_THE JOINER’S WORK._
“All the particulars of the woodwork,” continued Eugène, “ought to
be furnished before a house is begun to be built, for the first
consideration in work of this kind is selecting the materials, and
only employing wood that is thoroughly dry, and has been sawn out
some years. We have had but a short notice, and have not been able to
pay attention to this important part of our undertaking. Fortunately
I am acquainted with a joiner at Chateauroux, who has a stock of
well-seasoned wood of good quality, which he is not very willing to
part with, as he keeps it for special work; but he will let us have
some, as your father has rendered him some services.
“But while only sound and dry wood must be employed in our joiner’s
work, it is not less necessary to combine the parts according to the
nature of the materials, and not infringe the conditions imposed by
them. Wood is sawn according to certain dimensions dictated by custom
and the size of the trees. Thus, for example, a plank is only 8 or
10 inches broad, because trees fit for joiner’s work are scarcely
of larger diameter, when the sap-wood is removed; in making panels,
therefore, it is advisable not to have them more than 8 or 10 inches
wide, that they may not exceed the width of a plank. If two or more
boards are joined to make a panel, they will separate in drying, and
leave a space between them; whereas, if we give each panel only the
width of a plank, even if it should shrink, the shrinking occurs in the
tongue, and there is no disjointing. These tongues must, however, be
wide enough to bear the shrinking without leaving the rebate. You will
understand that better by and by.
“In the last century many doors were made _wide-framed_, that is, doors
the panels of which, framed in moulding, are from 16 to 20 inches wide;
this was the fashion. But at that time they employed none but very dry
wood, that had been felled and cut up for several years; and these
panels, made of two boards, notched or simply jointed, did not shrink.
You see doors thus made in your father’s drawing-room, and there is
only one in which the panel has opened. In the present day such wood
cannot be got for love or money; we must therefore be content to give
up those wide panels. Or, if we insist upon having them, they must be
made of white wood—of _sycamore_, because this wood dries quickly, does
not split nor warp, that is, it does not curve across the grain. But
sycamore is a soft wood, liable to be attacked by worms, especially in
the country. Let us therefore keep to oak, and construct our doors so
that the panels may be only about 8 inches wide. We have folding and
single doors. The folding doors are 4 feet wide; the doors of a single
leaf 32 to 40 inches. Their height varies from 7 ft. to 7 ft. 4 in.;
for it is quite useless to make them higher, as we do not walk into our
rooms with crosses and banners, and the human stature rarely exceeds
six feet. There are many inconveniences in having doors too high; they
are liable to twist, are not easily shut, and, if it is cold, every
time they are opened they let a considerable volume of damp, freezing
air penetrate into the rooms, chilling them proportionately.
[Illustration: FIG. 56.]
“Let us begin, then, by drawing a folding-door. We shall make the
framing of this door of wood 1¾ inch thick. We call the outer upright
pieces (Fig. 56) the hanging-stiles; the pieces, A, the meeting-stiles;
the horizontal pieces between them, the rails. The stiles and the
top and bottom rails shall be each 4¼ inches wide, the intermediate
uprights, or munton, 2 inches. Now each leaf—deducting ½ an inch for
the rebate, or overlap, in the middle—will be 2 feet wide, since the
doorway must have an opening of 4 feet: deducting 4¼ in. + 2 in. + 3¾
in. for the two stiles and the munton—total, 10 inches—there remain 14
inches for the two panels, _i.e._, 7 inches for each panel. The middle
rail must be placed so that its centre shall be 3 ft. 4 in. from the
ground; for it is on this rail the lock is fixed, and this rail should
not be less than 6 inches wide, so that deducting for the mouldings,
say 2 in., there still remains 4 in. for the room of the lock, whose
box is usually from 3 to 4 in. wide. This kind of door is called
square-framed: all the joints being square, without mitres, and the
panels being narrow, these doors do not give, and are perfectly ridged.
[Illustration: FIG. 57.]
“Here is a detail of this framing (Fig. 57): Let A be the wall-jamb
of the doorway; a door-frame, B, is fixed by means of iron stays to
this jamb. To it are fastened with screws the hinges, C, on which the
door-leaves swing. D is the hanging-stile; E E, the meeting-stiles;
F, the intermediate munton; G, the panels, with their tongues in the
grooves. The architraves, H, form a rebate around the hanging-stiles
and the top rail. Moulded strips, I, are affixed along the rebate of
the meeting-stiles, in order to strengthen the rebate, and to present
to the hand a rounded edge that does not hurt the hand or fray the
dress. At K is denoted the top rail, with its tenon, L, fitting into
a mortice, M, which should be cut right through the stile. At the
juncture of the intermediate munton, N, the moulding, O, is cut square
off to make way for the head of the munton, whose tenon, P, goes into a
mortice, R. At S you see the groove into which fits the tongues, T, of
the panels; which are increased in thickness at a certain distance from
the tongue, as you see at V, to about ⅞ths of an inch. You will observe
that the chamfers, X, of the stiles stop beneath the joints, in order
to leave these all the strength of the wood. Doors of these dimensions
will require three hinges to each leaf.
“This explanation gives you the key to all good ordinary house joinery.
The rule is a simple one: never to weaken the wood at the joints,
always to make these square, and not to exceed the sizes of ordinary
scantling.
[Illustration: FIG. 58.]
“Our single-leaved doors will be made according to this system. We have
lastly to consider the window-casements. In these we shall follow the
same principle, that is, we shall avoid the defective mitre joints, and
have none but square joints. Here (Fig. 58) is one of these casements,
which consists of a fixed frame, A, fastened into the rebate of the
stone-work, B, and of two folding casements. The wood of the casements
shall be 1½ in. thick, and the meeting-stiles shall lock one into the
other. To lessen the difficulty of glazing, or to avoid the necessity
of using plate-glass, we will divide the length by a small bar, C. You
will require the details of these window-casements. I give them to you
drawn in Fig. 59.
[Illustration: FIG. 59.]
“At A I have marked the rebate of the window-jamb; at B the fixed
frame; at C one of the stiles which works into the frame, with the
tongue to stop the passage of the air; at D and E, the right and left
hand meeting-stiles, with their method of locking. On the projection,
F, is affixed the _crémone_, or fastener. The detail, G, gives you the
section of the sill-rail of the frame, with its water-stop, intended
to hinder the rain or snow from penetrating to the inside. But as it
happens that in spite of this precaution the driving rain sometimes
finds its way into the rebate, a small channel, _a_, must be sunk in
this rebate, with two escapes, that the water may not flow through, and
down the inner surface of the sill, I. In order to cover the junction
of the wood sill-rail and the stone sill, we shall affix the moulding,
K. At L I denote for you the framing of the bottom rail of the casement
and the stile; and at M that of the glazing-bar and the same stile. At
O you will observe the outside rebates to receive the glass, and the
chamfers, P, with stops on the inside to leave at the joints all the
strength of the wood. Besides the three hinges necessary for each leaf,
we must take into account the angle-plates at top and bottom to secure
the casement from straining the joints and giving down in the middle,
for the glass cannot serve like door panels, which stiffen the framing.
On the contrary, the glass, by its weight, tends to put these casements
out of shape.
“You are going to set to work at these details, Paul, and I will
correct your drawings. Furnished with these designs, you will then
go to Chateauroux and show them to the person who undertakes the
work, and he will fix his prices. You will supplement the drawings
by explanations, keeping clearly in mind what I have told you, and
bring back his estimate. I will also give you an introduction to an
engineering friend of mine at Chateauroux who will receive you as a
relation, and who will be able to give you any further information you
require.”
Madame de Gandelau at first objected to Paul’s journey; but being
assured that Eugène’s friend would be at the station to receive the
young architect, and that he would be entertained by a family who
would be glad to receive him, his mother was satisfied. Besides, his
absence would be for three or four days only, and Chateauroux is but
fifty miles from M. de Gandelau’s residence.