Tool museum in Vermont, and a kind of neat short little sash-making video

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

My wife was looking at the classifieds and noticed that there's a local tool museum hiring a summer museum guide; I didn't even know there was a tool museum near me!

http://www.arnoldzlotofftoolmuseum.com/Home_Page.php

There's a video on the "Introduction" page - it looks like a neat place to visit, but not something to make a cross country trip for. It's just a short trip (a reasonable bike ride, actually, if they open the bike-ferry across the causeway this year) from me, so I'll definitely be checking it out after it opens for the summer. I'll report back about it.

But there is a neat little video on the Trades and Crafts Video featuring sash-making by Ted Ingraham (wasn't he mentioned in the section on contemporary plane makers in the last section of Garrett Hack's handplane book?) that's pretty neat. I mean, nothing really surprising if you've got an idea of how the job was done, but it's fun to watch if for nothing else to see a shop that just looks terrific, some beautiful wooden planes and vintage chisels in action and some nice traditional clamps. I think Ted must have something to do with the running of the museum, as he's listed as the contact on the job ad in the local weekly that my wife saw.

Anyway, for quickness, here's a direct link to the video from the site:

http://www.arnoldzlotofftoolmuseum.com/Trade_and_Crafts_Videos.html

or on Vimeo:

http://vimeo.com/71697935

not too long, so worth checking out if you've got eight minutes.

[Bill White]

You can tell that he's done that before.
Thanks for the link.
Bill

[Tony Parent]

I found this museum last year on a fluke. It's a real cool place to visit if you are hand tool person. I'll most likely be going back this year as I see from some of the pictures on the website that I missed the treadle lathe! It's easy to miss things as there are so many hand tools there. (And I don't think the entire collection is even there...)

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Excellent video, thanks for sharing. The original windows in my 1836 home all open and close perfectly, do not leak, and still have the majority of their original floated glass panes. My house was only the second home in St. Thomas to have glass windows. My neighbor's was the first, and hence the street was named "Crystal Gade." (Gade is Danish for street.) I do need to fix two weights where the rope broke, but the windows have an access panel to get the weights in and out. Really amazing how well built and well-designed this house is.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

I found this museum last year on a fluke. It's a real cool place to visit if you are hand tool person. I'll most likely be going back this year as I see from some of the pictures on the website that I missed the treadle lathe! It's easy to miss things as there are so many hand tools there. (And I don't think the entire collection is even there...)

Good to know, Tony. We used to go up that way every now and then, (usually when my wife wanted to check out Junk and Disorderly) and we were actually on the Apple Island Resort property for something once, so I'm surprised we didn't stumble across it, from the map it doesn't look like we were far. I'll have to ask my wife to add this to her calendar, it's the only way I remember anything I want to do more than a week out . . .

[Mel Fulks]

I enjoyed it,thanks for posting. Did you notice that you can clearly see he slightly over copes? That's the way the old timers
do it EVEN WHEN USING MACHINES. While it is possible to get a "perfect fit" with the two pieces you are looking at in your
hands ,it doesn't work out as well in the completed sash. With the larger sash the fuzzier cut at cope, and the fact that the
curve of the sticking is harder to compress than flat to flat parts, you can end up with tight copes at the price of a slight
opening at the butts. That is troublesome and paint does not as easily remedy that. The paint does easily run into the cope
corners. I worked for a very intelligent and successful guy who was self taught and would not be convinced by my experience gained from working with old timers. His sash never went together as well, as in clamping the muntins would
be very slightly out of alignment because too much pressure makes the sticking push them forward. That requires more
sanding and still leaves the open flats.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

I particularly liked the notched story stick he uses - I use story sticks for transferring measurements all the time, although nothing as complex as sash, and wonder why I never thought to do it that way!

[Warren Mickley]

I go by this museum on Route 2 several times a year. I can easily see the big red Apple Island Resort sign in my eye but have not noticed a museum sign.

Ted Ingraham, featured in the video, lives about 35 miles away. He did a very fine job demonstrating historical techniques for making moulding planes a few years ago at the Williamsburg conference. One thing I did not care for in the video was the narrator's suggestion that the apprentices could only do stock preparation. It is not very hard to teach a teenager to make sash. Here is a sash made by a teenager with five weeks experience in woodworking.
287951

[Tony Parent]

We used to go up that way every now and then, [...] and we were actually on the Apple Island Resort property for something once, so I'm surprised we didn't stumble across it

It was a fluke that I found it. We were driving up and happened to see a sandwich board style sign by the side of the road saying "Tool Museum". We had some extra time, so hunted around for it. It's actually up the hill behind the store that sits on Rt 2. You have to park and walk around to the other side of the barn for the entrance. Look on google maps and you will see the barn and path. (I would put a screen shot here but am not sure if that violates copywrites and such...)

[Dennis Hawkins]

Ok so where do all you Vermonters actually live ?
I'm in Westmore 2 miles from Lake Willoughby.(In the heart of the Northeast Kingdom).
Excellent video. I want to learn how to make sash (with or without hand tools).

[Tom M King]

Excellent video, thanks for sharing. The original windows in my 1836 home all open and close perfectly, do not leak, and still have the majority of their original floated glass panes. My house was only the second home in St. Thomas to have glass windows. My neighbor's was the first, and hence the street was named "Crystal Gade." (Gade is Danish for street.) I do need to fix two weights where the rope broke, but the windows have an access panel to get the weights in and out. Really amazing how well built and well-designed this house is.

If the glass is from 1836, it's not float glass, but probably cylinder glass. Long cylinders were handblown and then flattened. That's the way window panes were made until late 19th Century.

Next they learned to pull up tall sheets, and cut it as it cooled. This produced wavy glass too, but not as distorted as the cylinder glass. If my memory is correct, it wasn't until the 1950s that they learned how to make float glass. One of the things I do for a living is make exact reproductions of 18th and 19th Century windows. I don't do it all by hand like this guy does though. I use modern tools to speed things up a bit, but even then there is a number of hours in each sash. You can see one of my sash jobs on my "windows" page on my website: www.HistoricHousePreservation.com (http://www.HistoricHousePreservation.com)

[Tom M King]

I enjoyed it,thanks for posting. Did you notice that you can clearly see he slightly over copes? That's the way the old timers
do it EVEN WHEN USING MACHINES. While it is possible to get a "perfect fit" with the two pieces you are looking at in your
hands ,it doesn't work out as well in the completed sash. With the larger sash the fuzzier cut at cope, and the fact that the
curve of the sticking is harder to compress than flat to flat parts, you can end up with tight copes at the price of a slight
opening at the butts. That is troublesome and paint does not as easily remedy that. The paint does easily run into the cope
corners. I worked for a very intelligent and successful guy who was self taught and would not be convinced by my experience gained from working with old timers. His sash never went together as well, as in clamping the muntins would
be very slightly out of alignment because too much pressure makes the sticking push them forward. That requires more
sanding and still leaves the open flats.

That's why, with my method, I left cutting the short muntins to length for the last step. I didn't try to do an interference fit with anything, and the final product has all the joints fitting just fine. A Sorbothane mallet does a good job of disassembling the sash to put it all together without damaging anything. Until I got that mallet, it was a worrysome job to get one back apart. I even found I could knock the pegs out of 200 year old sash, make replacement individual parts, and get all the mortises back together fairly easily with no damage using the Sorbothane mallet.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

Ok so where do all you Vermonters actually live ?
I'm in Westmore 2 miles from Lake Willoughby.(In the heart of the Northeast Kingdom).
Excellent video. I want to learn how to make sash (with or without hand tools).

Downtown Burlington.

I've been thinking of tackling sash, myself, actually. It's funny, because I actually just stumbled across some of Tom's pages during a search over a couple things before stumbling back here. (Thanks for sharing, Tom!)

That's a nice looking piece of sash, Warren - did you teach the teenager in question?

I agree, the narration rubbed me the wrong way a couple of times - also, did anyone else think he was saying "tendon" and not "tenon"?

[Tony Parent]

Ok so where do all you Vermonters actually live ?

I'm in South Burlington

As for building sash windows, maybe one day. Too many other projects in the queue at the moment...

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

As an aside, after I left my old place, my former roomate's father moved in with her into my old room. He's a bit of a local history buff, and according to what he pulled up, our building used to house a business that made sash and screen. I'm wondering if they had belt-drive stuff in there which might explain the really high ceilings even after they dropped them with a false ceiling. No idea if any of this is true.

[Steve Voigt]

Joshua, it's taken me a couple days to get around to watching the video, but boy, am I glad I did. That was fantastic! Thank you for posting!
So that's Ted Ingraham. I'm pretty sure that's the same bench that's on the soft cover version of Scott Landis's "workbenches" book, and is also featured in Garrett Hack's handplane book.
Anyway…thanks, I really enjoyed it.

- Steve

[Daniel Rode]

Thanks for posting the video. It blends my two favorite things history and woodworking. As I watched I started thinking about how I'd like to make a window and then my mind really started wandering.

Where would I look for sash plane? How would I sharpen it? Does it get adjusted? Wow, that flush trim tool is really cool. What kind of pine is he using? No old stable pine around here, substitute with what? I'm going to need an old to put the windows in ...

[Warren Mickley]

Downtown Burlington.

That's a nice looking piece of sash, Warren - did you teach the teenager in question?

I agree, the narration rubbed me the wrong way a couple of times - also, did anyone else think he was saying "tendon" and not "tenon"?

The sash pictured was made by the boy in my shop with my tools. It is not like a beginner could just sit down and make sash. One of the things the boy told me impressed him was the importance of doing things in an appropriate order. However, given tools that are in good shape and given supervision, the individual skills are not difficult. That is why I bristle when the narrator says sash "was usually reserved for the most skilled workmen in the shop." The most productive thing to teach an apprentice is repetitive work. If you were making 20 windows and one front door, you could use an experienced man to make all the architectural work around the door. The sash work is better for an apprentice because once he is trained to do a function he can do 19 more with not so much supervision.

A few years ago I was talking with a fellow who had made all new sash for a historic house. He told me about this jig and that jig which took "no time at all to make" and this machine and that machine which were a "snap to set up", and how he could just "run everything through". After a while I asked him his prices and found he charged more than double what I charged to work by hand.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

If the glass is from 1836, it's not float glass, but probably cylinder glass. Long cylinders were handblown and then flattened. That's the way window panes were made until late 19th Century.

Next they learned to pull up tall sheets, and cut it as it cooled. This produced wavy glass too, but not as distorted as the cylinder glass. If my memory is correct, it wasn't until the 1950s that they learned how to make float glass. One of the things I do for a living is make exact reproductions of 18th and 19th Century windows. I don't do it all by hand like this guy does though. I use modern tools to speed things up a bit, but even then there is a number of hours in each sash. You can see one of my sash jobs on my "windows" page on my website: www.HistoricHousePreservation.com (http://www.HistoricHousePreservation.com)


Thanks for setting me straight. I thought the earlier glass was floated. Your work is amazing. I showed my wife the before and after pics on your site and she was also impressed.

Off the subject, you might appreciate a product I found- BioShield clay-based paint. My house is stone and brick construction and the walls wick moisture. The clay based paint allows the moisture to wick out through the paint and the paint does not peel. So far it works great. It is only for interior.