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| YEAR 2003 ENTRIES (2000,
2001, 2002,
2003, 2004,
2005, 2006,
current) |
| November 2003
Mystery ... Solved |
 Mystery
Tool is one of the best-loved departments in Canadian Home Workshop.
We get lots of responses, and most readers tell us how they
encountered the tool in question. Often the tool seems to recall
warm memories. But not this tool—a glue pot for heating
animal glues. “Stinky,” “smelly” and
“disgusting” were words our readers used to describe
it, many recalling the tool from their school days. One reader
wrote of trying very hard to avoid using it in shop class, because
the teacher would smack students who mixed the glue too thick
or too thin.
Furnituremakers, as well as bookbinders,
artists, early photographers and many other artisans, used animal
glues. Many types, including fish, hide, rabbit skin and bone
glues are still available today as granules, dried sheets or
tapioca-like pearls. These protein-based adhesives do smell
bad if overheated or if they’ve gone mouldy. The glue
pot works like a chef’s double boiler. The glue ingredients
and water are mixed in the inner pot, the outer pot is filled
with water, and the two are heated.
Unlike most readers, our winner
remembers glue pots fondly. Marie
Trainor, of Saint John, N.B., wrote, “My
father had a woodworking shop from the ’30s until the
mid-’50s, where he manufactured windows and doors. With
all the big saws, planers and tools of his trade, there was
a pot-belly stove—on top of his stove always sat his glue
pot.” She also remembers how different his working uniform
was than that worn today: “He always wore a shirt, necktie
and a vest with what would now be called casual pants and good
shoes when he went to work, no matter what the season.”
Like many workshoppers, he tinkered with his tools, making a
stroke sander with an old bed frame, and a jigsaw out of Marie’s
mother’s sewing machine. “With him,” Marie
says, “It wasn’t safe to leave anything around.”
|
| October 2003
Mystery ... Solved |
 Sometimes
contemporary tools take away the need for an older tool, and
sometimes contemporary reissues of those tools take away their
mystery.
Before the modern portable router,
cabinetmakers and carpenters commonly used variations of October’s
Mystery Tool to add decorative edges to pieces of wood.
Beading tools, also known as hand
beaders, were made by many manufacturers, but all worked on
the same principle. The tool held a shaped metal blade that
was scraped along the surface of the wood repeatedly to create
beads, reeds, flutes and many other decorations. The interchangeable
cutters came ready-made in different sizes and profiles, and
cabinetmakers often filed their own cutters to create custom
bead profiles. Most beading tools, including our Mystery Tool,
have a stop on one edge to guide the beader along the edge of
the board.
The versatile beading tool is
sometimes confused with a beading plane—an uncommon hand
plane with a sharp blade contoured to cut the desired profile.
A beading plane cuts into the wood and shaves off a thin sliver,
while a beading tool scrapes, like a cabinet scraper.
The portable router hasn’t
entirely replaced the beader. Beaders are still handy for parts
too small, too curved or too inaccessible for routers. Woodworkers
also use them with a shopmade cutter to match existing moulding
or to create a one-of-a-kind bead. In fact, it’s because
they’re still available that this issue’s winner,
Michel Béland of Waterdown,
Ont., identified the beading tool. He gave us
no romantic story of seeing one as a child in a carpenter’s
toolbox or picking one up accidentally at a country auction.
How did he recognize it? ”I saw something very similar
in the Lee Valley catalogue.”
|
| September 2003
Mystery ... Solved |
 September’s
Mystery Tool winner, Wayne McHarg of
Oromocto, N.B., was right on the mark with his veneer
saw guess. His research paid off when he sent in a picture of
a veneer saw taken from a pamphlet entitled Woodworking Tools
at Shelburne Museum, by Frank H. Wildung (Shelburne Museum,
1957).
This unusual saw was used for
cutting heavy veneers. Old-time veneers averaged 1/8"-thick
after being cut in the rough, then planed and scraped. Current
veneer is rotary cut or sliced, and is very thin in comparison,
as thin as 1/28" on average. A veneer saw is not a knife,
but performs the same function in situations in which a knife
would be unsuitable. It is particularly useful for cutting thicker
veneers and thinner, brittle or very hard veneers. The fine
teeth ensure a clean cut, without splintering, even on brittle
veneers, and because the teeth are not “set,” the
blade does not cut a wide kerf. The curved blade ensures a smooth
cutting action and prevents snagging as it is drawn across the
veneer surface.
Whether you’re crosscutting
(cutting against the grain) or ripping (cutting with the grain),
the proper technique for cutting a straight edge without splitting
veneer is to work through the wood with several passes. And
when crosscutting, always cut from both edges toward the centre,
otherwise the veneer will most likely split off on the trailing
edge of the saw. Take extra care when you’re ripping veneer,
as the saw tends to pull away from the straight edge due to
hard and soft streaks in the grain.
This saw was also used as a dowel
cutter. When you drive a wood dowel through a bored hole in
a joint, the dowel may protrude through the joint on either
side. A veneer saw can cut the dowel with back-and-forth motions
without marring the surrounding surfaces.
|
| Summer 2003
Mystery ... Solved |
 Summer’s
Mystery Tool winner, Patrick Connor
of Wakefield, Que., correctly identified the froe—a.k.a.
frow, a word derived from the archaic word ”froward,”
meaning the opposite of ”toward.” Connor has had
firsthand experience using this cleaving tool. ”I was
taught to use a froe a couple of years ago in a course about
birchbark canoe making north of Maniwaki, Que.,” says
Connor. ”We used froes to split cedar blanks into frames,
stems and sheathing.”
”Splitting with a froe,
as opposed to ripping with a saw,” says Connor, ”produces
a stronger [shingle] because the surface of the piece will always
be parallel to the grain.”
A typical froe consists of a steel
blade from six inches to 12" long, with a round socket
for a handle that’s set at right angles to the cutting
edge of the blade. It was probably the first tool used by early
woodworkers to split timber into usable boards (for uses such
as siding), shingles, billets for wagon spokes, hoe and shovel
handles, etc. Froes were used in varied shapes and lengths,
in many different woodworking trades, from shingle-making to
splitting barrel staves.
When making shingles, for example,
workmen would cut cedar pine logs into 12" to 16"
lengths. Standing the logs on end, they would place the froe
on the upper end and strike it with a wooden maul or mallet,
drive it into the end like a wedge with the grain and split
off the shingle. Because the handle is positioned perpendicular
to the blade, it can be used as a lever and twisted to assist
the splitting.
In its heyday, splitting wood
using a froe was quicker than sawing with a handsaw. Timber
was clearer and relatively knot-free in the past because logs
were longer and knots were spaced further apart. Unfortunately,
the froe has become virtually obsolete since power-driven splitters
were introduced.
|
| June 2003 Mystery
... Solved |
 As
we pored over all your contest entries, it became clear that
some tools never outgrow their usefulness. We received hundreds
of correct entries and countless stories on how June’s
Mystery Tool, a star drill, brought back recollections of plumbing,
electrical, masonry or mining apprenticeships and other handy
jobs.
Our winner, Paul
Smith of Lyndhurst, Ont., epitomizes the trend: “Back
in the late 1970s at our cottage, I pounded on some of these
down at the waterfront…I wanted to build a dock over
some rocks at the water’s edge and had to drill anchor
holes for some bolts with which to attach three
main support beams to ancient chunks of pink granite. While
I only had to drill two holes per beam, it was a huge chore,
pounding away with my 2 1/2-lb hammer we called the ‘Enforcer.’”
“My efforts had a surprising result because when
I finished anchoring the three beams, they were perfectly level.
Nothing since has been so perfect.”
Star drills were an improvement
over the single-point drills. The “star” points
cut faster than the old single point and are the forerunner
of today’s carbide bit and electric hammer drill. The
shafts were made in various sizes to correspond to the type
and size of the hole required and the bolt or lag screw used.
The star drill was used with a
heavy hammer. Holding the drill in one hand, you rotated it
after every blow to bore a hole in rock or cement before
inserting fasteners. Many readers have battle scars to prove
how laborious this task could be. Don MacLean of Azilda, Ont.,
for instance, helped his father make a hole in a rock “in
order to dynamite it to create a road for hauling logs. This
was just after the war, when power tools were not available.
The blisters on my hands have never been forgotten.”
|
| May 2003 Mystery
... Solved |
 Scores
of correct entries flooded in for May’s Mystery Tool,
but the winner was retired slater Les
Griffiths of Ottawa, who correctly identified the
slater’s zax, also called an axe. “This essential
tool has different names, depending on the location,”
says Griffiths, who first used the slater’s axe more than
60 years ago. “In London, England, it was a ‘chopper,’
on England’s south coast it was an ‘axe’ and
in the north it was a ‘rip.’”
The slater’s axe was used
to split shakes (slate shingles) and punch holes in the top
of the shake to receive the nails. As a slater Griffiths used
it in tandem with a “slater’s iron” on a short
length of floor joist to cut slates for eaves and ridges. The
point of the slater’s axe was used to make a series of
small holes so that the slate could be snapped to the right
size on the slater’s iron. The chopper was then reversed
and used to clean up the edge. Another use was to make square
holes with the point so that square, handmade copper nails would
not foul when driven into the roof. But the most important use,
Griffith says, as he takes a tour down memory lane, “was
to smash the point in as you started to slide down a smooth
roof in the rain. This upset the boss (roofers’ “mates”
or assistants were cheaper than slates!) and brought jeers from
fellow workers.”
During the 17th, 18th and 19th
centuries, slate was the roofing material of choice. Today,
few, if any, buildings are roofed with slate because of its
high cost and the availability of more efficient and easier-to-use
materials. Similarly, the slater’s axe has become a rare
tool—roofers prefer power saws and drills when repairing
slate roofs.
Our slater’s axe is apparently a right-hander’s
chopper because of the two-inch offset that protects the user’s
hand from razor-sharp slate chips. Says Griffiths, “I
was a left-handed slater, and as such was very much in
demand. When used often [the axe] developed a ‘bow’
in the blade above the point, and it was the mate’s job
to grind the cutting edge on the offset side so that it resembled
one-half of a pair of scissors.”
|
| April 2003 Mystery
... Solved |
 Rick
Lewis of Niagara Falls, Ont. correctly
guessed that April’s Mystery Tool is the Lenk Automatic
Alcohol Blotorch. Automatic alcohol blowtorches were used for
light soldering work (electrical or radio wiring) and sometimes
craftsmen used them to melt wax and other casting materials
when making moulds. This compact blowtorch was popular with
electricians, radio repairmen and mechanics for its portability—it
was more versatile in use, safer and also lighter to cart around
in their toolboxes than a large gas blowtorch. This tool was
obviously popular among readers: we received hundreds of letters.
Many said they used it for soldering keys back onto typewriters
and for repairing jewelry.
The cylinder on the left contains
an alcohol-saturated wick that produces a fine flame. The second
cylinder, with the screw-on cap, stores additional alcohol.
When the wick is lit, the heated nozzle transfers warmth to
the cylinder and causes the fuel in the cylinder to expand and
push through the nozzle. The burning wick then ignites the fuel
being forced through the nozzle, creating a blowtorch.
Some readers pinpointed the blowtorch
as a Jim Dandy model, which has a slight design variation from
the Lenk. Alcohol blowtorches were popular in the early 1900s
but have since been replaced by the propane torch and other
similar torches.
|
| March 2003 Mystery
... Solved |
 If
you knew the identity of last month’s Mystery Tool, you
should have sent off a letter, because no one else came up with
the right answer. Quite a few people thought that the tool was
much larger than its actual size, and guessed that it was a
sort of iron one would heat up and set on the floor of a buggy
for warming one’s feet. The closest answer came from Fort
Saskatchewan, Alta.; a gentleman there described it as a knife
hone, something you’d use to sharpen planer blades. Close,
but not quite.
The mysterious piece is a saw
jointer, a tool used to put saw teeth in line before sharpening
them. This particular example is a manufactured copy of the
ones saw filers made for their own use by inserting a file into
a notched piece of wood. The wood would protect their hand while
they worked the file over the blade. The metal casing is a more
durable version of the same.
The first step in sharpening a
handsaw is getting the saw’s teeth straight. A saw filer
would clamp the handsaw in a saw vice and draw the jointer along
the top of the teeth to straighten the tips. The metal casing
provides a guide to file the teeth to. If the saw filer skipped
this step, the saw wouldn’t cut properly.
With the invention of automatic
machine filers, this tool was no longer needed. There very likely
are saw filers in other countries who still sharpen saws by
hand, but there are very few people who have the skill and knowledge
here, and judging by the fact that no one won this contest,
there are few people out there have even seen this tool or its
wooden predecessor.
|
| February 2003
Mystery ... Solved |
 Many
readers recognized the Mystery Tool for February—a set
of metal graining combs used for mimicking woodgrain and creating
other painted effects. Our winner,
Eric T. Finley of Aylesford, N.S., described
watching a friend transform a steel entry door into what easily
passed as oak. “He did this by wrapping the comb with
a cloth and then pulling the comb over the painted surface,
leaving groove marks that were then brushed or feathered out
to make a wood pattern,” says Finley. These particular
combs, and the expertise to use them, have since been passed
to the next generation. Finley says the painter’s daughter
now uses them to detail dashboards in classic cars.
Graining combs were made of tin
or ivory (now replaced with elephant-friendly plastic) in several
widths, with a variety of teeth sizes and spacings. In their
heyday, from the late 1800s through the early 1900s, painters
used them to take inexpensive softwoods, such as pine, and disguise
them as hardwood or exotic wood. Local woods we consider valuable
today were sometimes transformed into typically European woods
to evoke the “old country.” Wainscoting in homes
from this time period often provides great examples of the grainer’s
art.
Graining combs and other tools
used to mimic woodgrain, such as graining rollers and thin hair
brushes, were an essential part of the painter’s toolbox.
While most painters of the time employed some skill in their
use, the best practitioners needed a combination of artistry
and wood knowledge—and these painters were in high demand.
Although the combs are still available
today, their widespread use diminished when inexpensive plywood
panelling was introduced, and another skilled trade of the past
fell out of favour.
|
| Winter 2003
Mystery ... Solved |
 Howard
Whiting of Shelburne, Ont., correctly identified
December’s Mystery Tool as a snow fence slat replacer.
“I used this tool all the time while growing up on a farm,”
says Whiting of the not-so-mysterious tool. “You’d
open the handles and put the hooks over the fence wire, thereby
creating tension. Then the fence wire is pulled around the slat
by pulling the handles back together.” A small piece of
wire is then warped around the fence wire to hold it in place
before another wire was tied across the front of the slat, joining
the back wires.
This tool was used in the early
1900s when the majority of roads were lined with wooden-slat
snow fences, especially along highways and rural roads. The
slats were held together by the interlaced wire. When a slat
broke, it was replaced by wiring another one on top of the broken
one.
“The handle on our fencing
tool was broken and cut short on one side, leaving one side
slightly longer than the other,” says Whiting. “When
my brother and I went fencing with Dad, one of us would push
from either side and Dad would wrap the tie-wire around the
fence wire. The larger son always got the short handle, balancing
out our abilities. I never understood why my older brother was
always complaining, but I figured it out pretty quick when I
was working with my younger brother and I got the short end
of the stick.”
This process was very time-consuming,
and in a short time the tool became obsolete. It was easier
to cut out sections of the damaged fence rather than replace
slats. Snow fences have gradually faded away in favour of additional
snowplowing and the development of plastic fencing.
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