Woodworker,” is happy to sign your DVDs (pro tip: not on the silvery side). Joel Moskowitz of Tools for Working Wood and co-author of “The Joiner and Cabinet Maker” should also be at Handworks.

And, of course, I’ll be there and happy to sign anything – babies, bare chests and books especially.

— Christopher Schwarz

Our second book at Lost Art Press was “The Joiner & Cabinet Maker,” a rare and early 19th-century fictional account of an apprenticeship in a rural England shop.

It’s a fantastic little book, written by someone who obviously served an apprenticeship in the 18th century.

In addition to us reprinting the original, Joel Moskowitz (who found the book) wrote an excellent account of what woodworking was like in early 19th-century England. And I contributed several chapters on constructing the three projects that young Thomas made – a packing box, a schoolbox and a nice chest of drawers.

All in all, it’s an interesting introduction to hand-tool woodworking from an historical perspective. (And this might be the only book where I keep my sometimes-troubling tongue in check.)

We sometimes get asked if we have SketchUp drawings of the three projects in the book. And while the construction drawings in the book are all you really need, we make these files available free here.

Using the below link you can download a compressed folder with the three files in them.

JACM_files

While I work every day in SketchUp, I’m no expert on the compatibility of all the different versions out there. You should be able to open them with any version of SketchUp, but I can’t guarantee it.

— Christopher Schwarz

The Packing Box from Christopher Schwarz on Vimeo.

When we published “The Joiner & Cabinet Maker” I had a large number of images that didn’t make it into the book for space reasons. So I put together three narrated slideshows – one for each of the projects in the book: the packing box, the schoolbox and the chest of drawers.

We sold these (along with some other assorted extras) on a CD. As CD-ROM drives have disappeared, we considered offering these as streaming video. Then we said: Nah, let’s just give them away for free.

The Schoolbox from Christopher Schwarz on Vimeo.

The Chest of Drawers from Christopher Schwarz on Vimeo.

So now you can watch all three narrated slideshows for the book on our Vimeo channel with no advertisements or other garbage. I’ve also embedded them here for your convenience.

— Christopher Schwarz

Buy The Joiner and Cabinet Maker

A fret saw’s thin blade drops into the kerf left by any dovetail saw. Then you just turn and saw.

This is an excerpt from “The Joiner and Cabinet Maker” by Anon, Christopher Schwarz and and Joel Moskowitz. 

For those of you who chisel out your waste when dovetailing, this section is not for you. Move along. There’s nothing to see here.

OK, now that we’re alone: Have you ever been confused about which frame saw you should use to remove the waste between your pins and tails? I have. For years I used a coping saw and was blissfully happy.

Then I took an advanced dovetail class with maestro Rob Cosman and he made a strong case that a fret saw was superior because you could remove the waste in one fell swoop (instead of two). So, like any good monkey, I bought a fret saw and did it that way for many years.

But fret saws aren’t perfect. Almost all of them require tuning. You need to file some serrations in the pads that clamp the blade, otherwise it’s all stroke, stroke, sproing. Oh, and the blades tend to break. Or kink.

And fret saws are slow. I use 11.5 teeth per inch (tpi) scrollsaw blades, and it takes about 30 strokes to get through the waste between my typical tails in hardwood.

If you want to see a good video on how to tune up a fretsaw, check out Rob Cosman’s site. He shows you how to hot-rod the handle and bend the blade for the best performance.

Coping saws require two swooping passes to remove the waste. Drop the teeth in your kerf and make swoop one. Come back and make swoop two.

About Coping Saws

What I like about coping saws is that they cut faster. I use an 18 tpi blade from Tools for Working Wood. (I think they’re made by Olson.) The blades cut wicked fast thanks to their deeper gullets and longer length. It takes me 12 to 14 strokes to remove the waste between my typical tails.

The other thing I like about the coping saw is that its throat is deeper (5″ vs. 2-3/4″ on my fret saw), which allows me to handle wider drawers without turning the blade. Also, the blades of a coping saw are far more robust and almost never come loose. I’m partial to the German-made Olson coping saw. It’s about $12 and beats the pants off the stuff at the home centers.

The major downside to the coping saw is that you have to remove the waste in two passes instead of one. Because the coping saw’s blade is thick, it sometimes won’t drop down into the bottom of the kerf left by your dovetail saw. So you get around this by making two swooping passes to clear the waste.

One last thing: Some of you might be wondering why I didn’t discuss wooden bowsaws, another fantastic frame saw. At the time I was writing this book, my bowsaw was busted. First, one of the arms cracked after someone (no names) over-tensioned it. I fixed that. Then the twine busted and I didn’t have any on hand.

Since building the Chest of Drawers, I got my bowsaw back on its feet (bowsaws do not have feet, by the way) and it is giving my coping saw a run for its money. The fret saw still hangs dusty and lonely on the wall.

— Meghan Bates

One leg of this scale has been cleaned with lanolin. The other has been wiped with wood bleach, which lightened the boxwood but didn’t affect the markings.

This is an excerpt from “The Joiner and Cabinet Maker” by Anon, Christopher Schwarz and Joel Moskowitz.

The two-foot rule was the standard measuring device for woodworking for hundreds of years. The steel tape was likely invented in the 19th century. Its invention is sometimes credited to Alvin J. Fellows of New Haven, Conn., who patented his device in 1868, though the patent states that several kinds of tape measures were already on the market.

Tape measures didn’t become ubiquitous, however, until the 1930s or so. The tool production of Stanley Works points this out nicely. The company had made folding rules almost since the company’s inception in 1843. The company’s production of tape measures appears to have cranked up in the late 1920s, according to John Walter’s book “Stanley Tools” (Tool Merchant).

The disadvantage of steel tapes is also their prime advantage: They are flexible. So they sag and can be wildly inaccurate thanks to the sliding tab at the end, which is easily bent out of calibration.

What’s worse, steel tapes don’t lay flat on your work. They curl across their width enough to function a bit like a gutter. So you’re always pressing the tape flat to the work to make an accurate mark.

Folding two-foot rules are ideal for most cabinet-scale work. They are stiff. They lay flat. They fold up to take up little space. When you place them on edge on your work you can make an accurate mark.

They do have disadvantages. You have to switch to a different tool after you get to lengths that exceed 24″, which is a common occurrence in woodworking. Or you have to switch techniques. When I lay out joinery on a 30″-long leg with a 24″-long rule I’ll tick off most of the dimensions by aligning the rule to the top of the leg. Then – if I have to – I’ll shift the rule to the bottom of the leg and align off that. This technique allows me to work with stock 48″ long – which covers about 95 percent of the work.

Other disadvantages: The good folding rules are vintage and typically need some restoration. When I fixed up my grandfather’s folding rule, two of the rule’s three joints were loose – they flopped around like when my youngest sister broke her arm. To fix this, I put the rule on my shop’s concrete floor and tapped the pins in the ruler’s hinges using a nail set and a hammer. About six taps peened the steel pins a bit, spreading them out to tighten up the hinge.

Another problem with vintage folding rules is that the scales have become grimy or dark after years of use. You can clean the rules with a lanolin-based cleaner such as Boraxo. This helps. Or you can go whole hog and lighten the boxwood using oxalic acid (a mild acidic solution sold as “wood bleach” at every hardware store).

Here I’m using a zig-zag rule and a carpenter’s pencil to lay out the cuts on the pine stock for the Packing Box. I dislike zig-zags for this work because they don’t lay flat. They have the precision of a hand grenade.

Vintage folding rules are so common that there is no reason to purchase a bad one. Look for a folding rule where the wooden scales are entirely bound in brass. These, I have found, are less likely to have warped. A common version of this vintage rule is the Stanley No. 62, which shows up on eBay just about every day and typically sells for $20 or less.

The folding rule was Thomas’s first tool purchase as soon as Mr. Jackson started paying him. I think that says a lot about how important these tools were to hand work.

— Meghan Bates

Some sample pages from “Skyring’s Builder’s Prices” (1833). Price books such as Skyring were the main guide for labor and materials costs for joiners, carpenters and others in the building trades.

An excerpt from “The Joiner and Cabinet Maker” by Anon, Christopher Schwarz and Joel Moskowitz. 

England, 1839. Victoria has just become Queen of England (1837) and was about to marry Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. The Industrial Revolution had begun changing the lifeblood of England. New ways of manufacturing iron and steel arose, changing everything. Factories and mass production began replacing the small craft shop. The woodworking industries were also beginning to change, and “The Joiner and Cabinet Maker” was first published.

In 1839, the craft trades were highly differentiated. Specialization allowed speed – which was critical for commercial success. It’s a mistake to assume that the factories of the early 19th century produced low-cost goods because of mechanization. While that was partially true, the real cost savings came from division of labor and specialization. Most crafts people did highly specialized work. A razor grinder in Sheffield, for example, needed considerable skill to freehand-grind straight razors so that they were thin and flexible, without drawing the steel’s temper (softening the steel through excess heat). But that’s all the razor grinder did. Someone else, equally skilled, would forge the blanks; someone else would make the handles. In these factory-like situations, craftspeople were paid by piecework. In many cases, complicated documents were written that specified exactly what each sub-craft did and how much was paid for the work. In the case of furniture, the chairmaking industry in England was centered in High Wycombe, where they made nothing but chairs in a factory system of highly divided skills and a complicated piecework formula. In 1872, the High Wycombe chairmakers had a printed list of prices detailing charges for more than 250 different processes (of which only one was a process using machines for assistance) divided over about nine or 10 distinct trades. It would have been difficult for a local craftsperson to compete on a lower-priced chair for an occasional customer when a group of specialists did nothing but make cheap chairs by hand, all day, every day.

The job of the joiner varied depending on where he lived. In urban areas, joiners were carpenters who specialized in finish carpentry, built-in furniture, windows, doors and any other trim that was made on-site. Ideally, joiners did their preparation work in a workshop but then moved the parts to the job site for installation and finishing. Even within the basic job description of “joiner,” some would specialize in making windows, some on doors, and others focused on mouldings and trim. Stair making was the most complex area of joinery, and these specialists were used for all except the simplest of staircases.

A cabinet maker was a person who made free-standing furniture, usually of a fancy, custom nature. The cabinet maker would do only the joinery and casework. Turnings, carvings, inlay and other details were done by other specialists. In rural regions, small cities and towns (where it is implied that Thomas, the hero of the book, does his apprenticeship), there wouldn’t have been a work demand to sustain completely separate trades. There, a joiner would be called on to do a range of work, from finish carpentry to rough furniture to fine work – anything that required working in wood. But in large cities such as London, everyone specialized.

In “The Joiner and Cabinet Maker,” Thomas is called on to make everything from a rough shipping box to a fine dresser. But it should be realized that Thomas really doesn’t learn how to do the finest work, with lots of inlay or carving, because typically there would not have been the demand for that in rural areas. If someone wealthy in the hamlet wanted to commission such a piece, he or she would go to a shop in a major city where they had the specialists. By the same token, an average middle-class person in his area, say a farmer, would have been happy to hire Thomas’s shop to fit out a barn or make a door, but would have purchased mundane items such as chairs by buying them mass-produced and ready-made, in the latest style, shipped via railroad or one of the canals that covered the country, from the great chairmaking city of High Wycombe. There is no mention of a lathe in the shop in “The Joiner and Cabinet Maker,” and in the few places where turned work is mentioned, the text implies that the work would have been either bought finished as a stock item or jobbed out to a local turner.

— Meghan Bates