Thickness planing by hand

[Fromey]

It does seem that most discussion (arguments) about one way to work versus another simply boil down to a dispute about the speed of work and possibly fiddliness. Sharpen freehand or use a jig, you still get to sharp, it's just one approach may or may not be slower and/or more involved. Check for flatness with the Mark I Eye Ball or take the time to use a straightedge, it will still give you an idea of flatness, it's just each way will take longer (one to learn and the other to enact). I'm with you on this one Bugbear, I don't see much in the way of, "if you do it this way, your work will fail".

Jacob, good catch on the dangers of using winding sticks. I LOL'd

 

[woodbrains]

I've used an alidade for surveying.

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Jacob, this is how you tell the time, isn't it? Clockwork time pieces are just too new fangled and quartz, the work of the devil. Heaven forbid there should be some measurable accuracy involved! :shock:

Mike.

 

[Jacob]

You've probably never heard of them before.
They are accurate enough for precise astronomy - have a look at alidade E on this page. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alidade.

 

[Harbo]

Yes I have - in Plane Table Surveying but not for 50yrs and certainly not for planning wood!

 

[Noel]

Ah Jacob, a man born long after his time... But interesting stuff all the same, every day is a school day.

 

[Jacob]

You may larf (I don't care) but I'm very interested in that whole world of stuff done by eye or by graphical methods, without measurements to a greater or lesser extent.
In woodworking especially it's the rod - with which you can make or copy anything, very accurately and precisely, sometimes without measuring anything at all . Or work out graphically without measuring or calculating - compound angles , curves, complicated component sizes e.g, roofing, boat building, sailmaking.
Then there's hand and eye skills in crafts as a whole, not to mention sharpening!

Ah Jacob, a man born long after his time... But interesting stuff all the same, every day is a school day.

Actually the last time I used an alidade was to work out the grid reference of a stone circle! Not something I do very often.
This one here http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/4179

 

[bugbear]

Then there's hand and eye skills in crafts as a whole, not to mention sharpening!

BugBear

 

[GazPal]

Boning rods and travellers - what sort of woodworking are we talking about here?

Used extensively in setting out (roughly) especially for highways and drainage over long distances.

Rod

Structural.

Boning rods are often misinterpreted as being for rough levelling on basic layouts, but they're extremely accurate when used correctly. The type most often seen on highways works are offset travellers used to provide intermediate heights between/from datum points. Boning rods are used with one set at each of a pair of interim datum points, with a single traveller used to set intermediate heights. This is the among the most basic methods used when setting out for construction (Footings and walling), kerblines, paving and drainage, but pretty well pre-dates the days of Jericho where the first organised form of dressed stone roadway and road surfacing existed.

In terms of woodworking, large beam footings, palisade walling and shuttering (Stepped, straight and radial) would be set out via boning rods, with viaduct/aqueduct bases, bridge piers and large expanses such as pyramid among the projects involved.

Smaller versions were and can be used when masoning large stone blocks, or laying & forming timber ship/boat keel.

 

[GazPal]

I've used an alidade for surveying.

I've also used a 4' spirit level for site levelling with boning rods - sighting down the level. More accurate than you'd think. Eyeballing all the way!
Are travellers the same as boning rods?

A lot of things can be done accurately and precisely without measuring or straight edges at all.
A simple instance yesterday for me - replacing a piece of glass: take dimensions off with pencil marks on a lath, and transfer these with a felt top straight to the glass to be cut, less about 4mm (eyeballed) for clearance. Quick simple and accurate. And infallible compared to a tape, where all sort of little errors can creep in.
NB used a bit of board as a straight edge for cutting - hold down the far end with your left hand, steady the near end against your hip. For ultimate precision use a new bit of mfc shelving.

Travellers can be identical to boning rods, but you generally find a different colour used for each of the three rods. You normally find one red, another black and the last one white, so the intermediate rod can be contrasted against it's white or red background rod, with the black typically used as the sighting rod because black tends to be less reflective/hazy when sighting across the top surface.

Boning rod accuracy can be within the normal =/- 3 millimetre tolerance over a sighted distance up to a 100 metre maximum.

String line accuracy diminishes much sooner and lines tend to sag under their own weight if unsupported every 10 metres.

 

[James C]

http://blog.lostartpress.com/2013/04/11/by-hand-eye-and-on-the-verge/

This was interesting to me as I think I could sometimes do with less time spent fiddling and more time relying on our natural ability to see the difference between what looks right and not.