Working Wood in the 18th Century

[mike holden]

Since there seemed to be some interest in the Working Wood in the 18th Century Conference at Colonial Williamsburg, I decided to share my impressions of the event.

The topic this year was Tools, Toolchests, and Workbenches.

Presenters included:
Jay Gaynor, director Historic Trades at Colonial Williamsburg
Jane Rees, Author of "1797 The Tool Chest of Benjamin Seaton"
Kaare Loftheim, journeyman cabinetmaker, Colonial Williamsburg
Mack Headley, master cabinetmaker, Colonial Williamsburg
Christopher Swan, Conservator, Colonial Williamsburg
Ted Ingraham, planemaker
Marcus Hansen, journeyman musical instrument maker, Colonial Williamsburg
Edward Wright, journeyman musical instrument maker, Colonial Williamsburg
Ted Boscana, journeyman carpenter, Colonial Williamsburg
Garrett Hack, furniture maker, author
Roy Underhill, author, host of the "Woodwright's Shop"
Asa Christiana, editor Fine Woodworking

Sunday started with presentations on what might be found in a cabinetmaker's chest and the various types of decorations to be seen inside the lids.

Monday morning was the history of the Benjamin Seaton chest followed by demonstration of its construction and layout. The Seaton chest is important in that it is the only chest from that period that not only has almost all its tools, they are in an almost unused condition, and there is a bill of sale from the tools purchase, and a letter from Seaton explaining when he began and finished building the chest.
This was followed by a quick presentation on the Mathews tool chest, owned by Williamsburg.
Afternoon was a demonstration and discussion of wooden planes. Ted Ingraham all but finished a molding plane in two hours, while describing how and why!
The day ended with a quick discussion by Mack Headley on the design and layout of 18th century furniture.

Whew!

Tuesday continued with the construction of the Seaton chest and the veneering was demonstrated. Ovals, banding, hot glue and all.
Ted Boscana gave an overview of a carpenters chest and how it differed from a cabinetmakers.
Afternoon Garrett Hack spoke on Workbenches and Roy Underhill demonstrated ways of making wooden threads
Evening was the banquet, Garrett Hack spoke again, this time showing his work and the pieces of classical furniture that inspired them.

Wednesday was a presentation on Gentlemen's Tool Chests, followed by the construction of the 1773 Hewlett chest.
Afternoon was Garrett Hack finishing up on workbenches and inlays. Mack Headley wrapped things up with a discussion of tools for curved work.

Great time was had by all.

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Mike

[mike holden]

More Pics

DSCF0220.jpg The till from the Seaton Chest

DSCF0221.jpg The saw till from the Seaton Chest - However, since they do not know what it looks like inside, this is Mack Headley's best guess - and it does not work! So, they will be making changes.

DSCF0223.jpg Inside the Seaton Chest, to the left is the square till, center is the well and sliding cover, right is the plane till

DSCF0261.jpg Breakfast in the museum before the conference

DSCF0263.jpg A Colonial Williamsburg workbench, similar to the English Nicholson

[mike holden]

Pics again

DSCF0267.jpg Mack Headley discussing a finding with Jane Rees (the head of hair on the left) and Jay Gaynor (on the right). The chest has an unexplained open box attached to the bottom. Mack was building it that morning, and at break took the copy of the Seaton router plane out of the display cabinet and came up to Jane and Jay to show that he believes he found the answer to the box - it fits the router plane both with and without the blade attached (long term storage of planes was done with the blades removed)

DSCF0268.jpg Garret Hack demonstrating honing techniques

DSCF0270.jpg Ted Ingraham's planemaking tools

DSCF0272.jpg A dedicated planemaking vise/jig

DSCF0278.jpg On the left is the Hewlett Gentlemen's Chest. Hewlett was an ironmonger in London, and is believed to be one of the first to offer a kit of tools, complete with chest. On the right is the tool till from the Seaton Chest, you are looking at the back of it which has two hidden drawers.

[mike holden]

pics once more

DSCF0280.jpg This is the Hewlett Chest on a stand built for the chest - possibly by the owner. This chest is licensed by Colonial Williamsburg to Stickley - who build it as a silverware chest! $2819.00 in the latest catalog.

DSCF0287.jpg Roy Underhill's traveling workbench. On and below are some of the threadmaking equipment. He also had a pole lathe on stage.

DSCF0323.jpg The squarish item on the white cloth is a scraper to size the stringing for the veneering. The scraper does NOT have a burr, is placed at an 85 degree angle, and works quite well.

DSCF0331.jpg Mack Headley answering questions. We were encouraged to ask questions throughout the conference, and all the presenters were quite gracious with their time and expertise.

There you have it, a quick overview of the conference. If you have any questions about it I will try and answer them.
Mike

[Terry Bigelow]

Awesome post Mike! Nice job. For those of us who couldn't make it this will have to do! Wish I could have gone. Looks like a lot of information to digest. Thanks!

[John Timberlake]

Thanks for the comments. Looks like you had a great time and saw a lot of good techniques. I went two years ago a loved it.

[Thomas Knighton]

All I have to say is how jealous I am! I wish I could have gone

Tom

[James Mittlefehldt]

MIke thanks for taking the trouble to share with us the conference and your impressions thereof.

Did anyone say anything about reprinting the book about the Seaton Tool Chest I believe it has been out of print for some time?

I have to say I am almost jealous as the two things that really get me up are tool chests and workbenches.

One other thing was there any discussion by Mack Headly or anyone else about the sort of general tool kit that a cabinet maker or joiner back then would have, ie no of saws etc?

[mike holden]

James,
The author of the book, Jane Rees, was a speaker, and brought over from England the last copies of the book. Half were sold to the first session, the last to the second session. I did snag a copy (open gloat!), there were only about 25 each session available for 230 attendees per session. There are no plans to reprint it.

Among the handouts were tool lists for the Hewlett Gentlemen's Chest, the 1708 inventory of Charles Plumley Philadelphia joiner, an English joiners tool list from 1768, "a complete set of carpenter's and joiner's tools: 1769", and the inventory from the Seaton chest. Jay Gaynor spoke extensively about the various kits, as did Christopher Swan.

"almost jealous"? is that like 'almost pregnant'? (grin) Of course, if the St Thomas in your location, is the Virgin Islands' St Thomas, I fully understand. I will make the generous offer of coming down (at your expense) and giving you a full briefing on the conference!
Mike

[Mike K Wenzloff]

For the Charles Plumley inventory, Popular Woodworking had an article by Adam Cherubini in the June 2006 issue.

PopWood also ended up placing the inventory in both Excel and Word formats on their web site:

MS Excel format:
http://www.popularwoodworking.com/fe...minventory.xls

MS Word format:
http://www.popularwoodworking.com/fe...20original.doc

Without Jane's permission, I cannot post the Seaton inventory. Pity it will not be reprinted. They do show up on eBay once in a while, which is how I bought my first copy.

If Jane brought over 50 copies, you might try contacting TATHS (Tools and Trades History Society) who is the publisher. They still show that copies are available.

email: brian.read2@ntlworld.com
web site: http://www.taths.org.uk/index.html

Take care, Mike

[James Mittlefehldt]

James,
The author of the book, Jane Rees, was a speaker, and brought over from England the last copies of the book. Half were sold to the first session, the last to the second session. I did snag a copy (open gloat!), there were only about 25 each session available for 230 attendees per session. There are no plans to reprint it.

Among the handouts were tool lists for the Hewlett Gentlemen's Chest, the 1708 inventory of Charles Plumley Philadelphia joiner, an English joiners tool list from 1768, "a complete set of carpenter's and joiner's tools: 1769", and the inventory from the Seaton chest. Jay Gaynor spoke extensively about the various kits, as did Christopher Swan.

"almost jealous"? is that like 'almost pregnant'? (grin) Of course, if the St Thomas in your location, is the Virgin Islands' St Thomas, I fully understand. I will make the generous offer of coming down (at your expense) and giving you a full briefing on the conference!
Mike

Not a problem Mike fellow creekers are always welcome in sunny St. Thomas, just cross the ambassador bridge at Detroit take the 401 to London Ontario, and go south on highway 4, you can't miss it. You gotta buy your own gas though, but I would be happy to feed you LOL.

Thanks once again for your help MIke W. I sent a query to the society and will hopefully get an answer back soon.

I saw Adam Cherubini's article on that inventory, which was interesting as it was I believe not just a single cabinet maker but an entire shop.