Popular Woodworking 2006-11 № 158, страница 19
Arts & Mysteries Period Sharpening An experiment uncovers cutting edges of the past. How did they sharpen their tools back then?" I've asked this question myself and I have been asked the question, and I've never felt comfortable with any answer. We know that 18th-century woodworkers had grindstones and natural whetstones and that's as far as any answer I've ever heard or given goes. I assume that the average 18th-century craftsman could produce an edge on his tools as sharp as modern woodworkers get. But is that true? Exactly how did period craftsmen sharpen their tools? What kind of edges did they get? To find out, I decided to purchase old whetstones and an old grindstone, make a period frame and give it a try. Period Sharpening Gear Old inventories of workshops often include grindstones. They're encountered so frequently we can safely assume they were typical. In addition to grindstones, craftsmen may have used sandstone or other abrasive "rubb stones" as coarse abrasive hones. Long before the widespread distribution of Arkansas oilstones, craftsmen had access to fine local, as well as imported, whetstones. Andre Roubo, an early French chronicler of woodworking, mentioned that his stones came from the Levant, an area presently identified as Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. As this area was then controlled by the Turkish empire, such stones were also known as "Turkey stones." From Roubo's 1774 volume "LArt du Menuisier Ebeniste:" These stones come from the Levant; the best are those which are of fair color, of a tight grain, plain and very uniform: this stone has the defect to have small whitish veins, either in length, or in thickness, which are as many hard spots which prevent it to sharpen well ... these stones are not [of] a very great size, and besides that they are fragile. One way to learn how tools were sharpened in the 18th century is to try it. I experimented with period sharpening for nine months and was surprised by what I learned. Joseph Moxon describes this method of holding a plane iron: thumbs under, fingers on top. This is a good grip for freehand honing - especially when you are pushing a treadle 100 times a minute! One hundred years later, in "Construction, Action and Application of Cutting Tools," Englishman Charles Holtzapffel wrote: There are three qualities of Turkey Stone, a dark blue to black variety and a lighter blue grey stone, both of which go to London . the third by Adam Cherubini Adam makes reproduction furniture using the tools and techniques of the 18th century. You can contact him at adam.cherubini@verizon.net. quality is much softer, almost white in color and easy to work, but it is very brittle, and consequently difficult to get in large and even pieces; this quality of stone is shipped principally to France. When present in period estate inventories, grindstones and whetstones were highly valued. Oilstones in the Charles Plumley inventory (available at popularwoodworking.com under Magazine Extras) were given a similar value to his handsaws, which were several 34 Popular Woodworking November 2006 |
