Front matter
Reading edition
KING’S SERIES IN WOODWORK AND CARPENTRY
ELEMENTS OF WOODWORK
BY
CHARLES A. KING
DIRECTOR OF MANUAL TRAINING
EASTERN HIGH SCHOOL, BAY CITY, MICHIGAN
NEW YORK ·:· CINCINNATI ·:· CHICAGO
AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY
KING’S SERIES IN WOODWORK AND CARPENTRY
ELEMENTS OF WOODWORK
ELEMENTS OF CONSTRUCTION
CONSTRUCTIVE CARPENTRY
INSIDE FINISHING
HANDBOOK FOR TEACHERS
Copyright, 1911, by
CHARLES A. KING.
Entered at Stationers’ Hall, London.
W. P. I.
PREFACE TO THE SERIES
This series consists of five volumes, four of which are intended as textbooks for pupils in manual-training, industrial, trade, technical, or normal schools. The fifth book of the series, the “Handbook in Woodwork and Carpentry,” is for the use of teachers and of normal students who expect to teach the subjects treated in the other four volumes.
Of the pupils’ volumes, the first two, “Elements of Woodwork” and “Elements of Construction,” are adapted to the needs of students in manual-training schools, or in any institution in which elementary woodwork is taught, whether as purely educational handwork, or as preparatory to a high, or trade, school course in carpentry or vocational training.
The volumes “Constructive Carpentry” and “Inside Finishing” are planned with special reference to the students of technical, industrial, or trade schools, who have passed through the work of the first two volumes, or their equivalent. The subjects treated are those which will be of greatest value to both the prospective and the finished workman.
For the many teachers who are obliged to follow a required course, but who are allowed to introduce supplementary or optional models under certain conditions, and for others who have more liberty and are able to make such changes as they see fit, this series will be found perfectly adaptable, regardless of the grades taught. To accomplish this, the material has been arranged by topics, which may be used by the teacher irrespective of the sequence, as each topic has to the greatest extent possible been treated independently.
The author is indebted to Dr. George A. Hubbell, Ph.D., now President of the Lincoln Memorial University, for encouragement and advice in preparing for and planning the series, and to George R. Swain, Principal of the Eastern High School of Bay City, Michigan, for valuable aid in revising the manuscript.
Acknowledgment is due various educational and trade periodicals, and the publications of the United States Departments of Education and of Forestry, for the helpful suggestions that the author has gleaned from their pages.
CHARLES A. KING.
Bay City, Michigan.
PREFACE TO ELEMENTS OF WOODWORK
In preparing this book, it has been the author’s purpose to present, in as complete and concise form as possible, the knowledge which every wood-worker should possess regarding the care and use of his tools and the material upon which he employs them.
Whether an amateur, apprentice, or skilled workman, whether a carpenter, boat builder, pattern maker, or wood carver, the elementary knowledge of the construction of tools, of sharpening them, and of their adjustment and manipulation is practically the same. The structure of wood, and the necessity of applying its peculiarities of grain and texture to the advantage of the work in hand, also is the same upon all branches of woodwork.
While innumerable tools and cutting devices have been invented to enable the wood-worker to accomplish special results economically both as to time and material, a study of them will prove that they all operate upon a few simple principles, a knowledge of which is not difficult to acquire, though skill and judgment in the application of the tools can be attained only by continuous and properly directed practice.
It would be both impossible and unnecessary in a book of this sort to describe these various devices, though in a schoolroom it is a great advantage to have as many of them as practicable, not for their use only, but that the students may become familiar with their purposes and the applications of the fundamental principles upon which each is based.
The actual use of tools may be considered the A B C of woodwork, as it bears the same relation to the finished product of the workman as the alphabet bears to literature, the space between the mere mechanical facility in the use of either tools or alphabet, being the result of the judgment, skill, and individuality of either the workman or the author.
Thus, if a student acquires the facility to use the tools described in this volume, he will have little difficulty in using other and more complex tools; and when he has mastered the principles of construction involved in the exercises explained in the following book of this series, the “Elements of Construction,” and the correct use of the tools involved in making these, together with their applications and combinations, he has acquired the fundamental knowledge of all construction in wood.
CHARLES A. KING.
Bay City, Michigan.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
Chapter I. Growth of Wood.—Kinds of trees used for lumber; The formation of wood; Tissues; The medullary rays; The grain in trees; Defects found in lumber; When to cut lumber 1
Chapter II. Lumbering and Varieties of Wood.—The manufacture of lumber; To saw lumber of irregular dimensions; The grading of lumber; The testing of lumber; Surveying or estimating lumber; Qualities of wood 12
Chapter III. Care of Lumber.—The piling of lumber; Permanent lumber ways; To minimize the warping of lumber; Weather-dried lumber; Kiln-dried lumber; Moist air kilns; Induced draft kilns; Results of the two systems; Filling a kiln; Length of time lumber should be left in the kiln; The care of kiln-dried lumber; Steaming wood; Preserving wood 45
Chapter IV. Tools.—How to purchase tools; Benches; Rules; The try-square; The steel, or framing, square; The bevel; The gauge; The hammer; The hatchet; The mallet; Saws; The knife blade; Planes; Sharpening a plane; The jack plane; The jointer; The smoothing plane; The block plane; The correct position; Chisels; Gouges; The drawshave; The spokeshave; Bits; The bitbrace, or stock; The screwdriver; Compasses, or dividers; Pliers; The scraper; Edges; Nail sets; Wrenches; Handscrews; A grindstone; Emery, corundum, carborundum; Whetstones; Files; Saw filing 57
Chapter V. Glue and Sandpaper.—Different kinds of glue; How to use glue; The testing of sandpaper; How to use sandpaper 118
Chapter VI. Wood Finishing.—Filling; Staining wood; Shellac; Wax finishing; Oil finish; Varnish; Polishing; Brushes 128
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FIG. PAGE
1. Section of Yellow Pine 2
2. Section of Oak Tree Trunk 5
3. Defects in Lumber 7
4. Felling a Tree 12
5. Cutting Small Branches from Felled Spruce 13
6. Skidway of Spruce Logs 14
7. Load of White Pine Logs 14
8. Hauling Logs by Steel Cable 15
9. Loading Logs from Shedway to Train 16
10. Boom of Logs 16
11. Log Jam 17
12. Sawmill in the Big Tree District 18
13. Circular Saw 20
14. Double Cut Band Saw 21
15. Plain, Slash, or Bastard Sawing 22
16. Four Methods of Quartering 22
17. Lumber Scale 27
18. Beech and Sugar Maple Forest 31
19. White Pine Forest 39
20. Douglas Spruce Forest 41
21. Red Spruce and Balsam Fir Killed by Fire 43
22. Permanent Lumber Ways 46
23. Warping of Lumber 48
24. Lumber piled in Double Courses 49
25. Manual-training Bench 58
26. Carpenter’s Bench 58
27. Two-foot, Four-fold Rule 59
28. Zigzag Rule 59
29. Position of Try-square in Squaring an Edge 60
30. Use of Two Try-squares to see if Piece of Wood is “Out of Wind” 60
31. Position of Try-square when Making Line 61
32. Steel, or Framing, Square 62
33. Bevel and Steel Square 62
34. Marking Gauge 63
35. Marking Gauge in Use 64
36. Claw Hammer 64
37. Toenailing and Tacking 65
38. Blind Nailing and Use of a Nail Set 66
39. Hatchet and Handaxe 67
40. Mallets (Square-faced and Round) 67
41. Saws—Rip-, Cutting-off, and Compass, or Keyhole 68
42. Backsaw 69
43. Use of the Saw 71
44. Reset Saw Handle 72
45. Knife Blades 72
46. Section of an Iron Plane 73
47. Result of Using Plane with Improperly Adjusted Cap Iron 74
48. Result of Using Plane with Cap Iron Adjusted Properly 74
49. Setting a Plane 76
50. Whetting and Grinding of Plane 77
51. Whetting or Oilstoning the Beveled Side of a Cutter 78
52. Whetting or Oilstoning the Plain Side of the Plane Iron 79
53. Shape of Edge of Plane Iron 80
54. Jack Plane 81
55. Method of Guiding a Jointer 83
56. Knuckle Joint Block Plane 84
57. Use of the Block Plane 84
58. Using Block Plane upon Small Pieces 85
59. Incorrect Use of Jack Plane 86
60. Beginning the Stroke with a Jack Plane 87
61. Ending the Stroke with a Jack Plane 87
62. Chisels 89
63. Drawshave 90
64. Spokeshave 90
65. Auger Bit 91
66. Cross-handled Auger 91
67. German Bit and Twist Drill 92
68. Extension Bit and Center Bit 92
69. Filing an Auger Bit 93
70. Ratchet Bitbrace 94
71. Compasses 95
72. Calipers 95
73. Pliers 95
74. Nippers 95
75. Scraper 96
76. Edges of Scrapers 97
77. Angle of Burnisher with Sides of Scraper 97
78. Method of Grasping Scraper for Sharpening 98
79. Top Views of the Angles of the Burnisher 99
80. Angle to be avoided in Sharpening Scraper 100
81. Turning back the Edge of a Scraper 100
82. Method of Grasping the Scraper when Working upon a Broad Surface 101
83. Method of Grasping the Scraper when Working within Small Area 101
84. Method of Grasping the Scraper when Working upon an Edge 102
85. Monkey Wrench 103
86. Effect of the Unskillful Use of a Handscrew 103
87. Correct Use of Handscrew 104
88. Emery Wheel Dresser 106
89. Jointing a Saw 109
90. Hand Saw Set 110
91. Anvil Saw Set 110
92. Angle of the File with the Edge of the Saw 111
93. Angle of the File with the Sides of the Saw 111
94. Results of Filings as shown in Fig. 93 112
95. Method of Carrying a File to obtain the Hook of a Cutting-off Saw 112
96. Removing the Burr after Filing a Saw 113
97. Use of Sandpaper upon a Broad Surface 124
98. Sandpapering Panel Work 126
99. Method of Grasping Sandpaper in Rubbing down Shellac Finish 134
ELEMENTS OF WOODWORK