Colonial Williamsburg

[Dennis McDonaugh]

Thought you might appreciate this article from 1945. Look on page 108.

Colonial Williamsburg (http://www.popsci.com/archive-viewer?id=MSEDAAAAMBAJ&pg=null&query=1945)

[Daniel Rode]

Great article :) Where can I get one of those amazing woodworker's hats?


Thought you might appreciate this article from 1945. Look on page 108.

Colonial Williamsburg (http://www.popsci.com/archive-viewer?id=MSEDAAAAMBAJ&pg=null&query=1945)

[Judson Green]

Great article :) Where can I get one of those amazing woodworker's hats?

hilarious that's exactly what I thought too.

[Bruce Haugen]

Great article :) Where can I get one of those amazing woodworker's hats?

Enlist in the Marines, and I think they'll still give you one a lot like it.

[Pat Barry]

The apprentice at the workbench on page 112 looks an awful lot like a young George Wilson. JK George.

[george wilson]

Sorry,I was 4 years old in 1945!!:)

I was looking for tools that might still have been in the shop when I was there starting in 1971(I spent the first year of my career there in a private shop making a harpsichord and other instruments for the music teacher's room.

Nope,I didn't see much in the way of familiar tools. I'm not even sure if the "great wheel"was the same one that we had when I was there. The wood lathe was not the same one. Nor did I ever hear that master's name mentioned. Mr. Bullman was the earliest of the museum's master cabinet makers that I heard mentioned. He must have been there in the 50's,possibly the 60's. I actually met him at one time early on. He had been retired for some years by then. He was quite inventive and a bit of a tinkerer in addition to being the master cabinet maker.

None of the tools shown in the pictures were real 18th. C. tools. They were all 19th. C.,as was the case when I was there. That's why I got begged into becoming a toolmaker,to make authentic 18th. C. style tools.

Even the name of the shop was changed later to the Anthony Hay shop. Many other buildings had name changes while I was there,as more research revealed better information.

We have VERY LITTLE surviving furniture from that shop that can be traced with certainty to the shop. The speaker's chair at the Capital was signed by Benjamin Bucktrout,by stamping it into the back of the chair. It was mis spelled "Benamin Bucktrout". The chair is well made,but I wouldn't go so far as to say that furniture made there was the equal of Chippendale originals. Chippendale's design book was in print though,and cabinet makers could use it to design their furniture in the 18th. C..

They still wore those hats when I was there,but I never would wear one as I thought them ugly.

[Dave Anderson NH]

What I found more interesting than anything else was the length of the article. No magazine today would devote anywhere near the number of pages of both text and photos to a single topic.

[george wilson]

I guess they were desperate for filler material!!:) Standards have gone up dramatically over the years in the Historic Trades shops. I have seen it happen since I arrived in 1970.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

I was startled by what Dave noticed to, but I think a lot of that figures around the advertising buffering the budget - there's something like 60 pages in that magazine before actual content from the editors starts, and 15 pages or so of that's classifieds. I imagine that brings in a bit more than current mags are getting these days. Makes me think about how Computer Shopper and PC World and such used to be the size of a phone book back when those ads where the only ways to find out about products.

[Dennis McDonaugh]

Popular Science has every magazine they printed from the 1800s to today in their on-line archive if you want to look at what was happening in years gone by. It's an interesting way to kill an astonishing amount of time. An interesting feature is their word search. You can type in a word and see how many times it appeared in each year--quite an effective way to see technology arrive, mature and fade away.

[David Weaver]

I was startled by what Dave noticed to, but I think a lot of that figures around the advertising buffering the budget - there's something like 60 pages in that magazine before actual content from the editors starts, and 15 pages or so of that's classifieds. I imagine that brings in a bit more than current mags are getting these days. Makes me think about how Computer Shopper and PC World and such used to be the size of a phone book back when those ads where the only ways to find out about products.

Ditto that - those magazines were worth having. Even if the articles sucked, there were so many deals in the back that you could find some reason to justify the purchase price. Actually, I think I usually got them just so I could have a handy reference to find cheap hardware when I was in college.

[Mark Churay]

Sure would like to get one of those Bolo Bayonets for $5. Interesting article. Forgot how many different types of skills those mags covered.

[David Weaver]

I know someone here is has probably tried to order the Commander on page 62.

[Eric Brown]

Here is a link to Tools for Working Wood that talks about the hats and has a link to instructions so you can make your own. Good luck! http://www.toolsforworkingwood.com/store/blog/73/title/Let's%20Talk%20About%20Hats%20(and%20mention%20ben ches%20and%20saws)!!