Carpenter

“ As a consequence the carpenter had the chance to express himself in the woodwork, the village blacksmith the opportunity to display his skill in such small ironwork as the hinges or the latch for the door and every workman felt called upon to do the best that was in him. ”

“ Even the carpenter became inspired with a desire to make something ornamental of his own department, and has shaped and carved (literally carved) his timbers into graceful moldings. Then, again, in the roof of Sall Church, Norfolk, shown in Plate IV, you have a noble piece of carpentry which is as much the work of an artist as the carved figures and tracery which adorn it—indeed it is all just as truly carved work as those figures, being chopped out [227] of the solid oak with larger tools, ax and adze, so that one knows not which to admire most, carved angels or carved carpentry. ”

“ I have often gazed with admiration on a real carpenter, to see him run his saw along, straight as a string and true as a die, and then put the pieces all together and have them fit, nice as a cotton hat. ”

“ After a while things settle down, and then the carpenter, who is also an architect, can lay his bare arms across the bar and sell them to the highest bidder, for the houses are coming up like toadstools after rain. ”

“ I discovered that there is nothing more plastic than brickwork, nothing more elastic than a girder. A carpenter spends days of his time and dollars of your money fitting and joining a certain section of framework; that is to say, he engages in such craftsmanship when not sharpening his saw. It has been my observation that the average conscientious carpenter allows forty per cent of his eight-hour day to saw sharpening. ”

“ The short carpenter perched himself upon one ladder, the tall blacksmith on another; my good friend, Mr. Lawson, mounted to the mast head; and such a clatter ensued of hammers and voices— (for it was exactly one of those fancy jobs where every one feels privileged to advise and find fault) —such clashing of opinions and conceptions and suggestions as would go to the building a county town. ”

“ A carpenter's caste is a guild for carpentry, a carpenter's home is a technical school for carpentry where the natural talent and love for the art are partly imbibed by the instincts of heredity and partly by observation which is the best system of training. ”

“ It is the business of the carpenter to cut out and frame large pieces of timber, and then to join them together, or fit them to brick or stone walls, to constitute them the outlines or skeleton of buildings or parts of buildings. ”

“ The bricklayers ran up and down the ladders like squirrels racing up a tree, while the bricks were laid so rapidly that one could not detect the movements of the workman’s hands, and the carpenter plied his saw so vigorously that it appeared to be a mere streak of light. ”

“ The carpenter frames or combines separate pieces of timber by scarfing, notching, cogging, tenoning, pinning and wedging, &c. The tools he uses are the rule, axe, adze, saws, mallet, hammers, chisels, gouges, augers, pincers, set squares, bevel, compasses, gauges, level, plumb rule, jack, trying and smoothing planes, rebate and moulding planes, and gimlets and wedges. The carpenter has little labour to put on to the stuff; his chief work consists in fixing and cutting the ends of timbers, the labour in preparing the timber being done by machinery. ”

“ The carpenter was delighted with it, and showed it, with a good deal of exultation, to his five companions; every man of whom came the next day to the shop and wanted one just like it. They did not understand all the blacksmith's notions about tempering and mixing the metals, but they saw at a glance that the head and the handle were so united that there never was likely to be any divorce between them. ”

“ In poor churches which possess no fine materials for decoration, one has often wondered at and admired the picturesque effects extracted from yards of muslin, gold tinsel, and box wreaths, artistically combined. Our house carpenter is the only representative we have of the vestiarius, and he is but a feeble descendant from the ancestors of his craft, who were expected to study and evolve the adornments of the building for its completion, the materials of decoration for special occasions, and lastly, the mechanical means for hanging and stretching the draperies. ”

“ I often know the work they are engaged in. The odours of wood, iron, paint, and drugs cling to the garments of those that work in them. Thus I can distinguish the carpenter from the ironworker, the artist from the mason or the chemist. ”

“ The labour of building a lumber rack was much heavier than anything the boys had done before, but it brought the larger muscles into play, seemed like real carpenter work, and was an excellent preparation for the finer tool work to follow. A boy who has never carried out a piece of large work [154] successfully cannot realize the satisfaction of looking at a really good piece of construction and being able to say, "I made that all myself!" ”

“ The saw, the plane, the hammer, the chisel, each requires its special muscular energy. The carpenter, unlike the blacksmith, does not put all his brawn into his shoulders, nor develop his torso at the expense of his other muscles, like the mason. ”

“ The weaver and embroiderer, The ironsmith and armourer, The goldsmith and jeweller, The carpenter and engineer, The stonecutter and painter.
You have only once to turn over the leaves of Lionardo's sketch book, in the Ambrosian Library, to see how carpentry is connected with engineering,—the architect was always a stonecutter, and the stonecutter not often practically separate, as yet, from the painter, and never so in general conception of function. ”

“ The head carpenter first makes a calculation of the quantity of timber necessary to complete the building and so much timber is carried to the spot where the house will be built. Here the head carpenter has to use his talent seriously for choosing the timbers, appropriate for poles, upper and lower beams, railings and halls, etc., so that the best pieces of wood are used for the principal rooms and in the places that attract attention. ”

“ The study should not be looked upon as pertaining exclusively to the functions of an architect, nor as having only an accidental connection with particular crafts. It must be remembered that in the old days mason and carpenter were both craftsmen and architects, and the sculptor and wood-carver had an equal share in creating every feature which gives any distinction of style to the buildings that were the outcome of their united efforts. ”

“ Fasten a common carpenter’s square in a slit to the top of a stake by means of a screw, and then tie a plumb-line at the angle so that it may hang along the short arm, when the plumb-line hangs vertically and sights may be taken over it. A carpenter’s spirit-level set on an adjustable stand will do as well. ”

“ A country carpenter deals in every sort of work that is made of wood: a country smith in every sort of work that is made of iron. The former is not only a carpenter, but a joiner, a cabinet-maker, and even a carver in wood, as well as a plow-wright, a wheelwright, a cart and wagon maker. ”

“ Nailing shingles on a roof illustrates well the various aspects of habituation. The expert carpenter not only nails on many more shingles in a day than does the amateur, but he does it better and with more ease, and with much less fatigue. The carpenter knows exactly how much he can do in a day, and each particular movement is certain and sure. The carpenter has confidence in, and usually prides himself on, this ability, thus getting pleasure out of his work.
The operations in arithmetic illustrate most of the results of habituation. Practice in addition makes for speed and accuracy. ”

“ After the boards are so planed for the different poles, upper and lower beams, railings etc., they are again to be carefully shaved with carpenter’s skill before they are put in their proper position.
The carpenter has to keep his tools very sharp for doing this skillful work so that he has to sharpen them frequently while he is working. ”

“ The term Carpenter, from the Latin carpentum, a waggon, originally denoted a mechanic who constructed the wooden body of a vehicle of any kind, as distinguished from the Wheelwright; but in process of time the same term came to be applied to artificers in timber generally. ”

“ The book contains methods of laying roofs, rafters, stairs, floors, hoppers, bevels, joining mouldings, mitering, coping, plain hand-railing, circular work, splayed work, and many other things the carpenter wants to know to help him in his every day vocation. It is the most complete and very latest work published, being thorough, practical and reliable. One which no carpenter can afford to be without. ”

“ In the modern mode of building, the carpenter will stretch out his keel, begin to timber out in the middle, perhaps timber out as far as the forward and after frames, and even put in some ceiling, before raising the stem and stern, because the vessel is all modelled, and he can put every timber in her, and hold her together with ribbands without putting on a single plank. ”

“ Carpentry and joinery, as well as all other trades connected with building, are subservient to the architect, when an individual of this particular profession [112] has been employed; but it most commonly happens, that the master-carpenter acts in this capacity. ”

“ Let the carpenter challenge the blacksmith, who knows little about wood in general and nothing about particular kinds of wood, to do his work, and, unless the blacksmith declines to make himself a laughing-stock, he is pretty certain to saw askew, to choke up his plane, and presently to break his tools or cut his fingers. ”

“ Figure 14.—1688: Frontispiece From John Brown, The Description and Use of the Carpenter's Rule, London, 1688. (Library of Congress.) Configuration
Hand tools are often neglected in the search for the pleasing objects of the past. Considered too utilitarian, their decorative appeal—the mellow patina of the wood plane or the delicately tapered legs of a pair of dividers—often goes unnoticed. Surprisingly modern in design, the ancient carpenter's or cabinetmaker's tool has a vitality of line that can, without reference to technical significance, make it an object of considerable grace and beauty. ”

“ The carpenter and joiner are guided, in the performance of their work, by well-defined rules, drawn chiefly from the science of Geometry, and which they have learned from imitation and practice, as well as, in many cases, from the valuable works which have been published on these branches of the art of building. ”

“ The carpenter who works with his hands in the building of the house can hold his head as high as the architect who has spent many years in learning how to create the design. Why not? Both are engaged on the same work, each one in his favorite, and so his best, way. ”

“ At ten o’clock there was a bustle and confusion at the door, and a long string of lads marched, two and two, cap in hand, into the room. These were all the carpenters’ apprentices in Ludwigslust. Every quarterly night the hospitable carpenters have them in after supper to be regaled with beer and cordials, and initiated into the mysteries of jollity that are connected with the existence of a master carpenter. “Long live all carpenters’ apprentices! ”

“ And here at the corner is a little sketch of the pillars to support the piazza, and the form of the brackets that go around the coving."
"I heard the carpenters say," exclaimed Walter, "that it was a great help to have such a plan, and prevented much misunderstanding and unkind feeling; for often the carpenter will understand the contract one way, and his employer quite another; and he wished every man, who was going to build a house, would have an exact framing plan, as well as a profile of the rooms." ”

“ Advantages of Wood Turning.—This is not, strictly, in the carpenter's domain; but a knowledge of its use will be of great service in the trade, and particularly in cabinet making. I urge the ingenious youth to rig up a wood-turning lathe, for the reason that it is a tool easily made and one which may be readily turned by foot, if other power is not available. ”

“ It is a clear treatise on the every-day problems of the carpenter and house builder. As a textbook on carpentry, it meets every requirement of the student. No other publication has ever undertaken to cover the essentials of house building in a manner adapted for school use as this book on ‘Carpentry.’”
“Author is an experienced carpenter and is chairman of the Manual arts department, University of Missouri. He has written several excellent elementary books on woodworking, which are recommended.” ”

“ The carpenter who cares for his saws, chisels and planes, who keeps them sharp and free from rust, will be able to do better work than the one who carelessly allows them to become nicked, broken, handleless or rusted. The finer the work which one does, the greater the care he must take of the instruments with which he works. ”

“ He produced a carpenter properly qualified for repairs on an old house, because he had always lived in one and had been repairing it most of the time since childhood. He found us the right men to clean our well, to do our painting, to trim and rehabilitate our frowsy door-yard. He took me in his buggy to see some of these men; the rest he sent for. If you have ever undertaken a job like ours you have a pretty good idea of our debt to William C. Westbury. ”

“ It may be well to state here, however, that in the finish of the interior the daiku, or carpenter, has finished his work, and a new set of workmen, the sashi-mono-ya, or cabinetmakers, come in,—the rough framing and similar work being done by the carpenter proper. Great care is taken to secure wood that matches in grain and color ”