History of shooting boards

[Kees Heiden]

I posted this on woodnet, but I thought, why not share it here too?

Randle Holme (1688), Felibien (1690), Moxon (1683). These three have descriptions of the tools used by joiners. In none of their books is a shooting board. Moxon uses the word shooting where we would say jointing. He describes how to mitre a moulding. Hold the moulding up in your right hand and the plane in the left hand, sole upwards, and thrust the moulding over the edge.


Johann Hübner (1714) Curieuses und Reales Natur- Kunst- Berg- Gewerck- und Handlungs-Lexicon.
There are two places in this dictionary with a shootingboard (stossladen). In both instances the shootingboard is explictly described to be used for miters.


Roubo (1769 - 1774)is a bit difficult for me. I don't read French very well. The book about marquetry has been translated in English by Lost art press. Plate 289 has something that could be called a shooting jig, used to reproduce exact copies of the various veneer pieces. I found the German translation on Google books from the Tischler part (the cabinetmakers). The quality of the scan is particularly bad, but the images are well known. Nothing that looks like a shootingboard and there is also nothing in the text about the tools, and not in the text about how to make joints either. Roubo is very complete and accurate. If they would have used shootingboards in Paris at that time, I'm sure it would have been in the book.


I have also browsed through P.N. Sprengel, Vierter Abschnit, Der Tischler (1778). In this book, exactly like in the German dictionary from 1714, the shooting board is mentioned again with the explicit note that it is used for miters. Later in this book all the different methods to work wood in furniture making are described but I can't find any reference to a shooting board there. The endgrain of a board prepared for dovetails is planed with the board in the vise.


The Germans knew two kinds of these shootingboards. The Stosslade, used for miters. And the Kropflade. This is used for mouldings which fold around a column or the like which juts out in front of the main surface. There are some nice pictures of these two shootingboards in a book from Kunitz, Oekonomische Encyklopädie. The plane used for these devices is the Vergatthobel. Peculiar about these planes is that they rarely have a flat side. In other words, they can't be used on a shootingboard like we know it today.I have no idea how to interpret the drawings of these stossladen or how they were used.I wonder if these old German devices were a precursor for the shooting block which was made until recently by Ulmia. On these things you can use any plane in normal position, because it doesn't need to reference on its side.


Kropflade:


http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll266/Kees2351/Shootingboard/Kropflade_zps462fc265.png (http://s290.photobucket.com/user/Kees2351/media/Shootingboard/Kropflade_zps462fc265.png.html)


Stosslade and vergatthobel:


http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll266/Kees2351/Shootingboard/Vergathobelstosslade_zps7d48fb32.jpg (http://s290.photobucket.com/user/Kees2351/media/Shootingboard/Vergathobelstosslade_zps7d48fb32.jpg.html)


And another Vergatthobel:


http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll266/Kees2351/Shootingboard/Vergatthobel_zps2e538452.jpg (http://s290.photobucket.com/user/Kees2351/media/Shootingboard/Vergatthobel_zps2e538452.jpg.html)


And a more modern German shootingblock:


http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll266/Kees2351/Shootingboard/stosslade2_zps77330234.jpg (http://s290.photobucket.com/user/Kees2351/media/Shootingboard/stosslade2_zps77330234.jpg.html)




Peter Nicholson, Mechanical exercises (1812). Here is the first instance of a shooting board as we know it! It's called a shooting block.


http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll266/Kees2351/Shootingboard/Shootingblock_zps39320a83.jpg (http://s290.photobucket.com/user/Kees2351/media/Shootingboard/Shootingblock_zps39320a83.jpg.html)

The Joiner and cabinetmaker, anonymous (1839). This book describes the apprentenceship from Thomas. When he makes his first dovetailed box, the shooting board is being presented, and used of course. When he makes a mortise and tenon joint later in the book, a shooting board is not used and the shoulderlines are marked with a square.


So, the shooting board like we know it today seems to be introduced in the 19th century. In the 17th and 18th century they probably didn't use shootingboards for square corners, but they did have devices and special planes for shooting mitres in Germany.


And just to show some terific cabinetmakers work from 1708, illustrating how skilled they were while using comparatively simple tools, here is a picture of the lectern from the Maria Church in Uithuizermede made by the joiner Allert Meijer. These guys never cease to impress me.

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll266/Kees2351/Shootingboard/600px-Interieur_preekstoel_-_Uithuizermeeden_-_20211327_-_RCE_zpsc63c7372.jpg (http://s290.photobucket.com/user/Kees2351/media/Shootingboard/600px-Interieur_preekstoel_-_Uithuizermeeden_-_20211327_-_RCE_zpsc63c7372.jpg.html)

[Stanley Covington]

Kees

Interesting information, but surprising coming from you. I definitely recall your obstinate objection a few years ago on this same forum to the use of shooting boards. Follansbee's book and all that. What brought about this change?

Stan

[Kees Heiden]

Hey, it's worse, I even made a new one a few weeks ago! My old shooting board was in tatters.

Being obstinate is fun for a while, but I do agree that shooting boards can be usefull sometimes. At the other hand, this brief literature study shows that you can do an awfull lot of woodworking without ever touching your shooting board. For miters the are very usefull, but I think I would prefer that German model. The occasional miter I used in my work until now, was planed with the object in a vise and working to a line, a bit like Moxon describes. For mortice and tenon joints I just don't see a use for a shooting board. The best use I see for a shooting board is preparing the edge for dovetails. But even then, I often just cut the board to length with the tablesaw and proceed from there without shooting.

[Derek Cohen]

Hi Kees

The argument that "you can do an awful lot of woodworking without touching your shooting board" is what is referred to as a "straw man". This means that, if you analyse the argument, then it doesn't make sense. In this argument, what you are pointing out is that excellent furniture was made in the days before the shooting board became popular. That is no more an argument that therefore a shooting board is not necessary than saying that good furniture was made before power tools, therefore power tools are not necessary.


For mortice and tenon joints I just don't see a use for a shooting board.

I had this discussion with you once before. You can mark tenon shoulders from the end of a board - yes I know that there are strong arguments against this, but is is accurate and efficient if your stretcher is to length and squared at the end (which would be done with a shooting board). Before someone jumps up and down saying that this is not the way to do it, it is another way to do it.

There will always be other ways to do tasks. Some are better than others. They all work.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Kees Heiden]

One thing for sure. There are always more ways to do a certain task!

And it's not so much a strawman argument, much more presenting an alternative way. And then I got sucked into these books and couldn't let go until I went all the way to the bottom.

I would really like to see a better description of these German shooting blocks and how they were used.

[Marko Milisavljevic]

What stops the plane from cutting into the block itself once you reach the end? In this article http://www.leevalley.com/us/newsletters/Woodworking/5/5/collection-2.htm it suggests possibly gluing cardboard to the face.

[Brian Holcombe]

I find them to be incredibly useful because I have a lot of exposed joinery in my work. One of my regular projects is to make box frames for pre-stretched canvas and the joints are all simple miters. It would be incredibly difficult to consistently hit the mark without a shooting board.

The same applies to box making, making liners and hitting corners is much easier if you can creep up on them rather than attempting to hit the mark

[Kees Heiden]

As I understand it you only cut the mouldings and the area just around it. That leaves plenty of reference surface for the sole of the plane. But I've never used one myself.

[david charlesworth]

The last diagram is referred to as a mitre jack in England.

I believe it was much used for the mitres of large mouldings, such as cornices.

I have seen several in antique shops but never owned one.

David

[Kees Heiden]

Yes, mitre jack, that's the word. Thanks David.

I think they are a better solution for miters then the shooting board. You can use any plane, even a coffin shaped one if you like. You can skew the plane, which improves the cut and lowers the effective cutting angle. Wear to the edge is spread out over the entire edge. And you can do wide crown mouldings too.

Here is a picture of another design, which comes closer to the antique German Kropflade.

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[david charlesworth]

For small to medium mitred work a shooting board works very well. It has the advantage that ends may be trimmed shaving by shaving. The mitre jack is a much more complex construction.

Personally I have found that large mitres may be planed freehand in the vice.

But then my work has never included large cornices.

David

[Jim Koepke]

None of the books mentioned are in my library, so my knowledge of woodworking history is very limited.

Do any of the books mention bench hooks or bench jacks?

If so do they list or show them in use?

jtk

[David Weaver]

I have a shooting board. But in the half dozen kitchen cabinets I've made so far, I haven't found a use for it (they are M&T joinery on the face). Any time I can ever put a mark on a piece, put it in the vise and plane to the mark, that's what I'm going to do. it's far more satisfying. They are not itty bitty little things, though (which are difficult to fit without some kind of fixture).

I've marked all of my tenons with a square, as derek says, just a different method from what he's doing.

I remember buying a couple of shoulder planes (I no longer have them). I have no inclination to use such a thing, I'd rather cut the shoulders on the marked line with a chisel.

To each their own. I am by no means much of a maker of furniture or such things.

[Kees Heiden]

None of the books mentioned are in my library, so my knowledge of woodworking history is very limited.

Do any of the books mention bench hooks or bench jacks?

If so do they list or show them in use?

jtk

But you do have them on your bookshelf Jim! At least, the virtual bookshelf. There is a lot on google books. Some universities have books on their site. Toolemera has some interesting stuff. Usually, when you start, there is no end to things you can find online.

I did see bench hooks, but now I don't remember where. They are certainly not in these oldest ones from the 17th century. That doesn't keep Follansbee from using a bench hook extensively. Which shows that even in a museum you are allowed a bit of free interpretation.

[george wilson]

They used miter jacks in the Anthony Hay cabinet shop in Wmsbg. They glued a piece of paper on their surface to keep from cutting all the way down to the wood. The paper would get shaved first. Then,they stopped planing.

Since I am not a habitual furniture maker,I never used a miter jack(I have a Lion trimmer at home,and an import one which is also perfectly good). I imagine,being wood, with humidity changes,and some play in the sliding parts,it was trouble keeping the miter jacks accurate on the exact angle they were supposed to yield.

[Jim Koepke]

One of the things that comes to mind in this thread is something read years ago about "blocking in" to square the end of a work piece.

A knifed line would be scribed all around a piece. Then a chisel would be used to chamfer all around to the line and then the waste would be pared away with a chisel.

It works, just not as fast as a shooting board.

My recollection was this article claimed this might be how the 'blocking in' plane first came in to use and got its name.

jtk

[David Weaver]

What works really wonderfully well to me is to mark a board all the way around with a knife line (this can be done quickly), and to put it in the vise and plane the board as if you're jointing an edge, only not planing off of the far corner (for obvious reasons). If you plane the end grain to the marks evenly, you'll find that you have an awfully good and square board, more accurate than you can sometimes get out of a power miter saw, especially if you don't have a great power miter saw.

For someone hand sawing boards, this is a quick operation, as quick to me as using a shooting board. I don't know what size piece I stop using this on - maybe 3 inches wide? Things like drawer sides are pretty easy to plane off like this, plenty accurately enough to make a nice square box.

For someone who can cut accurately with a hand saw, this is not much more than just cleaning off saw marks.

Other than that, I try not to let end grain every show in anything other than parts that stay inside of something.

Folks who joint an edge with regularity, I'd encourage to put their drawer sides, sticks, whatever, in a vise with a marked line around it and plane until the bottom of the marked line is reached--with a simple smooth plane, obviously not planing off of one end, just work the smooth plane in from each side on the skew, and you'll be surprised how fast it removes material with no need to drag anything else out.

In the event that something small needs to be planed, I like David Charlesworth's comments about it - a shoot board doesn't need to be perfect, it needs to be shimmable. I remember about 5 years ago, maybe more, a $100 chute board came out and there were two reactions:
1) that's ridiculous, it should be a freely made device to be used only on small work
2) why isn't it ramped and this or that, I'd pay more if it was

Now there are shoot board systems that are made of plywood that cost $300, $400 and more. It's nutty. Certifiable.

The skill developed to plane on any board of any side is not very much, it doesn't take long (just don't use a perfectly dead flat freshly ground plane or it might skip or chirp), and it gets rid of one of the things that irritated me the most as a beginner, which was trying to do pieces of any size on a chute board and finding out that they were close to square but not dead perfect every time. You can get just as close or closer by hand and build coordination and skill at the same time.

[Daniel Rode]

I find the shooting board really convenient and I use it all the time.

For me, it's much like a bench hook in that it provides a simple way to hold a board and plane in order to square the end, or trim the length by very small increments. When cross cutting, I almost always create a knife line whether make the cut with hand saw, table saw or occasionally the miter saw.

It's become routine for me to make a cut and then take a few strokes on the shooting board to get down to my line. It also encourages me to make more cuts with a hand saw because I can easily clean up cuts that wander off a bit.

FWIW, my shooting board is made from some MDF, plywood and a scrap piece of oak. I was all left-overs but the retail value is probably less than $10. Also, since I made the shooting board perfectly square and the plane is set correctly I end up ends that are perfectly square in both directions every time.

[David Weaver]

FWIW, my shooting board is made from some MDF, plywood and a scrap piece of oak.

I have one of the same type, something I made as an afterthought as a beginner, though I did use it for a couple of years back then until a discussion came up on another forum and several more experienced member said "what exactly are you shooting"?

Miters that don't fit well in a miter jack (the type that are really wide but not tall) might be a reason to have one.

[Kees Heiden]

A shootingboard is so easy and cheap to make, that there is no reason not to make it. And who knows, once in a while it might be usefull. :p

[Adam Cruea]

A shootingboard is so easy and cheap to make, that there is no reason not to make it. And who knows, once in a while it might be usefull. :p

This is why I made mine.

Now, why I spent the coin on a LN shooting plane? Yeah, can't answer that. I think it had something to do with the weight and shiny nature. :D

[Hilton Ralphs]

Now, why I spent the coin on a LN shooting plane? Yeah, can't answer that. I think it had something to do with the weight and shiny nature. :D

If we all bought stuff that we only needed and not wanted, I think we'd all still be sitting in a cave grunting to each other and making really smelly farts.

[Sean Hughto]

All this would be much more meaningful if we knew what they did and how. Moreover, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

If one aspires to work completely by hand, a shooting board is very very handy as it perfects saw cuts, lengths, and so forth.

If one uses well adjusted a sliding compound miter saw, the shooting board might get pretty dusty.

[Bill Moser]

All this would be much more meaningful if we knew what they did and how. Moreover, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

If one aspires to work completely by hand, a shooting board is very very handy as it perfects saw cuts, lengths, and so forth.

If one uses well adjusted a sliding compound miter saw, the shooting board might get pretty dusty.

If I had a million lives to live, one of them would be a woodworker with a full complement of power tools. Right now all I have is, literally, a 6'x10' space for my bench, tools, and wood. In this setting, a shooting board is well worth making & using. Cheap, light weight, and gets the job done. I made one recently*, and it's been a revelation. Sure, it takes a little more time to use than a chop saw, but there's no dust, and no noise. And that noise thing is important, especially after a lifetime of listening to ac/dc & led zep. Not that I would know anything about that :)

* Derek Cohen has a number of pages devoted to this, well worth looking at for those considering making one.

[Daniel Rode]

Not long ago, I had a "full compliment" of power tools. I had every common tool and a number of less common ones, like a drum (thickness) sander.

I wish I would not have wasted the time and money. I now have only a few power tools and a core set of hand tools. I enjoy this way of working much more. I really enjoy the quiet.

[Warren Mickley]

Here is some history of shooting board that I posted on another forum last year:



I don't recall shooting boards in Felibien, or the plates of Roubo or Diderot. Nicholson (1812) gives a description of the shooting block:
298394
The fact that he mentions planing with the grain, or oblique to the grain, but does not mention cross (end) grain planing for the shooting block does not mean that it was not done, but it does suggest that it was not a major use. Earlier he describes shooting (jointing) long grain for glue joints in the bench screw (vise). I think the use described for panels in shooting block section refers to thin stuff.

Holtzapffel (1843) says shooting boards are for thin stuff, with the grain, across the grain, and mitres. Shooting boards are often used for joining pieces for soundboards for harps, harpsichords, etc. Harpsichord soundboards are around six feet long and 1/8 inch thick. Here is Holtzapffel's illustration.
298395

Moxon, Felibien, and Holmes were not woodworkers, so we cannot assume that their omission of the shooting board means that it was not in use.

I have gone at least 30 years without using a shooting board. I made one around 1981 in order to make some very small boxes. In those days workers used shooting boards for very small pieces or for very thin pieces, stuff that would be difficult to balance a plane on. In 1962 I was taught to shoot end grain with the board held vertically in the vise.

[Kees Heiden]

But Roubo was a woodworker, and he was very thourough in his writings. Hard to imagine that he skipped the shootingboard if it was used. And Paris was one of the hotbeds of fine furniture making in Europe before the french revolution.

The description from Nicholson is curious: "By this instrument the joints of panels for framing are made [...]". The PANELS. Not the rails of styles. I wonder why. Does he mean the edge joints for making wider panels?

[ernest dubois]

I was at Rijksmusem yesterday. To see this cabinetry, earlier during my schooling we were there often, is mind expanding. I cannot imagine a kind of work like this being done without much reliance on aids like shooting boards for one, all the intricate moldings, not to mention the prevalence of veneer work where the use of a shooting board is integral.

[Kees Heiden]

I really must visit more musea. I visited The Rijks at least 30 years ago and since the renovation it should be something special now. Whenever you find yourself in Leiden, you should visit the Lakenhal. Much smaller, but they have some incredible stuff, both paintings and furniture from the 17th century.

[ernest dubois]

Not being so keen on museum upgrades many cities are doing to keep modern, I will say that once you get into the Rijksmuseum and manage to shake the initial impression from the new entry situation, (criminal/ideological for sure), the reordering of their collection is a big improvement, so much more interesting to see the furniture in among the paintings and other objects grouped by time period and events.

[Warren Mickley]

But Roubo was a woodworker, and he was very thourough in his writings. Hard to imagine that he skipped the shootingboard if it was used. And Paris was one of the hotbeds of fine furniture making in Europe before the french revolution.

The description from Nicholson is curious: "By this instrument the joints of panels for framing are made [...]". The PANELS. Not the rails of styles. I wonder why. Does he mean the edge joints for making wider panels?

Yes. In Nicholson's day "panels for framing" tended to be around 1/4 inch thick. Raised panels had sort of become a thing of the past. It is relatively easy to make drawer sides from 1/4 inch material without a shooting board, but making a good joint in thin stuff like this is hard because a slight difference from one side of the edge to the other will change the angle dramatically over a panel width of 16 inches or whatever. In the case of a harpsichord soundboard, you need quarter sawn material several feet wide and 1/8 (or less) thick. You can imagine he difficulty of jointing (and clamping) this material.

The routine use of a shooting board on end grain, to insure that the surface is square to the edge and square to the face of the board, is a relatively new idea. The shooting board used to be reserved for pieces that were excessively thin or short joints.

[Kees Heiden]

Thanks Warren.

[Stewie Simpson]

A shooting board and a bench hook are not that much different in design principal. Both use a rear fence to lock the board in position. I would imagine the earliest shooting boards used by craftsmen were principally just a bench hook with an additional fence tacked in place for planing end grain cut at predominantly 45 and 90*.

[Kees Heiden]

When your bench is flat you can still do that. Use one side for sawing, the other for shooting. The plane rides on the benchtop.

[Adam Cruea]

If we all bought stuff that we only needed and not wanted, I think we'd all still be sitting in a cave grunting to each other and making really smelly farts.

I was actually thinking about our first encounter when I posted and wondered "where's Hilton been?"

[Brian Ashton]

If we all bought stuff that we only needed and not wanted, I think we'd all still be sitting in a cave grunting to each other and making really smelly farts.

At least we don't grunt anymore.