Search results

In some Sheffield trades, a dozen was fourteen items. One for losses and breakages, and one for the hardener to break for examination of the fracture. The other twelve were all available for sale. I think there were quite a few other 'qualified dozens' about, too. Isn't a Baker's dozen thirteen?

Perhaps not, but more than one person has made careful study of Seaton's tools, made (as close as they can) replicas, and used those. In some cases, offering them for sale. Seaton's tools may never be used, but the fact that they still exist to study is a great deal better than just having...

There's another angle. Collectors have pushed up the prices of some older tools to the point where others feel they can fill a gap making new copies, or similar versions. Thus, users now have the choice to buy vintage or new. If second hand tools in good usable order were readily available and...

There are different levels of affliction. There are those who bought some Jennings pattern bits .... then desperately hunted about to fill in the gaps, 'cos you need a set. Then discovered the hard way that two or three sizes get used quite a lot, two or three occasionally, and the rest not at...

If it's your money, your time and it harms nobody else, it's nobody's business but your own. Thus, if it brings you pleasure, it's positive. When do you become a collector? That's trickier - maybe when you have more tools than you actually need. So that's most of us, then!

Perhaps it might be worth a small experiment, excavating a small depression in scraps of different woods you have to hand, and filling the depression with fresh plaster of paris mix. That might indicate which woods are prone to the same behaviour as beech, and which seem relatively immune. A...

Perhaps 'scratch-free' or 'much smaller scratch pattern' might be a more accurate term than 'polished'; 'smooth' rather than 'shiny'; I think the word is used as a sort of shorthand. For a really good cutting edge, you want two faces meeting at a line (the edge itsef) both faces being as free...

On the basis of that definition, a Goff hammer and a spring hammer are probably pretty much the same thing, or different names for the same thing. Just a thought - hand forging a pen-knife blade by hand hammer is one thing, but a plane iron would be an altogether different undertaking. Some...

No. Unfortunately, I've never been able to pin down exactly who or when. It was during a time when lots of experiments were going on. Hadfield's steel is often quoted in the history books because it was one of the first. Molybdenum steel followed soon after, because the railways found they could...

Couple of points. Firstly, Sheffield adopted the use of 'power' hammers sooner than some might think. The standard small (spring) hammer for toolsmithing was made by Pattinson Brothers, and was of about 1 cwt capacity, depending on the dies fitted. Ashley Iles started his business with one just...

Modern UK equivalents might be fruit and vegetable picking in the agricultural industry, or dressing chickens in a meat-packing plant. I've seen amazingly fast examples of such tasks, seemingly simple and repetitive, but needing guidance by eye and feel. There will be a robot along soon...

Look chaps - I really don't want to have a go at anybody, but I started the thread to discuss experience, efficiency and enjoyment in woodworking using hand tools (that's why the thread's on this board). I really don't have anything against musical instruments, but they ain't woodworking. If...

I think that's an excellent approach for anyone with a specific goal in mind (refurnish the house, for example, or earn a living from a craft). However, I think it's too goal-oriented for some woodworkers. There are those who take pleasure in acquiring and refurbishing old tools, for example...

Inigo Jones specialise in making all sorts of bits and bats out of slate near Caernarfon in North Wales, where they're knee deep in the stuff. They may do something in their standard catalogue, but if not, they're very amenable to doing specials. http://www.inigojones.co.uk/products.php

Sorry Jacob, but I can't agree. Humans are all different, with a huge range of innate abilities and aptitudes. If we were all equally gifted, we'd all be Test standard cricketers, or physics Nobel laureates, or Grinling Gibbonses.

Sorry to be boringly on topic, chaps, but; I like that! Pithy. That just leaves enjoyment. There's enjoyment to be had in learning, but there's also frustration at being slow and not achieving a decent standard. There's also enjoyment at developing skill, and in finally producing something to...

Oh gawd, yes - I remember that thread. Far too much typing. Good luck to anyone reading it. There was another, subsequent thread, the first post of which attempted to summarise 16 pages of blurb, and added a couple of other findings. post1055017.html?hilit=tension in saws#p1055017

To be fair, infant mortality was quite high in those days, which brought average life expectancy down a lot. If you survived infancy, you had a pretty good chance of making 60, and some achieved ripe old ages - 80s and 90s were not unknown.

Some interesting comments - thanks, chaps. One or two people feel that I'm trying to equate efficiency with deliberately sloppy work. Not so. I'm trying to say that efficiency is something that can only come when sufficient experience has been gained, and the only way to gain experience is by...

Good point. I suppose that introduces the idea of deciding between 'unnecessary work' and 'shoddy work' - which may be subjective!