Hand tool door making

[mouldy plane]

How many tools does a joiner need to make a four panelled door by hand? Well as it Happens, turns out to be about 27 plus a sturdy bench, a couple of saw trestles, a morticing stool, and a glue pot. It's no wonder a pre industrial woodworker needed a sizable tool chest to house everything!

 

[deema]

…..and a lot of upper body strength……they didn’t need a gym in those days

 

[deema]

Come on, we want a thread on how you made the door. It’s just teasing showing the tools

 

[mouldy plane]

Come on, we want a thread on how you made the door. It’s just teasing showing the tools

Hi Deema. It was a project I did a few years back. It was inspired by a comment in a book called the village carpenter by Walter Rose. he stated that it was considered a good days work to make a four panelled door in a day. This was completely done by hand from rough sawn planks. I decided it would be a good project to have a go at. It did end up as an article in issue 7 of Mortise and Tenon magazine. If I get the time I will try and post the process, and how I got on

 

[HOJ]

stated that it was considered a good days work to make a four panelled door in a day

I'd be interested to know if it did only take a day, if that's the case I'm of the mind to ditch all my machines, never made a panel door in a day.

 

[niall Y]

What used to hold me up, making Victorian 4-pane,l doors, was the bottom and middle rails. These invariably had to be glued up the day before to ensure I got the correct widths.
What revolutionised the process, for me, was using PU glue to joint these rails, which finally made it possible to make the door during the course of a day.

 

[johnnyb]

An old joiner from Audley in Staffordshire suggested 2 days for a door and frame. This was a family firm and his dad and grandad both worked there. He said Audley houses had many odd door sizes that meant people had to have them made. But eventually he found it better to cut up brought in doors for those sizes as well. From 1900 to the war they also built houses the old man kept the brickies going all through the depression. But he said as soon as it picked up everyone left for more money after that he never built any complete houses again(or employed any brickies)

 

[mouldy plane]

I'd be interested to know if it did only take a day, if that's the case I'm of the mind to ditch all my machines, never made a panel door in a day.

I didn't do it in one hit, but I kept a log of time spent and I managed it in 10 1/2 hours, so if you consider a 19th century day to be 11 hours, I just squeezed it in

 

[johnnyb]

It was totally routine for a timber yard to be surrounded by houses that there forebears had built. We had one called Hydes that built the house i grew up in. Congleton north rode timber is also surrounded.

 

[mouldy plane]

What used to hold me up, making Victorian 4-pane,l doors, was the bottom and middle rails. These invariably had to be glued up the day before to ensure I got the correct widths.
What revolutionised the process, for me, was using PU glue to joint these rails, which finally made it possible to make the door during the course of a day.

That wasn't an issue in this case as the bottom and middle rails came out of 9" stock

 

[HOJ]

If I drop this lot off to you when I go to Hinckley next week for 2 days, could you knock one up for me and I'll pick it up on the way back.

 

[mark w]

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[Jacob]

Hand planing would be the biggest part of the job. Have a look here at chair makers 10 minutes in. Two blokes on one plane working like maniacs. Old woodies would help - lighter weight and easier to grip. Perhaps with the apprentice sharpening non stop to keep them going?

 

[JSW]

Fascinating, many thanks @Jacob

Notice how he uses the brace and bit one handed, and hooking the chair legs over the bench to plane, those boys knew how to work wood

 

[duke]

Hand planing would be the biggest part of the job. Have a look here at chair makers 10 minutes in. Two blokes on one plane working like maniacs. Old woodies would help - lighter weight and easier to grip. Perhaps with the apprentice sharpening non stop to keep them going?

I like his work log!

 

[Trafalgar]

Making a series of doors (paying job) whose components were too large for the power equipment I had at the time was how I got into hand tool woodworking in the first place. Massive components, too large to safely process on home shop machinery. Did them all by hand and loved every minute.