Popular Woodworking 2005-11 № 151, страница 70

Master Cabinetmaker Mack Headley shows off a hand-carved ball-and-claw chair leg, which is typical of the finely detailed work Williamsburg's craftsmen produce.

Headley tout the benefits of directional or raking light. And I guess this is why I like Williamsburg; I don't know where else you'd go to get a perspective like that.

The Hay shop's primary purpose is to receive guests, so its atmosphere must be inviting. We may not have a choice about working with MDF, but wouldn't it be nice if our shops could welcome a spouse, child, grandchild or neighbor? My wife usually rubs her arms, shivers and leaves my cold subterranean woodshop. I'm not exactly sure how to make a space inviting. But I think the issue is worth considering. Light is probably a big part of how a shop feels.

The size of the Hay shop isn't particularly exceptional compared to a modern cabinet shop. What is exceptional is the fact that the original shop (the reconstruction is built on the original shop's foundations) probably housed as many as six workmen.

There is a certain inherent advantage to moving small tools over large boards as opposed to

moving large boards over larger fixed tools. The Hay shop illustrates the fact that a hand-tools-only shop can be a fraction of the size of a shop in which power tools are used. This isn't a hobby shop, but a real working shop capable of producing very fine items. I know there aren't many woodworkers

working in hand-tools-only shops. But if space is tight for you, switching to hand tools for some operations may be a solution.

I saw only a single tool chest in the shop, and I'm not certain to whom it belonged. Behind nearly every bench (some are free-standing) chisels hung from racks and moulding planes rested on short shelves. Bench planes resided either on or under the benches where scrap wood and large wooden clamps were stored. A few sawhorses lurked between the benches. Saws were hung at a single location by way of pegs in the paneling.

Other than that, it was surprising to see so few tools. Modern workshops with which I am familiar are positively dominated by tools and tool paraphernalia. Many of the hand-tool storage solutions I've read about discuss storing all the tools in one place (hanging wall cabinet, tool chest, etc.). While they may have put no conscious effort behind it, the Hay shop craftsmen appear to store their tools according to the frequency and location of each tool's use. Perhaps there's a lesson here

for every style of workshop.

The workbenches are copies of the benches shown in Peter Nicholson's 1812 "Mechanical Exercises." While it is impossible to place this specific design into Anthony Hay's 18th-century shop, they fit well within the "plain and neat" aesthetic that characterizes Williamsburg's style.

A deep apron bored for holdfasts or pegs substitutes for a sliding board j ack for the support of boards on edge. The apron also stiffens the 8/4-thick benchtop. A single, apparently poorly functioning face vise resides at the traditional left side of the benches. This vise is identical to those I've seen in period images. Stock placed at a distance from the single wooden screw wracks the jaw. But Hay shop craftsmen, either by nature or vocation, aren't complainers. Wracking is nothing a piece of scrap can't fix and work is continued uninterrupted.

Planing stops identical to those depicted in Jacques-Andre Rou-bo's 1769 "LArt du Menusier" are present on these workbenches. I thought it interesting to note that the traditional metal-toothed part

Headley demonstrates carving. Left to right: Amber Baden-Lopez, Basaree Gajjar, Martin Harcourt, Headley and Milton Wooley.

68

Popular Woodworking November 2005