Category: hand tools

Posted on

Paring In Action

I finally made a (very) short video showing edge paring using an English style A2 Cryo knife. Hopefully, early next year, in the new tool catalog, there will be videos of all the tools in action.  In the meantime, descriptions and images of tools are in the “TOOL CATALOG”  in the right hand column.

Video seems a promising technology for the preservation of craft based knowledge: it can clearly demonstrate and record hand skill techniques.  It can also be potentially misleading in terms of how easily a tool is used, and “special effects” are available on any computer.  But videos are popular, great for marketing, persuasive and hot right now.

Sit back, eat a piece of popcorn and enjoy the next 39 seconds.

…..

A    PEACHEY    KNIFE    IN    ACTION

…..

Posted on

Whatzit

Bookbinding tool maybe

Bookbinding tool maybe - detail

Ursula Mitra, fellow conservator in private practice here in NYC, and an old friend (remember making phase boxes together at Teachers College in 1990?!?) sent me these images of a possible bookbinding tool.  She acquired it from a bookbinder who didn’t know what it was.

She describes it as follows:

“I discovered a tool, possibly used in bookbinding, but I do not know what it is used for. It is a wooden frame,  8″ x 10″, not glued, so it can be taken apart.  The wood is smooth and not porous (not Oak and not Beech).  There are two pointed blocks that slide freely on each of the short sides of the frame (four total).  The wooden rail that they slide on has a trapezoidal cross section.  Each block has a nail driven into it to facing into the frame it and a string tied to it which connects to the block on the opposite rail (two strings total).  There is no way to lock the blocks and prevent them from moving.  The threads are longer than the frame is wide (10″) and they are approximately 12 gauge or slightly thicker.  The tool may have been taken apart and reassembled in a way not consistent with its use.”

I think she might be right that the blocks make more sense reversed, but  I have no clue what this tool might be.  Any thoughts?

Posted on

The Proper Method of Using a Scissors

scissorsPalmer, E.W.  A Course in Bookbinding for Vocational Training. New York: Employing Bookbinders of America, 1927.

I’ve never thought too much about using a scissors, and can’t even recall ever being taught.  I’d usually hold the sheet of paper on the left side, with my thumb on top of the paper.  But after reading Palmer, I’m a convert the “proper method”.  It seems to result in a straighter cut, since the paper ends up slightly curling parallel to the direction of cutting, as well as acting as a more stable counter point for the action of the blade.  This right eye view, shows the exact perpendicularity of the scissors to the paper plane, as well as reminding us that often diagrams can show essential information much more clearly than a photograph can.

Of course, this is a small matter, and not using the “proper method of scissors cutting” will not hasten the end of civilization as we know it. But it does relate to the demise of technical education in general, and makes one worry about the hundreds (hundreds of thousands?) of other techniques that have disappeared, are almost forgotten or will become lost in the future.