These operations, which are frequently required in carpentry, are done
on a small scale by planes. On a larger scale, circular saws and other
machinery are widely and extensively made use of for the same purpose,
as being much more rapid and economical. Of course, the young mechanic
will employ the more usual method, and the present chapter will therefore
treat of the planes necessary for the above work, and the method of using
them.
The common rebate or rabbit plane comes first. This is of various widths;
an inch being a very useful size. It is different in many respects from
the smoothing-plane, being made with a single iron only, which is so
arranged as to reach into angular recesses, which could not be touched
by the ordinary plane, of which the iron does not extend quite to either
side of the sole. Fig. 35, A and B, will illustrate this. A represents
the plane as seen from above and at one side, B gives the perspective
view of the sole, C represents the iron, D the wedge. Let us suppose a
rebate required upon a strip 1 inch thick, the same to be half an inch
wide and deep. A gauge is first set to the required distance, and a line
is marked on both faces, as a guide for the action of the plane. After
a little practice it will be found easy to guide the entry of the plane
with the left hand, grasping it so as partly to overlap the sole, and
thus determine the width of the cut, which must not at first be carried
to the full width required, but may be brought within an eighth of an
inch of such gauge line, and the material removed sometimes from one face
of the rebate and sometimes from the other, taking care to keep it nicely
square.
[Illustration: Fig. 35.]
At first it is an easier plan to nail on with brads a strip of wood
accurately planed, which in this case, as the sole of the plane is 1 inch
wide, must cover it from end to end to a width of half an inch. This
will prevent the possibility of going too deep into cut, and insure the
correctness of the rebate, Fig. 35, H. The injury to the sole will not be
great if small brads are used, but at the same time it is better to learn
the art of using the hand as a guide, which is the more general method of
the working carpenter. As for the use of rebates, there are few pieces
of cabinet-work or joinery in which they are not found, and as stated
in the previous chapter, no picture-frame can be made without them. The
shavings which escape from the rebate-frame do not rise out of the top,
as in the smoothing-plane, but from the side, which is hollowed out for
the purpose, as seen in the drawing.
The skew rebate-plane is made like the preceding one, but the iron,
instead of standing at right angles to the sides, is placed at an angle.
With this you can plane across the grain of the wood.
The next plane to be noticed, is that with which grooves are cut,
such as you will often see in the sides of book-shelves, in which the
several shelves slide. The same is done where two boards are to be
joined lengthwise, and there is danger of their becoming separated as
the wood shrinks in drying. The panels of doors, too, are slid into
similar grooves in the styles and rails of the framework, and there are
innumerable other cases in which this mode of work is carried out. These
grooves are generally cut with the plough, a curious-looking tool, by
no means like a plane in appearance, but of great use to the carpenter.
Of course, we require various widths of such grooves, according to the
special purpose intended, and these are determined by various widths of
the cutting irons, which, however, all fix into the same stock; a dozen
or more of such irons are sold with a single plane.
[Illustration: Fig. 36.]
In Fig. 36 is a set of drawings explanatory of the above tool. The
central part, or stock, is that which corresponds to the same in other
planes, and it is only modified to suit the other parts, which simply act
as guides or gauges regulating the distance of the grooves from the edge
of the board, and the depth to which they are to be cut. When the arms, A
A, are removed, you have the plane as it appears with a brass fence, _b_,
at one side, which can be raised or lowered at pleasure, and set at any
point by the screw C; _d_ is an iron plate which acts as the sole of the
plane, the cutting edge being set to project a very little way below it.
The arms A A carry the fence _g_, which is flat on the inside next the
plane, and moulded (merely for appearance sake) on the outside. The arms
slide in two holes in the body of the plane, and can be drawn out at
pleasure, and fixed by little wooden wedges, _e e_. Thus, while in use,
the fence rubs along the edge of the board, while the groove is being
cut at such distance as the fence is fixed, and to such a depth as is
allowed by the position of the brass check or guide. Complex, therefore,
as this tool appears, it is not so in reality. We shall presently
describe a chest of drawers or cabinet calculated to receive small tools,
or specimens of coins, shells, and such like, in which another kind of
grooving-plane has to come into use, called (with its fellow, which makes
a tenon to fit such groove) a match plane. This is of extensive use, less
expensive than the plough, and on the whole more likely to be useful to
the young mechanic. Indeed, although the plough has been here described
and illustrated, it is not by any means to be considered essential,
and its purchase may well be deferred until other tools of greater
importance has been effected. The side or sash fillister to be presently
described, for instance, would be more useful.
[Illustration: Fig. 37.]
Fig. 37 is such a cabinet, with six drawers, dovetailed at the corners as
usual. The bottom, however, projects beyond the sides, so that the latter
are not made lower than the back, as was the case with the table-drawer
previously described. The top and sides may be of mahogany, the back
and bottom of pine (stained or not at pleasure), or if cost is an
object, the whole may be of any other wood; but the grooves in which the
drawers slide, can be cut more sharply and neatly in harder wood than
pine—birch, for instance, which is very fit for the purpose, and will
take a good polish. The outer case is first made like an open box. The
dimensions may be regulated according to the intended use, but generally
the drawers increase in depth downwards. The top and bottom overlap the
sides, the latter to a somewhat greater width than the former. The sides
can therefore only be dovetailed to the back; the bottom may be attached
with screws, and the top likewise, but the holes must then be plugged to
conceal them. If the whole is of deal, and to be painted or veneered,
this would be the best plan; but if the top is of mahogany, it is not
so easy to fill up the holes above the heads of the screws so as to
thoroughly conceal them. If, however, you have no plough to cut a groove
to let the sides and back a little way into the top, glue alone will not
hold sufficiently. In this case smaller holes may be made to admit 2-inch
brads to assist the glue, such holes being easily filled with putty
stained to imitate mahogany.
The peculiarity of the drawers consists in their meeting each other quite
closely when shut, without the intermediate divisions ordinarily seen.
Hence the necessity for a different arrangement of the sliding surfaces
as before referred to. The insides of the case have _five_ grooves
ploughed across them, as seen at C of this figure, the sixth drawer only
being made as usual to slide upon the bottom of the case, and having its
sides made lower than the back for this purpose.
In the grooves thus cut, the projecting part of the bottom of the drawers
is made to fit and slide, and they will run more smoothly if cut so that
the grain of the wood shall run across the bottom, from front to back,
and not from side to side. The bottom of the drawer must not come below
the level of the front, but either the front should be rebated to take
one edge of it, as seen at E, which is the best way, or a slip of wood
should be glued along as at F, on which that edge may rest, and to which
it can be attached. D exhibits this distinctly, as it is drawn as if the
nearest end was removed to show the position of the other parts. The
bottom, therefore, will be let into the front, and nailed under the back
and sides, and will project rather less than half an inch each way, to
fit the grooves in which it is to slide. Another way to effect the same
is to make the drawers as usual, with no such projections, and to nail
a strip to run in the grooves in the middle of the side pieces, or, if
preferred, near the top. The effect is, of course, the same, and such
strips being planed up nicely, with the grain running lengthwise, will
cause the drawers to work in and out very smoothly.
There is no neater way than this to make a cabinet; and sometimes the
whole is closed with a panelled door, for which purpose the case is
left to project beyond the drawers. Unless well supplied in the matter
of planes, which is hardly to be expected, you will not be able to cut
the grooves in the side of the outer case in any way but the following,
which, however, will answer very well when the piece in which they are
to be cut is not above 9 inches or 1 foot wide. Mark out the places,
spacing them with the greatest care, and cut just within the lines with a
tenon-saw; then cut out with a chisel the narrow piece which intervenes.
There is a plane called a routing-plane used for this by cabinetmakers
and joiners, but you may as well exercise your ingenuity to do without
it. If you have a plough, you may remove the fence, and let it follow up
the saw and chisel, but it will be hardly required if you use the chisel
carefully.
I shall now introduce to your notice another very excellent plane, called
a side or sash fillister, for cutting rebates of any required depth and
width. It is very like the plough in appearance, with a similar wooden
guide or fence on two arms to regulate the width, and another of metal,
moved by a screw at the top, to regulate the depth of the cut. Fig. 38,
A, shows one side of this plane, and B the other. The cutting edge comes
down to the level of _c d_ in fig. A; the fence, of which the edge is
seen at _h_, will draw up to the level of _a b_, or lower to that of the
edge. This plane, therefore, is but a more complete rebate-plane, fitted
with guides for depth and width. It does its work very perfectly, and is
of extensive use.
[Illustration: Fig. 38.]
I have given descriptions of these planes, although the young mechanic
will not at first possess them, as they are somewhat expensive, because
I feel it as well to let him know how work is done by the trade, and
why it is that such work is effected more rapidly and better than he
himself can do it; but at the same time it is far better that he should,
for a long time, work at a disadvantage, by using few tools, and those
of the simplest construction, before taking in hand others which cost a
good deal of money, which might often be better spent. A look back over
these pages will show that with a long (or jack) plane, a smoothing-plane
and a rebate-plane, all the work previously alluded to can be done. As,
however, I am writing upon the subject of planes, I may as well mention
two more—match-planes and beading-planes—to which may be added those
for moulding, being an extension only of the last named. Match-planes
are always in pairs. Their use is to cut, the one a groove, Fig. 39, A,
the other a tenon or tongue, or feather, as it is sometimes called, as
Fig. 39, B, down the long sides (with the grain) of boards that are to
be joined lengthwise (Fig. 39). If the plough is used, a groove is cut
in both pieces, and a slip of board planed up to fit them; either method
will answer equally well. When boards joined thus shrink, the tongue or
slip fills up space.
[Illustration: Fig. 39.]
There is no necessity for illustrating the planes used for beading
and moulding after the description already given of others. The irons,
instead of being flat, are filed into grooves and hollows of the required
pattern, and of course transfer their own form to the wood upon which
they are used. They are held on the slope of the moulding to be cut.
When blunt, they have to be sharpened with slips of oilstone, which can
be had for the purpose, of square and round section; sometimes they are
sufficiently soft to be filed into shape, but a keen edge cannot thus
be obtained. Mouldings, however, are generally finished off with fine
sandpaper. They are always planed lengthwise of the grain in long strips,
and are cut to the required lengths (generally with mitres). When very
broad, they are made up of several narrower ones, glued side by side.
The young mechanic had better get them cut for him by some friendly
carpenter, as it is hardly worth his while to buy planes for which he
will have comparatively little use.
I shall conclude these papers on carpentry by describing the method
of making such a door as would suit the cabinet already described,
especially as it will explain the way in which all panelling is done,
whether for doors, shutters, or other similar articles. Panelling is
indeed of very general application in every household, and it is well
worth while even for the young mechanic to learn how it is accomplished.
It is absolutely necessary, however, that he should be possessed either
of a plough or match-planes for routing out the grooves in which the
panels slide.
Nearly all panels have a beading or a moulding running round them as a
finish.
[Illustration: Fig. 40.]
Fig. 40 illustrates the method of panelling. A, B, C are the styles, D,
E, F, G the rails. The mortices and tenons are cut as usual. The inside
edges of C, B, D, G are then grooved with the plough, and both edges of
the other pieces. The panels are carefully squared up, and then bevelled
off at the edges so as to fit the grooves. To put such a door together,
A, D, G, E, and F would be first arranged, then the panels slid in
from the outside, and afterwards the styles B and C put in place. The
part beyond the outer mortices in the latter pieces, which are left for
safety in cutting these mortices, and to prevent splitting when D and
G are driven home, are not cut off until the glue is dry. The process
is simple, but it requires great care, both in setting out the various
measurements, and in squaring up the different pieces composing the
whole. After the whole is dry, strips of moulding, cut to mitre-joints at
the corners, are nailed on with brads round the panels to give the whole
a finished appearance.
In the above examples, in which I have gone from the more simple to
the more complicated, are comprised the main principles of the art of
carpentry. At any rate, when the young mechanic can do _as much_, he will
be able to accomplish a great deal more.