Chapter I: Carpentry Work and Cabinet Making

Did you ever think about what you’d do if you were shipwrecked on a tropical island like Robinson Crusoe?

Well, if you had a good, strong pocket-knife with you it wouldn’t be so terribly bad and in a few months’ time you’d have fashioned all the things you’d need to furnish a three-room palmetto bungalow.

To be sure your furniture wouldn’t be very highly finished but it would be awfully artistic and while in a civilized community it might be looked upon as a rare exhibit of savage workmanship, it would serve you nobly and well in your island home.

But you don’t have to be marooned on a lonely isle or limited to the use of a jack-knife to show your prowess as a worker in wood. All you need to do is to get some out of the way room where there is plenty of light for a workshop and buy a few _good_ tools to work with and you’ll take as keen a pleasure in making useful things with your own hands as Robinson Crusoe did.

=The Tools You Need.=--It is a great mistake to go out and buy a cheap chest of tools of whatever size for while there is always a large number of tools in it they are usually of a very poor quality.

If you can afford to buy a chest of good tools and will get them of a regular tool supply house you can then buy a chest of tools safely. Now to make any ordinary piece of woodwork you don’t need many tools but each one should be the very best, for therein half the pleasure lies.

=The Kind of Tools.=--The tools used for _cabinet making_, as the finer kinds of joinery are called, are exactly the same as those used for carpentry though they are usually kept a little sharper and there should be a few more of them.

All the tools you will need at first are shown in Figs. 1 and 2 and these are (1) a cast-steel, adze-eye, bell-faced _hammer_[1] weighing about 9 ounces, which is a regular carpenter’s hammer. (2) A _mallet_, made of hickory, with a 2¹⁄₂ inch face and try to get one in which the handle goes clear through the head and is wedged in.

[1] The Ohio Tool Company makes good hammers.

(3) Four saws,[2] namely (a) a 16 inch _crosscut saw_--usually called a _handsaw_--which is used for sawing off boards across the grain, (b) a 20 inch _rip-saw_, for sawing with the grain so that a board can be sawed lengthwise, (c) a _back saw_ or _miter saw_ as it is sometimes called; it is about 12 inches long and has about 20 teeth to the inch so that it makes a very fine and smooth cut. (d) A _compass saw_; it has a narrow, tapering blade about 10 inches long and is used to cut out holes in boards, and to cut _disks_, or wheels of wood. The blade of a _keyhole saw_ is thinner and narrower than a compass saw and, hence, smaller holes and shorter curves can be cut with it than with a compass saw.

[2] Disston saws are the kind to get.

_THE WAY TO SAW A BOARD_

_A CARPENTER’S HAMMER AND HOW TO HOLD IT_

_SAWING OFF A STRIP WITH A BACK SAW AND MITER BOX_

_WHERE A COMPASS SAW COMES IN HANDY_

_HOW TO HOLD A SMOOTHING PLANE_

_A FIRMER CHISEL IN USE_

FIG. 1. SOME USEFUL WOOD WORKING TOOLS]

(4) A _miter box_ (pronounced mi′-ter) is a little trough of wood formed of a bottom with two sides screwed to it but without a top or ends. The sides of the box have saw-cuts in them, or _kerfs_ as they are called, at angles of 45 and 90 degrees so that strips of wood, molding and the like can be sawed accurately across, or _mitered_, to make a corner joint.

(5) Three planes[3] and these are (a) a _block plane_ for small light work; (b) a _smoothing plane_ which is a little longer and has a handle and is _set fine_, that is the _bit_, or blade is finely adjusted for finishing work; and (c) a _jack-plane_, which is a large plane used for planing off rough surfaces.

[3] I like Stanley planes the best.

(6) Three chisels,[4] or _firmer chisels_ as they are called. These are regular flat, bevel-edged carpenter’s chisels and the blades should be ¹⁄₈, ¹⁄₄, and ¹⁄₂ inch wide, respectively.

[4] Buck Brothers are noted for their chisels.

(7) Three gouges,[5] or _firmer gouges_, to give them their full name. These gouges are simply chisels with curved cutting edges so that a rounded groove can be cut in a board. Get them with blades having ¹⁄₄, ³⁄₈ and ¹⁄₂ inch regular _sweep_, as the curve of the cutting edge is called.

[5] Buck Brothers’ gouges are also good.

_BORING A HOLE WITH A BRACE AND BIT_

_THE SCREW DRIVER AND HOW TO USE IT_

_HOW THE TRY SQUARE IS USED_

_A NAIL SET AND HOW TO HOLD IT_

_USING A MARKING GAUGE_

_THE RIGHT WAY TO SHARPEN A CHISEL_

FIG. 2. A FEW MORE COMMON WOOD WORKING TOOLS]

(8) A _brace_ and five _auger bits_.[6] A brace and bit, as you know, is a tool to _bore_ holes in wood with. You ought to have five bits and get them ¹⁄₄, ⁵⁄₁₆, ³⁄₈, ⁷⁄₁₆ and ¹⁄₂ an inch in diameter.

[6] When you buy auger bits get the genuine Russel Jennings.

(9) A _maple_ or a _boxwood rule_; this should be a regular, 2-foot, four fold carpenter’s rule. (10) A _marking gauge_; the _bar_ of the gauge is graduated in 16ths of an inch and the _adjustable_ head of one good enough to work with is fitted with a brass thumb screw.

(11) An iron bound _try-square_ with a 6, or better, a 9-inch blade. This is used not only to make measurements with but to _try_ whether a thing is _square_ or not, hence its name.

(12) Two _screw drivers_, one for small and the other for large screws. (13) Two _double cut gimlets_, one ¹⁄₈ and the other ³⁄₁₆ inch in diameter; these are useful for making holes for starting screws and the like.

(14) Four _hand screws_, or _clamps_ as they are more often called; these are made of wood and are used to clamp two or more pieces of wood together when they are being bored or after they are glued. The jaws should be about 7 inches long and they should open at least 4 inches wide. They only cost a quarter apiece.

(15) A _nail set_; this is a steel punch for driving the head of a nail below the surface of the wood without denting it.

(16) A _Washita oil-stone_ is the right kind to sharpen wood-working tools on; a stone ¹⁄₂ or ³⁄₄ inch thick, 2 inches wide and 4 or 5 inches long will be large enough and you should make a box with a cover to keep it in and so protect it from the dust.

(17) A sewing machine _oil can_ filled with sewing machine oil, or any other good, light lubricating oil, is needed for sharpening your tools.

(18) A small can of Le Page’s _liquid glue_, or if you want to make your own glue then get a _glue-pot_ and _brush_. You can buy a ¹⁄₂ pint can of liquid glue for a quarter or less, or you can buy a cast iron, water-jacketed glue pot which holds a pint for about 40 cents. Get a small round _bristle brush_ for a glue brush.

=Some Hints on Using Tools.=--Since I have used tools ever since I was old enough to hold a hammer I can easily tell you just how you should handle them but to become a skilled workman you must be willing to do the rest and that is to practice.

_How to Hold a Hammer._--When you use a hammer, grasp the handle a couple of inches from the free end and hold it so that it will swing freely and easily in your hand and keep your hand and wrist above the level of the nail or whatever it is you are pounding; this takes the jar off of your arm and makes the work of using it surer and less tiresome. Never use a hammer on wood-work of any kind.

When you use a mallet as for driving chisels hold it rather close to its head, and need I tell you never to use a wooden mallet to drive nails with.

_How to Use a Saw._--Hold the wood to be sawed with your left hand--I am taking it for granted that you are righthanded; put all of the fingers of your right hand through the hole in the handle of the saw with your thumb on the other side and grip the handle firmly.

To start the saw put it on the mark where you want to saw the board and rest your thumb against the side of it to guide and steady it. Stand so that your eye will look down the back of the saw and don’t hold it too straight but at an angle of 45 degrees, that is half way between the horizontal and the vertical. Of course this does not apply to a back saw or a keyhole saw.

_How to Use a Plane._--Since a smooth plane has no handle lay your right hand over the tail of it and rest your left hand on the nose of it. Make short, quick strokes, pressing down on the plane as it goes forward and letting up on it a little as you draw it back.

A jack-plane has a handle on it something like a saw-handle and it is held like a saw with your right hand. If there is no knob on the nose of it hold it by laying your left hand across it. When using a jack plane give it a long stroke with even pressure and you will take off the same thickness of shaving all the way along.

_How to Use Chisels and Gouges._--To hold a chisel properly when cutting a groove grip it a couple of inches below the top of the handle with your left hand. Hold it with the beveled edge down from you and at a slight angle from the horizontal when making grooves, and at a slight angle from the vertical when cutting a mortise. Gouges are used in the same way as chisels.

_How to Use a Brace and Bit._--Set the sharp pointed end of the bit on the exact spot which is to be the center of the hole you are to bore. Hold the top handle of the brace with your left hand and the crank handle with your right hand. Have the top of the brace and the bit in a line with your eye and after you start to bore _sight_ the bit on both sides of the hole you are boring to see that it is _plumb_--that is straight up and down.

_How to Use a Rule._--A carpenter’s rule is two feet long and divided into inches which are sub-divided again into 8ths and 16ths of an inch. In making measurements for joinery use the rule accurately or you will have misfits.

_How to Use a Marking Gauge._--This is a useful device to mark off one or more parallel lines on a board when one edge of it is straight.

The head slides on a wooden bar near one end of which is a steel point. The bar is _graduated_, that is, it is spaced off in inches and fractions of an inch like a rule and this makes it easy to set the head at any distance from the steel point.

When you have set the gauge hold the head against the edge of the board you want to mark, press the steel point against the _surface_ and draw the gauge along with both hands when the point will scratch a line.

_How to Use Hand Screws or Clamps._--Put the pieces of wood that are to be held together between the jaws of the clamp and screw each screw up a little at a time so that the jaws are kept even, that is parallel.

_How to Use a Nail Set._--A _finishing nail_, that is, a nail having a head only a shade larger than the shank, is used for the finer kinds of woodwork. After you have driven in a nail until its head is within, say, ¹⁄₈ inch of the surface put the small, hollow end of your nail set on it, hold them together with your thumb and forefinger and drive it in by hitting the nail set with your hammer. After the head is sunk below the surface of the wood fill in the hole with a _wood filler_[7] when neither the nail nor the hole can be seen.

[7] To make a wood-filler, melt 1 ounce of white resin and 1 ounce of
yellow wax in a pan and add enough _ochre_, which can be had in any
color, to give it the color of the wood you are using. Stir it well
and fill the dent while hot. This filler sticks well to the wood and
when dry is very hard.

_How to Use a Gimlet._--After you have started a hole with a gimlet give it a complete turn and then half a turn back each time, for by so doing it will be far less liable to split the wood. Moisten the point of the gimlet and it will go in easier.

_How to Drive Nails and Screws._--Put a little common brown soap on the ends of nails and screws before you drive them in and you will find that it greatly lessens the friction.

_How to Make a Glue-Pot._--In these days of preparedness it is easier to buy ready made glue than it is to make it yourself; moreover it is just about as cheap, nearly as good and certainly far less trouble.

If you insist on making your own glue though, you must, first of all, have a glue-pot of the right kind to make it in. As I have already mentioned a glue-pot is made of two pots one inside the other. The outside pot is half filled with water and the inside one contains the glue.

You can improvise a glue-pot by using a tomato can for the outside pot and a pepper or mustard can for the inside pot. While it won’t look quite as shop-like as the kind you buy it will work just as well.

_How to Make Good Glue and How to Use It._--To make good glue, put some small pieces of genuine Peter Cooper or imported French Coignet glue into the inside glue pot in enough water to cover it. The outer pot is set on a fire and the water in it is brought to a boil. Stir the glue until it is all melted, when it should be about as thick as sewing machine oil. Skim off the scum that forms when the glue is boiling.

In using home-made glue have it very hot, for the hotter it is the stronger the joint it will make; further put it on both surfaces of the wood to be glued together very thinly as this also tends to make it stick tighter.

=How to Sharpen Your Tools.=--You must have sharp tools if you expect to do a job like a carpenter or a cabinet maker.

_About Sharpening Saws._--This is done by filing the teeth with a _hand saw taper file_ and the saw must be held in a _saw-vise_, that is a vise with long jaws which keep the saw from vibrating.

When the saw is filed the teeth must be _set_, which means that one tooth is bent one way a trifle and the next one to it is bent the other way and this is done with a tool called a _saw set_.

You ought to learn to file your own saws but it would be just as well, or a little better, to let a man who makes a business of filing saws do this job for you at first. Keep your saws oiled when not in use.

_About Sharpening Chisels and Plane Bits._--To sharpen a chisel or a plane bit put a few drops of oil on your Washita oil stone; hold the beveled edge of the tool on it and toward you, and see to it that it rests flat on the stone or you will make it rounding and the edge uneven.

When you get it at exactly the right angle grasp it firmly with both hands and then move it on the stone, forth and back, pressing down on it pretty hard as it moves away from you, and easing up on it as you draw it toward you.

When a chisel or a plane-bit gets a nick in it it must be ground out on a grind stone; if you haven’t one get a carpenter to do it for you, and when you get it back _hone_ it, that is, sharpen it on your oil stone as before.

Get a Washita _slip stone_ for the touching up gouges and instead of rubbing the edge of the gouge on the stone you rub the stone on the gouge. Never try to grind a woodworking tool on an emery wheel.

_About Sharpening Auger Bits._--An ordinary auger-bit seldom needs sharpening but when it does the _cutter_ of it must be sharpened on the inside. A very fine file can be used for this purpose and then hone it with a slip of an oil stone.

=How to Take Care of Your Tools.=--If your workshop is nice and dry you don’t need to put your tools away in a chest or a cabinet after you get through using them each time.

But if you use them only once in awhile it is a good plan to wipe them off with a piece of cheese-cloth moistened with oil and then lock them up where neither the baby can get them nor the hired girl from across the street can borrow them.

=Removing Rust from Tools.=--Should any of your tools show signs of rusting you can get the rust off by rubbing some sweet oil on the rusted part; let it stand a couple of days and then rub it with very finely powdered unslacked lime.

=To Etch Your Name on Tools.=--Clean the saw, or whatever tool you want to _etch_ your name on, with a hot solution made by dissolving some _sodium carbonate_, commonly called _soda_, in water and be careful not to touch the cleaned surface with your fingers.

Next cover the cleaned surface with a thin layer of melted wax or paraffin and when it is cold scratch your name clear through it with a darning needle or some other sharp pointed tool so that the steel is exposed and the acid solution can act on it.

Put ¹⁄₂ an ounce of water into a glass stoppered bottle and add ¹⁄₂ an ounce of _nitric acid_.[8] Shake the solution well to mix it, dip a splint of wood into it and touch the scratched in letters with it until the acid covers the exposed parts of the steel.

[8] Nitric acid is a _poison_ and you must so label the bottle
containing it. Do not pour the water into the acid as it will splash
about. Be careful not to get it on your clothes, but if you should,
brush some ammonia over it as this will neutralize it and stop its
action.

Let the acid solution stay on for a half or an hour and then wash it off with hot water, scrape off the paraffin and you will find your name etched on the steel exactly as you marked it.

=Kinds of Wood to Use.=--There are many kinds of woods and each one has its special use in the arts and crafts. For carpentry and cabinet making you will probably not use more than half-a-dozen woods and these are, (1) _pine_; (2) _cedar_; (3) _mahogany_; (4) _oak_; (5) _birch_ and (6) _walnut_.

_Pine._--This is a good wood for making things in general. There are two kinds of pine and these are (a) _white pine_ and (b) _yellow pine_.

White pine is very soft, light and straight grained and it is a pleasure to use it even if it is only to sit on a fence and whittle it with a pocket knife. (I wish I could do it again.) You can make benches, boxes, toys and a hundred and one other things out of it but it is too soft for furniture and cabinet work.

Yellow, or Georgia pine has a fine yellow color, and a beautiful grain and together they are very showy. It is harder than white pine and while it can be used where the latter cannot, it is not nearly as easy to work.

_Cedar._--This fragrant wood belongs to the pine family and it is nearly as soft as pine. There are two kinds of cedar and these are (a) _red cedar_ and (b) _white cedar_.

Red cedar is the kind you want to get to make things of; it has a pastel red color and a fragrant odor and it is this latter property that makes it a good wood for wardrobe chests, for moths do not like it. Next to white pine it is about the easiest wood to work and it is especially nice for making all small articles, such as glove boxes, handkerchief boxes and the like.

_Mahogany._--Also and likewise there are two kinds of mahogany and these are (a) _Honduras mahogany_ and (b) _Spanish mahogany_.

Honduras mahogany is the kind that cigar boxes are made of and it is much softer and lighter in both weight and color than Spanish mahogany. You can make all manner of nice things of the better grades of Honduras mahogany and, curiously enough, it stays glued better than any other wood. It is nearly as easy to work as pine and it takes a fine polish.

Spanish mahogany is like Honduras mahogany in name only. It is a fine, close-grained dark-red-brown or yellow-brown colored wood, takes a very high polish and makes the finest kind of furniture.

_Oak._--This is a strong, beautiful wood and is useful in making all kinds of furniture the design of which should be plain.

It is not an easy wood to work and tools when used on it soon lose their cutting edges. But after you have made a piece of furniture you can depend on it that it will last to the end of time, nearly.

_Birch._--This wood belongs to the oak family but different from oak it is quite easy to work. It is light in color, fine grained, so tough and elastic it cannot be easily broken, and it takes a fine polish. For these reasons it makes nice furniture and it is a very good wood for turning.

It is from the bark of the birch that the Indians made their canoes, but this is a story of the long ago and we must stick to the present.

_Walnut._--This is a good old English wood; it is the finest kind of wood that can be used for ornamental furniture, gun stocks and wherever else a beautiful color and a showy grain are wanted. It is easier to work than oak and is a fine wood for carving.

=How to Make Joints.=--The word _joint_ in woodworking means the place where two or more pieces of wood are fitted together, and hence the words _joiner_ and _joinery_ in woodworking parlance.

A· _THE SQUARE OR BUTT JOINT_

B· _THE PLAIN LAP JOINT_

C· _THE BEVELED LAP JOINT_

D· _THE REBATED JOINT_

E· _THE TONGUE AND GROOVE JOINT_

FIG. 3. HOW EDGE JOINTS ARE MADE]

There are two chief kinds of joints and these are, (1) where two flat surfaces are fixed to each other, and (2) where the edges of two boards meet to form a corner. Though there are many ways to make both kinds of joints I shall only tell you about half-a-dozen which you will find the most useful for your needs.

_Edge Joints._--There are three easy ways to make flat, or edge joints and these are (a) the _square_, or _butt joint_; (b) the _lap-joint_ and (c) the _matched joint_, all of which are shown in Fig. 3.

In the square joint the edges of the boards are simply _butted_ together and nailed, screwed or glued. This joint is very weak unless the abutting ends are fastened to something else.

In the simplest form of lap-joint the edge of one board is laid on top of the other board and these are nailed or otherwise fastened together. A neater lap joint is made by cutting away half of the edge of each end of the boards so that when they are fitted and fixed together the surfaces of the boards at the joints are even and smooth.

A better joint than the lap-joint is made by planing a _tongue_ on the edge of one board and a groove in the other. To do this easily, neatly and quickly you need a _rabbet plane_ and as this is quite a costly tool, you can get along very well without it by using the lap-joints.

_Corner Joints._--There are five corner joints which you should know about and these are (a) the _butt_, or _square joint_; (b) the _lap_, or _rebated joint_; (c) the _mitered corner pieced joint_; (d) the _common dove-tail box joint_, and (e) the _regular dove-tail joint_, pictures of all of which are shown in Fig. 4.

Now when you can saw a board off straight, plane it true and make a good joint you will have small trouble in making anything in wood that you want to make.

A· _THE BUTT OR SQUARE JOINT_

B· _THE REBATED JOINT_

C· _THE MITERED CORNER PIECE JOINT_

D· _THE SIMPLE BOX DOVETAIL_

E· _A BETTER FORM OF DOVETAIL_

FIG. 4. HOW CORNER JOINTS ARE MADE]

=About Working Drawings.=--When most boys--to say nothing of the majority of men--start to make something they simply knit their eyebrows (not high-brows) and think out how it will look in the _concrete_--that is when it is all done and ready to use.

Then they go ahead and begin to saw up the lumber and put the pieces together. The result is that when the object is finished it looks very different from the thing they so proudly pictured in their mind’s eye. Now the right way to build what you want and have it look as it ought to is to make a _working drawing_ of it.

To do this draw a picture of it to a _scale_, of say 1 inch to the foot; that is, if it is to be 4 feet long draw it 4 inches long. The drawings I have made of the work-bench and the tool box which follow will show you how to make simple working drawings and the last part of