Popular Woodworking 2006-06 № 155, страница 37

ingly omitted are marking gauges. No marking or cutting gauges were inventoried. I really doubt they were absent from the shop. The woodworkers who recorded the inventory may have simply considered such small, shop-made items valueless. Also, no clamps were inventoried. Many woodworkers believe one cannot have too many clamp s. Yet here there are none. Were there really none or were they skipped? I don't see clamps in other period inventories. At the very least, it seems to me that clamps are more helpful in shops where slow-curing glues and fasteners or dowels are used to produce joints. Clamps may have been used more to hold wood during shaping than for assembly. The absence of a considerable number of clamps points to this distinction in the methods of work and joinery. As you read inventories, sometimes what's not on them is just as interesting as what is.

Conclusion

Period estate inventories offer us an unvarnished look at the lives and work of 18th-century woodworkers. The Plumley inventory suggests craftsmen were capable of making a wide variety of items, worked with a number of different materials and finishes, and used sophisticated tools. There's no indication that their work was so laborious that "free" labor was required to be productive.

So herein lies an excellent starting place for any modern woodworker; here is the description of a successful and versatile shop, and a list of all the tools and materials required to operate it. Because this is past history, we know, given this shop and tools, what is possible.

Granted, it doesn't help us cut a perfect dovetail, but it does tell us perfectly serviceable dovetails can be cut under these circumstances. All that's left for us to do is to try.

I'd like to thank Jay Gaynor at Colonial Willamsburg, and curatorial intern Lois Stoehr at Winterthur for their diligent research efforts, which helped me bring this article to completion. Lastly and most importantly, I'd like to thank the Popular Woodworking readers who have responded positively to this sort of article. I promise to get back to woodworking in the next issue!

For more information on Charles Plumley and to view the full inventory, go to popular-woodworking.com and click on "Magazine Extras." PW

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