The previous chapters were devoted to such exceedingly simple and easy
specimens of carpentry as can be made by any boy of eleven or twelve
years of age, or even younger, who has the necessary perseverance, and
will take sufficient care in measuring and fitting. In both and all
similar cases, it is better for such to buy pieces of board already
planed, and of nearly the desired size; but I shall no longer presuppose
such necessity, but advance the young mechanic to the dignity of a plane,
and a few more of the more necessary and useful tools. The list may
therefore now comprise—
1 HAND SAW, 16 inches or so in length, a full-sized one being
almost beyond the powers of a boy.
3 FIRMER CHISELS, quarter, half, and one inch wide.
1 MALLET.—Chisel handles should never be struck with a hammer,
which splits the handles.
1 HAMMER.—This should be light. The best way is to buy a
hammer-head, and make the handle. A heavy one can be added, but
will hardly be required at first, and is useless for light work.
1 JACK PLANE, 1 SMOOTHING DO.—The jack plane is not usually
added to a boy’s tool-chest, but it is impossible to plane up a
long straight edge without it; and as these planes can be had
from 12 inches in length, I should certainly recommend one, say
12 to 15 inches.
3 GIMLETS, 3 BRADAWLS.—One of each of these should be as small
as can be obtained. Add a medium and a larger one.
1 SCREWDRIVER, 1 PINCERS, 1 CUTTING PLIERS.—Screwdriver should
be of a medium size; the pliers such as are used by bellhangers.
1 COMPASSES.—These should be light _carpenter’s_ compasses, not
such as are made of brass and steel. They are very useful.
2 GOUGES.—_Carpenter’s_ gouges, not turner’s. They will answer
for the present, in many cases, to make round holes in boards.
The centrebits and braces are expensive.
1 OIL-STONE.—There is a cheap and quick-cutting stone called
Nova Scotia which will answer the purpose well.
MORTICE-GAUGE.—The use of this will be shown presently.
1 SQUARE, 1 2-FOOT RULE, GLUE POT, and BRUSH.—These are, as
before stated, indispensable. The rule need not have a brass
slide; the square may be made entirely of wood, or with a metal
blade 6 to 9 inches in length.
The above, with the addition of a carpenter’s brace and bit, two or
three augers, about three mortice chisels, and a hatchet, would suffice
for a very large amount of good work. Indeed, it represents almost a
complete set of tools, the only additional ones that are at all likely
to be needed being a longer (trying) plane, rebate plane, and pair of
match, or tongue and groove planes. Without any of the latter, the young
carpenter will find it easy to carry out a good many light specimens of
his ingenuity.
It is much better, in general, to work with a few tools, and contrive
to make them answer all sorts of purposes, than to lay in a larger and
more expensive set at starting, for the latter are sure to be abused and
kept in bad order, because if one chisel gets blunt, another is taken up,
instead of sharpening the first; and planes and other tools are treated
in a similar manner, and a carelessness is engendered fatal to success.
It is astonishing how much may be done with few and inefficient tools,
but then the utmost patience and industry have to be exercised, much as
we see prevailing among the native workmen of India and America, who
execute the most beautiful and delicate work with tools which, in the
hands of a European, would be generally simply useless.
The next work that should be attempted by the young mechanic should be
mortice and tenon jointing, as used in constructing frames of various
kinds for doors, window-sashes, tables, and other articles of everyday
use. Perhaps one of the simplest and easiest examples will be a
towel-horse, which, at any rate, will be of use when completed.
Now, it may be at once stated, that for work of this kind especially,
but generally also for all work, it is essential to be able to square up
truly the several pieces required. This will require practice—long and
careful practice—and the beginner will meet here with his first and chief
difficulty, but he must not despair.
[Illustration: Fig. 15.]
It has been presupposed that a strong work-bench, table-plank mounted
upon trestles, or some sort of tolerably efficient and firm bench has
been obtained, or is accessible, and, in addition, a strong stool upon
which to saw, cut out mortices, and so forth. A small carpenter’s bench,
with a wooden vice, is most handy and serviceable, but is not absolutely
necessary. It will be easy to _make_ one by and by; for the present, any
available substitute must be used. The height of the proposed towel-rail
may equal the length. About 2 feet 6 inches will be a fair size, and it
may be of the simplest possible form, such as is here delineated (Fig.
15). The upright sides may be made of strips of pine, one inch wide and
three-quarters of an inch thick—the rails 1¼ wide and three eighths
of an inch thick. The feet will be considered presently. If careful
attention is given to the following directions, not only will the result
be certainly satisfactory, but the way will be paved for the workmanlike
construction of a great number of similarly useful articles.
The size of the rough material must always be greater than that
ultimately needed, to allow of the necessary waste in sawing and planing.
Pine boards, however, are usually cut of certain general widths and
thicknesses; and although we have here set down stuff of _one inch_ by
three-quarters, it may be cut from inch board, because very little will
be wasted by the plane, and the finished work will be sufficiently near
to the above measure for the intended purpose, one-sixteenth of an inch
or so being of no practical importance in the construction of such an
article as a towel-rail. Get, therefore, from the carpenter, a strip of
pine 1 inch wide and 6 feet in length, cut from a board 1 inch thick,
and also a strip for the rails (of which there will be three), 4 inches
wide and 2 feet 9 inches long, cut from a half-inch board. The rails you
are to saw yourself from the latter strip, which will give you practice
in sawing a straight course, and the _work_ is easy in half-inch stuff.
You may therefore begin by cutting these, for which purpose you will want
guide-lines dividing the strip into three of equal width. There is a very
simple way of marking these by means of a chalk line, which I will here
describe.
The width of the board I set down at 4 inches, because the rails, when
finished, will be 1¼ inches each, or, in all, 3¾ inches. As each contains
eight eighths, as already explained, 4 inches will contain thirty-two
eighths. Dividing by 3, we shall have ten eighths for each strip, or 1¼
inches, and two eighths, or a quarter of an inch, to spare for waste.
Take the compasses, therefore, and open them to 1¼ and a little over
(rather less than to the next division on the rule), and take it off at
each end of the board (Fig 16, A B).
[Illustration: Fig. 16.]
Take off, again, from this to mark the width of the next strip, and the
board will be divided with sufficient accuracy for our present purpose.
Take a piece of twine, long enough to stretch from end to end of the
plank, and something over, and tie a knot at one end. Stick a bradawl
through the string, close to this knot and into the board, as seen at C
of the same figure. Take a lump of chalk, and chalk the line from end to
end. Then strain it down the board, holding it by the left hand, so that
it is stretched from one mark to the other, where the saw-cut is to be
made. With the finger and thumb of the other hand, raise it a little in
the middle, and let it suddenly go, when it will make a perfectly clear
and straight line upon the board. Make a similar and parallel line for
the next saw-cut. In the present case, you need not mind cutting this
chalk mark out. Try and saw right down, so as to split it.
[Illustration: Fig. 17.]
You now have your strips cut out, but they require to be planed. You
might, indeed, with advantage, have planed the whole strip on both
sides before marking and cutting it, but it is equally easy to do it
afterwards. The jack plane is the one to be used for this purpose. I must
suppose it to be sharp and in good order; if not, ask some carpenter to
set it for you for the present, but I will soon tell you how to do it
for yourself. Indeed, you will have to learn how to sharpen all your
tools before you can be called a good workman. If the plane is properly
set, the cutting edge will project very slightly only from the bottom; so
that when held as in Fig. 17, and the eye directed along the sole, only a
narrow shining slip of metal will appear. If too far out, it will hitch
and make bad work; if not far enough, it will not cut at all; but the
common fault of beginners is to have it too far out, because from their
imperfect handling of this tool they often fail to make it cut, when in
the hands of a carpenter it would work well. Now, if the iron projects
too far, hold it as shown, so that you look along the sole, and give it a
tap with your wooden mallet on the upper face at A, and this is also the
way to loosen the wedge and irons for removal. By a blow at B, you can
send the cutting edge forward to cut more deeply, or in this case you may
tap the iron itself with a metal hammer, but tapping the end of the wood
is better.
To plane the edges of these strips, you ought to have a bench with a
vice, but there are ways and means to do without it, and one is so good
that I shall speak of it here, although it necessitates a somewhat abrupt
break-off in my description of the towel-rail. It is a kind of vice that
is fixed to a board which is laid upon the work-bench when required.
[Illustration: Fig. 18.]
In Fig. 18 is a drawing of one of two kinds of such vices which I will
explain. This first consists of two pieces of wood (ash will be better
than pine) about 9 inches long and 2 inches thick. They are cut in the
shape given in the drawing, and screwed to the board, not tightly, but so
as to move freely upon the screws. The board should be an inch thick to
give the screws a firm hold. You can see by the figure that the tails of
the pieces cross each other sometimes when in use. To allow of this, they
are cut like B and C, so that one can go inside the other. Now, if you
consider a little, you will understand that if we stand a strip of board
between the two, and push it forward against the insides of the tails of
these curiously-shaped blocks, it will make the opposite knobbed ends
close nearer together, and these will grip the piece of wood, and the
harder we push it forward, the more closely it will be gripped and held;
but the moment we draw back the piece, the two jaws will open to let it
go free. You can try first of all upon a thin piece, which can be shaped
by your knife, and make a model of this vice, and then if you can’t
manage to cut out such a one of thick wood, the carpenter would do it for
you, and it will be handy for many purposes. If you have nothing of this
kind, nor a vice to your bench, drive in two pins or pegs of wood, or two
nails, a little way apart, so as to allow your strip of wood to stand
upon edge between them, and drive two more a little way from these; then
one at the end to form a planing stop. A tap at the sides of these nails
will cause them to hold the strip edgewise, quite well enough to allow
you to plane it. There are other ways, and I shall describe them by and
by. In the meantime use nails, or any other plan that will answer.
[Illustration: Fig. 19.]
[Illustration: Fig. 20.]
I shall suppose, therefore, that one of the narrow strips is thus set on
edge upon your bench ready to be planed. Grasp the handle of your plane
firmly with the right hand, and lay hold of it in front of the iron with
the left. Draw it back, and then send it steadily forward, pressing it
downwards at the same time. Now the advantage of a long plane is, that
it does not descend into the hollows of the work, but rests upon the
projections, as in Fig. 19, A. A short plane would do as seen at B, and
therefore would never make a long straight edge. You have two special
points here to attend to. You have to plane a level line from end to end,
and also keep the edges square to the sides, which is by no means easy
at first. You must keep trying it with your square, as I have shown you
in Fig. 20, and not rest satisfied until the handle fits close to the
side of the strip, and the edge lies also close upon that of the strip
anywhere along its length. I daresay you will think this of no importance
in such a common thing as a pine towel-horse; but I may tell you this
is the very secret of carpenter’s work, and when you can saw and plane
truly, and work “to square,” you can make almost anything. It is true
that the strips for the rails are not of great importance in this case,
but the upright side pieces are, and if these are out of truth, the holes
cut through them for the rails, which are called mortices, will be out
of truth also, and you will see the towel-horse, when it is made, all
twisted and awry, and nothing you can do will make it stand firm or look
well. It is, in short, no use to pretend to learn carpentry unless you
at once make up your mind to succeed, and therefore you must always use
the square and try your work as you go on. All the difference between the
usual work of carpenters, and that of boys or men who do not know how to
work, consists of the squareness and good fit of what the former make.
Boys never seem to trouble themselves about such things, and so you see
their boxes and rabbit-hutches look twisted, and being badly fitted, they
soon go to pieces.
Having planed up the sides and edges of the rails as square and true
as you can, cut the other long strip in half, and square up this also,
taking care that both pieces are alike and both truly worked. If your
bench is sufficiently long to take the whole strip, plane it up before
you cut it across, and you will be sure to have the sides of your
towel-rail equal in size. You have now to make your first essay in
cutting mortices. Follow these directions, and you will not fail. I shall
not limit the description to these special mortices, but give you general
directions.
[Illustration: Fig. 21.]
Fig. 21 represents a bar of wood—the side of the towel-horse, for
instance—with a mortice cut through it at A, and others marked out at
_ab_, _cd_. Below, at B, is a gauge, of which the construction and use
will be explained presently. F shows how the feet are to be attached and
cut. They are morticed while in a “squared-up” condition, and shaped
afterwards according to fancy; sometimes they are left square, and knobs
screwed below to make two feet.
These mortices may, of course, be of any desired length or width. Those
required for the towel-rail sides will be 1¼ inch long by half an inch
wide _nearly_. The planing of the strips may have reduced them more or
less below the exact size specified, try therefore with the compasses
what the precise thickness is of the ends, and measure that thickness on
your two-foot rule. You now want to draw the lines _a t_, which I have
represented as extending the whole length of the strip, and as all the
mortices are to be alike, you may so mark them. The gauge B is of two
parts, a sliding piece, C, and a rectangular bar of wood about 9 inches
long and half an inch square. This slides stiffly through the mortice
in C, and is fixed at any part by the small wedge D. This gauge you can
easily make. It is _not_ a mortice gauge properly so called, because the
latter has two marking points instead of the one seen at _h_, and which
may be the point of a brad driven in and filed up to an edge. Loosen the
wedge slightly, and draw back the rectangular bar, or push it forward,
until you think that the space between the sliding piece and the point is
about that which is required on each side of the mortices, so that if you
set the wedge firm, and resting the sliding piece against the edge of the
board, cause the point to make a mark, and repeat this on the other side
of the same face of the wood, there will be left between the marks thus
made the exact width of the required mortice. Try it, and if not, give a
tap to the instrument, and adjust it until the space is exactly correct.
Then fix all firm, and holding it so that the little point will mark the
wood, while the head or sliding piece is against the side of the board,
run the tool from end to end, or run it along just where the mortices
are required, using both hands. You will thus make the two long lines
between which the mortices have to be cut. Now turn the wood over, and
do the same on the other side. You are now quite sure that these lines,
on opposite sides of the piece, agree exactly in position, which is the
object of using a gauge; and as you have planed up a second strip to
exactly the size of this first, you have but to repeat the process (no
measuring being necessary) upon that; and you may be satisfied that thus
far the two sides of the towel-rail will tally. You now set off with the
compasses upon one of these lines the _lengths_ of the mortices in their
proper places, and at the points thus marked, using your square for the
purpose, mark the end lines of these mortices; but when so doing, carry
the lines across, as _a b_, _c d_, and down the sides and across the
opposite side. With the square this will be easily done, the blade of it
being laid _flat_, so that its edge becomes the ruler, while the handle
becomes the guide or gauge resting against the side of the wood. At E,
Fig. 21, this position of the square is shown.
By thus carrying round all the lines, you will have the mortices marked
on both sides in exactly the same relative position, so that you can
(and must) cut them half from one side and half from the other, using
the chisel nearest to the size required, but _always of less width_ (or
length) than the mortice, because _you must never cut out the guide
lines_, but must keep within them, only carefully paring the wood at
last close to them. You will never cut mortices correctly, unless you
thus mark the position on both sides, and work as directed.
The ends of the cross rails will not have to be cut into tenons, as they
will fit as they are, only requiring to be glued into their places,
when, if you have worked carefully, the whole will look well, and will
be square and true, without twist; but if you did not plane up the sides
square, you will find the towel-rail awry and unworkmanlike. Although,
however, there is no necessity to make regular tenons in the present
case, the usual way is to do so, and to fix with wedges, as in Fig. 15.
After a mortice has been cut straight through a piece as directed, this
mortice is slightly eased, or sloped off, as seen at _a b_, which is a
section of one. The rail or tenon _c_ is put through after being brushed
with glue; and when in exact position, two wedges are glued and driven in
at each end, as seen in the drawing. After all is dry, these wedges being
firmly united to the rail, as seen at _k_, prevent it from being drawn
back or moved. Nearly all mortice and tenon joints are fixed in this way.
As I am describing this kind of work, I may as well explain the method of
marking and cutting tenons, as it will answer not only for affixing the
feet, as shown in Fig. 21, but for all similar work.
[Illustration: Fig. 22.]
In Fig. 22, I have illustrated the mode of marking out tenons, and at
D is a double tenon, which is in wide pieces often substituted for the
single, and makes an excellent joint. The longitudinal lines _e_, _f_,
_g_, _h_, are marked as before with the gauge, whether for single or
double tenons; the line _a b_, with the assistance of the square; the
cheeks, _c_ and _d_, are then cut off entirely with a fine saw, called on
this account a tenon-saw,—and care must be taken as before not to cut out
the guide lines. If, instead of the outer cheeks, the piece between them
is to be removed to make a double tenon, this must be done with mallet
and chisel, after carefully sawing down the lines _x y_; and the chisel
is to be used first on one side and then on the other, by which means
the shoulder will be cut true to the guide lines. If, however, the cut
across should curve a little downwards like _n_, it will not much matter,
so long as the _edges_ fit closely. It is nevertheless better to cut
straight across. The outer cheeks of this will be marked and cut as in
the single mortice (Fig. 22).
If a workman has to cut many mortices on pieces of the same size, he
frequently constructs a rough mortice gauge with double points, which
marks both sides of the mortice at once, like K. A fixed block at K,
the right distance from the points, _l m_, of two nails, is sufficient
when all the mortices are to be alike. There is, however, a regular
double-pointed gauge, made generally of ebony, plated with brass, and a
brass rule to which one of the points is fixed, and which is acted on by
a screw at the end, which can be turned by the thumb and finger. This
has the effect of separating or closing the two points according to the
desired width of the mortice, its distance from the side of the piece
being regulated as before by the sliding head fixed by a wedge. This is
an expensive tool, and need not be purchased. There are also, let me add,
many costly tools of various forms and uses; but let the boy’s motto (and
man’s, too, for all that) be, “_Do as well as you can without_.” You have
no idea how a little ingenuity and contrivance will save your pockets,
and that, too, without in the least tending to spoil your work. All
you require are a few of the most generally useful tools in first-rate
condition—chisels, saws, and planes, sharp and well set, and fit for work
at any moment.
With regard to uniting two pieces of wood or other material with glue,
it must be remembered that if you use this substance in a thick semifluid
state, and in quantity, its effect will be lost. Make it a rule to put on
as thin a coat as possible, and let it be not thicker than cream, so that
it will freely flow into corners, and spread evenly over the surfaces to
be united. Make the wood also _quite warm_, so that the glue shall not be
suddenly chilled, and let it be used boiling. Always heat it either in a
proper glue-pot, or at any rate, place the vessel which contains it (a
small gallipot, for instance) inside another vessel in which water can be
kept boiling.
The glue, which should be thin and transparent, being broken into small
pieces, should be put into such a vessel as suggested, and covered
with cold water, and it should be allowed to remain thus until swollen
and softened. Then bring the water in the outer vessel to the boiling
point, and do not use the glue until it is entirely dissolved and of one
uniform consistence. It should be stirred while boiling with a piece of
stick, and a brush used to lay it upon the pieces to be joined. It very
generally happens that pieces glued by boys fall apart almost directly.
This is almost entirely due to the fact that the glue is used thick and
clotty, and in too great quantity, while the wood is never made warm
as it should be. If two pieces are properly joined in this way, it is
almost impossible to separate them at the joint—the wood itself will give
way and split before the glue will yield to the strain. Carpenters use
various forms of clamps or vices to hold work together until the glue
shall be dry; but for boys by far the best plan, where any such holdfast
is needed, is to bind the parts together with twine, and then to set them
aside for twelve hours at least. It is seldom that articles once united
by glue and separated will unite firmly a second time.