Part II

veins are carved, I should advise young friends to practise assiduously at it, and try to carve not only simple raised veins, but also branching veins, as seen on the under surface of many natural leaves. I can promise them that their trouble will be well rewarded, not only by the more finished artistic appearance of the bracket, but by greatly increased skill of hand ; and it must be borne in mind $iat, as each difficulty is overcome, greater power is acquired for over- coming other difficulties. When all the leaves of the bracket and support are carved, and made as smooth as you can get them with your tools, S 60 A MANUAL OP FRET CUTTING you must proceed to finish them with sand or glass-paper, first with a moderately coarse glass-paper, then with a finer. The sheet of glass-paper can be divided into quarters, and again subdivided into pieces of a convenient size. Take one of these, fold into a little pad, fitting the leaf, and work with this, exposing a fresh portion of the paper, as each in suc- cession gets worn. When the proper degree of smoothness is nearly attained, little bits of the glass-paper can be torn off and put under the finger and worked in that way. But whatever plan you adopt be most careful not to round off the edges of the leaves, for this gives the work a heavy, dull clumsy appearance. When the leaves have been smoothed with coarse and fine glass-paper, brush each leaf well with a clean, hard, bristle brush, and then take the V-tool and incise the intended veins. The brush will remove all particles of sand or glass that might otherwise blunt the tools. The veins could not be incised before, because the sand-paper would rub down the sharp edges of the veins, and totally spoil the effect. I must here warn my young readers that no wood-carver of any pretension to skill ever uses sand-paper to finish his leaves; it is utterly inadmissible. By a nice adaptation of the sweep of the gouges to the shape of the leaves, and by going carefully over them, he can produce a perfectly smooth surface without that dead appearance caused by the use of my sand-paper, I would advise all readers to trust solely to gouge and chisel. Their work will look a little rough at first, but it will very soon acquire the requisite smoothness. I used glass-paper as here described, when I first began to carve on wood, but soon left it off, and found that the leaves, although not quite so smooth, had a more natural appearance. AND WOOD CARVING. 61 The Swiss carvers use it to save time, and vein their leaves afterwards. Instead of glass-paper for the final polishing, I generally use glass-cloth, No. o. For smoothing the inside of a very hollow leaf, or any place difficult to get at, or for rounding off a branch or stem, I cut the cloth into strips a quarter of an inch, or three-eighths wide, laying the sheet of glass-cloth glass downwards on a flat piece of board kept on purpose, and putting over it another, planed to a smooth edge to guide the knife. Then I take one of these strips, put it down on the spot my to be smoothed, and the first finger of left hand slightly pressing the slip down, I pull it towards me with my right hand, and in a few strokes the part is perfectly smoothed. Then these narrow strips put over a branch, or any part to be rounded, and worked backwards and forwards, soon effect the purpose, and produce an evenness and polish that could not be so well effected by any other method. Glass-paper will not do so well to cut into strips ; it breaks off short when any strain is put upon it, whereas the threads of the cloth hold well together, and the strip can be used until the glass is quite worn off. The leave, s of the bracket being now finished, the branches rounded and nicely tooled, you must now com- mence to back carve the whole j that is to say, to undercut the leaves, stems, and branches, so that no dead wood may meet the eye, for this dead wood has the effect of making the bracket or any foliage look heavy, very heavy indeed. So you must undercut each leaf and branch to an angle of sixty degrees, and no more j to undercut more would be a waste of time and labour, it would not produce a better effect, and the result would be disappointment. Take care that each 6a A MANUAL OF FRE1 CLUING leaf is brought to a tolerably fine edge, but not so fine as to be easily chipped, and that the branches are back-carved, so as to show only the rounded part. As a commencement, lay the bracket down on the bench, carved side upwards, take a half-round gouge and cut away the dead wood gradually downwards, from near the edge of any leaf, till you have cut it away to an angle of sixty degrees, get it pretty smooth with a flat gouge, and then turn the bracket over and work the place smooth with a flat gouge. This little place so carved will serve as a model by which to finish the rest. Having once back-carved a leaf or leaves, you will never again or very rarely require to begin from the front. Take care you clear out the angles and junctions of leaves, and that you do not leave any chips, rags, or fragments to be seen from the front, but get all as smooth and clean as possible. Great care must be taken to avoid a fracture, where the point of a leaf is crossed by the grain of the wood. If the cut is made towards the point, you may be quite sure the point will be broken, for as the tool presses nearer and nearer to the point, the resisting power of the wood dimi- nishes in proportion as it tapers off j but if the cut is made from the point towards the body of the leaf, it can be done in perfect safety. Whenever back-carving the point of a leaf across the grain in a piece of wood that is unusually brittle, I always turn the wood over, carved side uppermost ; then inserting the tool at the extreme point, I cut down at once the angle of sixty degrees. This saves the point, and I finish back-carving as before described. During the process of back-carving, turn the bracket round occasionally to see the effect produced ; and to make sure that enough had been cut away at the angles, and that AND WOOD CARVING, 63 no chips or rags are visible from the front. If a leaf or leaves are very much carved away, and there is not sufficient sub- stance left to resist the unavoidable pressure required to force on the tool, and this very often occurs in the support to a bracket where both sides are carved, a pad of folded paper of sufficient thickness can be placed under the part to support it. This is better than a piece of wood, because the paper will not chip or mark the carved part as a piece of wood might do. One of the best ways of forcing on a tool where the wood is too tough, or there is too much to be cut by simple pressure, is to drive it by smart blows with the palm of the hand ; and this is the safest plan to adopt in any critical part, when a slip of the tool would cause much and irreparable damage. The blows can be regulated to a nicety, 64 A MANUAL OF FRET CUTTING and the impulse stops with the blows j whereas, when giving your weight to push on a tool, it is at times quite impossible to stop it instantaneously, and the tool may slip and cause great damage. One illustration is worth ten pages of description ; there- my fore, before quitting this part of subject, I give an illus- tration of what I have advanced in respect to back-carving a view of a leaf not back-carved, and a view of the same back-carved, as I recommend. The difference shown by even these rough sketches is, I think, sufficient to carry con- viction to any mind. What a heavy appearance the dead wood at the edge gives to the first, and how light the second looks, where it is all carved away, and the leaf brought to a fine edge. I have not shaded the leaf to show any depth of my the carving ; it is quite unnecessary, as sole object is to show what great lightness is given to the work by back- carving, and my readers from this sample may figure to themselves the great difference back-carving would produce on a mass of foliage. I can assure them the effect is mar- vellous, and will repay all the extra trouble it gives. Here are two more small illustrations, showing the edge Old Method. of the leaf turned towards the spectator. The first is the leaf carved on both sides in the ordinary way. The carving is shallow, as a matter of course, because the wood is thin, and in consequence it looks poor and mean, as my readers would certainly say were they to get a front view of it. Seen in AND WOOD CARVING. 65 this position edgeways, they can themselves judge of its appearance ; and if a thicker piece of wood were used, and the carving made one half deeper, it would certainly improve the front view, but it would aggravate the unsightliness of the view edgeways. Here is the second illustration, the same leaf carved on both sides, but in the way I recommend ; one side to repre- New Method. sent the upper surface of the leaf, tne other to represent the under surface, or back of the leaf ; and I think there can be little doubt as to which looks the better, and which is the more artistic of the two. I have shown the under surface, that you may see how it is done, and how the leaf comes down to a fine edge. Bear in mind that, carve a leaf as deep as you please in this way, if the slightest care is taken, you are not likely to carve through and spoil your work. To complete the bracket there now only remains to cut the shelf, and then to put the bracket together. The usual rule for the size of the shelf is to take half the extreme breadth of the bracket as a radius, to strike a semicircle on the wood for the shelf with this radius, and cut it out accordingly. This is the simplest and easiest form, and the edge of the shelf can be nicely rounded with rasp and file, then smoothed with sand-paper and polished. But it adds greatly to the effect when the edge is cut into scallops instead of plain round. To do this take your compasses, put on a pencil point, and with it strike the semicircle as above directed, then at half an inch outside this strike another Now semicircle. take a penny out of your pocket, lay it just 66 A MANUAL OF FRET CUTTING inside the outer circle, run your pencil round the penny between the two semicircles, push the penny along, and run the pencil round it again, taking care that the marks round the penny only just touch, they must neither overlap nor separate. Continue this right through, and your shelf will be perfectly and neatly marked off into scallops, and it can be cut out at the sawing table. A pencil point must be used in drawing the inner semi- circle, because the compass point would leave a deep score across the base of each scallop. If the scallop as marked by the penny is too large, take a halfpenny, or a shilling. But perhaps my readers have no compasses ; no matter, we can do quite well without them, we only want a strip of paper, a stout pin or brad, and a piece of fine twine. Take the strip of paper, cut it to the exact measure, lengthways, of T the extreme breadth or of the bracket, fold it in half, this half will be the exact radius. Take your pencil, and draw a line as close to the edge of the board for the shelf as you can get it, measure off on this line the radius of folded paper, and mark the two extremities. Stick the pin at the inner point marked, this will be the centre, now take a piece of fine twine, make a loop in it, this is to guide the pencil, put the pencil point into the loop, which must be quite down on the board, place the point on the pencil line at the outer mark, tighten the twine and twist it two or three times round the Now pin. run the point along ; the loop will hold and guide it, and you will have a nearly perfect semicircle, it will only vary from a true semicircle by the breadth of the pin. There is another way of ornamenting the edge of the shelf which is very effective ; this is by bevelling off the shelf from above, meeting it with a small bevel from below, and then making a succession of gougings across the bevel all AND WOOD CARVING. 67 the way round. If this is neatly executed it looks very well, A the bevel is, in fact, fluted all round. moulding may also be made all round the shelf by means of different gouges. There is also a little instrument, of the nature of a plane, used by French carvers to assist in making their mouldings j it is called a " Tarabiscot." English carvers make all such tools themselves ; in Paris they are sold at the tool shops. I annex an illustration. The tool is eleven inches long, an inch deep at the ends an inch and a half at the shoulder, A, and an inch thick. It is made of two pieces of wood screwed together by four screws. The plane iron goes in between the two centre screws. Carvers always make the plane-irons themselves. B is the iron. Now, suppose it is required to make a moulding round the shelf of the bracket, and the young amateur has made one of these tools he ; must now procure a bit of ribbon- steel, soften it in the fire, cut off two lengths of one and a half inch each, put them together, mark on one the shape of the required moulding, and file it out with the rat's-tail or other files. When he has got the proper shape, he must temper and then sharpen the irons, one one way, the other contrary, so as to cut both forwards and backwards, on account of the grain of the wood. Thus, the moulding having been roughed out, the shoulder of the plane is placed against the lower part of the shelf, and the iron run along the roughly-cut moulding. 68 A MANUAL OF FRET CUTTING The iron scrapes it. When he has cut sufficiently one way, he must shift the iron for the other, cutting the contrary way ; but it is better to make a pair of these tools, to avoid shifting. I have also seen a better form of the tool. It is made out of one solid piece, which is drawn down to the dotted line half-way down the handle ; then at c, a long large screw is put quite through into a wooden button on the farther side. Turn, this button, and the plane iron is loosed at once, when the screw at the shoulders is slightly loosed. There is no screw at D. The pattern here given is of the tool as it is sold in Paris. Now there only remains to put the bracket together. If it is to be screwed permanently together this is soon done. C If it is to fold up with hinges, which is very convenient for putting away, it will be a longer process. But before putting together there is one neat little finish I should like you to give to the bracket, that is, to make a little reed round the un- T carved or part of the bracket and the support. So take your rule or a piece of board planed to a straight edge, and with your tracing point draw a neat clear line one-eighth of an inch from the edge of the T, and the same on the support, as V shown by the dots. Then with the tool deepen this line, then round off the outer edge of the cut, and the edge of the bracket also, and this will form a neat reed, and give a pretty finish to your work. Now see where you had better put in WOOD CARVING 09 the screws, they must go into the support where there is most wood to hold them ; then see whereabouts to put them T through the upright part or of the bracket. When you have decided where to put them into the support, lay it down on the T, and mark the exact spot where they will go through ; see that the marks are exactly in the centre of the T, not too much to the right or left, and bore the holes. The shelf should be exactly on the level with the upper T edge of the ; so leave room for it. When the support is screwed on, lay the shelf on the top, and bore the hole for the centre screw, which should be put over the support. If the bracket is large, you will have to put in two more to the right, and two more to the left ; if the bracket is small, then three screws will suffice for the shelf ; if it is desired to make the bracket fold, then four small hinges must be provided, and sixteen small screws. The first hinge must be put on one inch, or thereabouts, according to the size of the bracket, from the top of the support, and, as it must be let in, a place must be cut for it, so that it may be flush or level with the wood. The second hinge should be at the same distance from the bottom of the support. Now, when this is done, lay the bracket down on the bench, and place the support on T the in the position it is to retain, and with the tracing Now point mark very exactly the position of the hinges. take the hinges off the support, and with chisels suitable to the size, let them in neatly. The holes in the hinges ought to be properly rymed out, so as to be quite large enough to admit the screws, and counter-sunk so that the screw-head may come level with the metal. If they are not, the rymer* A * rymer is a long piece of steel, quadrangular, and tapering off to a point. This is put into the screw-hole, and on being turned round the A sharp angles of the steel enlarge the holes. rose-bit is a conical piece of 70 A MANUAL OF FRET CUTTING and rose-bit must be purchased, for you will have constant use for them whenever you have to put on hinges, or to let in screws. The shelf must be put on in the same manner as the support, the hinges being let in neatly and carefully, each part of the hinge level with the wood. The only thing now remaining to be done is to drive a retaining-pin into the upper edge of the support, on which the shelf rests. Three-quarters of an inch of stout hairpin is as good as anything. Bore a little hole for the pin about one inch from the end of the support, where the Now branch is joined to it, and drive in the pin lightly. press the shelf down on it, and where the pin makes a mark bore a hole for it. This pin keeps the support in its proper place, and prevents it from shifting. Now rub over the whole bracket with your hard bristle brush, and beeswax and turpentine, and it will be finished. But if you wish to polish the bracket nicely, rub it well before putting it together. It can be laid on the bench and well rubbed with more convenience, and a really good polish produced. steel, cut into a coarse file, and used for sloping off the edges of the screwholes, so that the screw-head may not project above the metal. There is another kind of rose-bit for wood-work. AND WOOD CARVING. 71 CHAPTER VII. HE | young amateur wood-carver who has followed my instructions, has kept his wits about him, and has worked diligently and energetically, and with a determination to excel in the beautiful 'art of fret cutting and wood carving, will have frequently felt himself greatly impeded by having to wait the leisure or convenience, or to depend on the good nature, of the neighbouring carpenter to dress his wood for him, or he will have felt in the high price he has had to pay at the tool-shop for ready-prepared wood a burthen on his pocket-money he would gladly be spared. The price that tool-sellers charge for ready-prepared wood is not to be wondered at, although it costs about a third more than unprepared wood bought at the timber-yard, and nearly a fourth more than unprepared wood bought at the tool-shop. It must be remembered that the tool-seller has to pay the workman for dressing the wood, and also to make a profit on his outlay ; and these two items, workmen's wages and profit on outlay, necessarily run up the price. Almost every amateur wood carver, I repeat, must feel the annoyance of one of these two impediments the time lost in waiting the leisure of the neighbouring carpenter, or the high price of prepared wood purchased at the tool-shop. The high price of the wood is serious, but the loss of time is 73 A MANUAL OF FRET CUTTING more serious still ; therefore, I should advise every one who can afford it, or who can little by little save up the money, to buy a few carpenter's tools, and to begin with a couple or three saws, a dovetail saw, a common hand-saw, and a half- ripper this last is the least necessary to the beginner ; and two planes, a jack-plane and a smoothing-plane ; and, having procured these tools, to become as soon as possible their own carpenter, and dress their own wood. To enable young amateurs to do so, and with a view to their eventually becoming their own joiners, I purpose in this chapter to give them some instruction on the nature of the tools named, and how to use them. I have no intention to enter on the subject of joinery ; this would require quite a treatise to itself, and is beyond the scope and intention of this work j but whoever can learn to handle these two tools saw and plane- efficiently, he will have mastered the principal part of the groundwork of carpentry and joinery. To saw straight and plane true may be called the groundwork and foundation of carpentry. Looking at a carpenter planing a piece of wood, the operation seems easy enough j but to plane a piece of wood true and without " winding," is not so easy as it seems it requires considerable skill. We will begin with the saw, the first tool in the order of importance. Of this tool there are many kinds, each adapted to a different operation ; but we will deal only with the three before named. The common hand-saw is used for cutting across grain j it is generally twenty inches long in the blade ; it has eight teeth to the inch, and fines off from the teeth to the back. The teeth of all saws are bent alternately to right and left. This is called the set of the saw ; without this set the saw AND WOOD CARVING. 73 would not pass freely through the kerf or cut, the fibre would close in and jam it ; but the teeth being thus set right and left, the space they cut is doubled, and as the blade of the saw fines off, as before mentioned, from teeth to back, it passes freely through the cut. When the teeth of large saws are set wide for sawing large timber into planks, I have seen them on the continent set in groups of three one tooth right and left, and the third remains in its original position, upright, the saws were thought to cut quicker by this set. Saws should be made of the finest steel, and be so thoroughly well-tempered that, if bent nearly to a right angle, they should spring back true to their original position, and in choosing a saw its temper should be thus tested. There was, many years ago, a firm at Chelsea, Howell and Co., celebrated for their saws. I have seen a carpenter take one of Howell's saws, bend the point through the handle, and let it spring back j it came as straight and true as a line. The natives of all such Oriental countries as I have seen, reverse the teeth of their saws and point them towards the Handle. From this it results that the motion required is a pulling motion j the teeth of our saws point away from the handle, consequently the motion required is a pushing motion. I have tried both, and prefer our own method, as infinitely more powerful and expeditious. But time with an Oriental is comparatively of little value, and the pulling motion suits their habit of working, which is, squatted on their heels on the ground. Now we will suppose that the amateur wishes to saw off a portion of a board, and that the line the saw is to cut is Now marked across it. the way to use the saw is not to grasp the handle with the right hand, to place the left hand 74 A MANUAL OF FRET CUTTING on the back of the saw, and applying the teeth to the edge of the board on the marked line, to make a dash and a dig at it, as I have seen more than one amateur do. This proceeding makes a gash on the edge of the board, mangles it fright- fully, tearing out large splinters, and it is ten to one if the marked line is hit, and then the edge of the board has to be haggled about until the saw fairly enters on the line. Proceed in this way : Place the board or plank on a saw- ing trestle, or old box or packing-case, of a suitable height, put your left knee on it to steady and keep it firm, then grasp the edge of the board with the fingers of the left hand, at an inch and half or any convenient distance from the marked Now line. raise the thumb of the left hand, to form a guide to the saw, grasp the saw firmly by the handle, and placing the blade against the guiding thumb, apply the teeth very lightly to the edge of the plank at the mark so lightly as just to merely scratch it ; make three or four short, quick strokes, each as light as possible, until the saw has fairly entered the board on the line ; then lengthen the strokes gradually, and saw with long, regular strokes. Do not press the teeth of the saw downwards into the wood when propelling the saw forward, but let the saw cut by its own weight. This will be quite sufficient, and if the amateur saws steadily, and not by fits and starts first two or three short, hurried strokes, then two or three long ones he will soon make good work. my If young readers will follow strictly the advice just given, they will soon be able to enter a board with a single stroke of the saw. Use the full length of the saw, draw it back to within two inches of the point, and propel it forward as far as the handle will permit. If the wood is hard or AND WOOD CARVING. 75 tough, a little grease applied to the teeth will greatly facilitate the sawing. When a plank or piece of wood is nearly sawn through, the operator must take the precaution to support the portion being cut off, either with his left hand or by putting something under it, or it will break off by its own weight, and splinter one or the other part. We will now suppose that the amateur desires to saw with, instead of across, the grain of the wood, and to split a piece of board, say an inch and half thick, sawing through both edges, so as to make two boards of the same superfices. The board must be dressed along both edges, and on the top also ; then with a gauge mark a line for the saw carefully on the dressed edges and top, and place it nearly upright, but at a convenient angle, in the bench vice. Take the half-ripper saw ; this is a little longer than the hand-saw, and with larger teeth j enter the saw most carefully at the upper angle of the board, with very light and short strokes ; cut through to the further edge of the board, then turn it round and cut from what was the further edge, and so on alternately j and if done carefully this will make both halves come as even as possible. Success mainly depends on entering the saw evenly on the lines at top and edge. This is one of the most difficult of all sawing operations, and especially difficult to a beginner ; it requires the greatest care, or the board will be divided unevenly and one or both halves be spoiled. I may here remark that the beginner should pay great attention to his position in sawing. If the work is too much in front of him, I may say too far over to the left, the saw will be apt to incline from right to left ; or if the work is too far over to the right the saw will be apt to incline from left to 76 A MANUAL OF FRET CUTTING right. In either case the cut of kerf will not be perpendicular to the surface of the plank. The line marked for the saw should be exactly opposite the right shoulder, and the eye should look down both sides of the saw. If it is desired to divide a plank lengthways, to cut off a piece the whole length or part of the length, enter the saw with the caution before described, and as soon as it has cut into the plank sufficiently to feel the pressure of the wood closing in upon it, insert a little wedge into the kerf to keep it open, and this will greatly facilitate the sawing. The last saw to be described is the dove-tail saw. This is a very fine-toothed saw, of about eighteen teeth to the inch, and a very useful saw to the wood-carver. The blade is very thin and broad, and is let into a brass or steel back to keep*it rigid. It will be seen at once from this arrangement that this saw is not intended for cutting through any thick- ness of wood ; the back would prevent it. This saw requires great care in using, to prevent it from buckling, getting bent or strained. If by any accident the saw should get bent, a tap or two, given lightly on the back, just over the bent part, will frequently put it right. There are two very efficient aids to the saw, simple and inexpensive, but indispensable, the use of which I will now describe. The first is the bench saddle. This can be made by the amateur himself. It is a piece of wood with reverse shoulders ; the under shoulder hooks against the side of the bench, the shank or body lying on the bench, the upper shoulder catches any piece of wood laid against it for sawing. It is made in this way : Take a piece of any wood, hard deal as good as any, fifteen inches long, one and a half inches thick, two inches wide, and at two inches from each end, but opposite sides, make a cut across two-thirds through ; then AND WOOD CARVING. 77 turn the piece of wood on its side, and from the angle formed by the surface, and the further end, draw a line diagonally down to the bottom of the cross-cut. Take the piece out ; do the same on the other side, and the pieces left untouched at each side form the shoulders. Here is a sketch to render the description intelligible. With the help of two of these saddles any plank or piece of wood, if not too large, can be held firmly in the bench for sawing. The second aid to the saw is the mitre-box. This is more expensive, and will cost half-a-crown at the tool-shop ; it is a small trough of wood, open at each end, and of any size, according to circumstances. In both walls of this trough are two saw kerfs at an angle of forty-five ; the lines of these kerts cross each other at a right angle. There is also in each wall one kerf at right angles. The dovetail saw runs in these kerfs, and so, without failing, with little trouble, and no loss of time, a piece of wood laid in this trough can be cut to a true angle of forty-five, or to a true right angle. Two pieces of wood cut to an angle of forty-five, when the joints are joined together, form a mitre joint and a true right angle. This joint is much used for small boxes, picture- 78 A MANUAL OF FRET CUTTING frames, and such like work, and k is the most simple of all joints. I give a sketch of the mitre-box. Every one who learns to use the saw should learn how to sharpen it ; the workman who depends on another man for sharpening his tools is only half a workman he is a poor, dependent, helpless creature. Take the half-rip saw and look at it, turn the teeth up, and it will be seen that not only is the point of each tooth sharp, but the front of each tooth also is brought to a sharp Now cutting edge. take two boards, each eight inches wide, one inch thick, twelve inches long, put them together, and stand them up, then let the upper and outer edges of these boards be bevelled off, then let the inside surfaces from an inch below the upper edge to the same distance from the lower edge be cut away, say to the depth of one-eighth of an inch each, put an iron screw and nut loosely through the lower part of the boards just to hold them together ; put the saw between the boards, the teeth projecting a quarter of an inch above the upper bevelled-off edges ; then put the boards with the saw into the bench vice, and with a turn of the screw the saw will be firmly fixed. To sharpen the saw, take a triangular file, three-square file it is called, the handle in the right hand, the point of the file between the thumb and forefinger of the left hand, apply it to the front of the first tooth that leans away from the operator. Let the point of the file incline towards the point of the saw, give three or four or more rubs of the file, and the point of the tooth will be sharpened, and the front brought to a sharp edge, and as the file will have passed over the top of the next tooth it also will be filed down, and the point partly sharpened. Now apply the file to the front of this tooth ; it leans AND WOOD CARVING. 79 towards the operator, so the point of the file must incline towards the handle of the saw. Give, as before, three or four rubs, according to the state of the saw, and the point of this tooth will also be sharpened, and its front brought to a sharp, cutting edge. Go on in this way alternately, always remembering that when the tooth leans away from the operator the point of the file must incline to the point of the saw, and when the tooth leans towards the operator, then it must incline towards the handle of the saw. If the saw has been sharpened before, it will be advisable to first run the file along the top of the teeth, to bring them all to a level. I give a profile of the saw clip just described : The tool that comes next to the saw in point of import- ance to the carpenter and joiner is the plane. There is no tool that has so many varieties or that assumes so many shapes ; but we have to consider only two the jack-plane and the smoothing-plane. These two will be quite enough for the amateur to commence with, but as he progresses and begins to joiner his own work he will require others ; but whoever can learn to handle thoroughly and efficiently these two planes, will require very little teaching to use any others. The plane is composed of two parts the stock and the plane-iron, or blade ; a plane is, in fact, neither more nor less than a chisel, set in a handle or frame to guide and control it. Indeed, on the continent, I have seen a carver use a chisel in this way to level the ground of a pattern he was carving in the solid. 8o A MANUAL OF FRET CUTTING The jack-plane is about fifteen" inches long, and two, or two and a quarter inches wide. The handle is called a toat or horn. The irons of jack, trying, and jointer-planes are usually double, an upper-iron being screwed on to the lower one to turn the shaving back a little, and so make a cleaner cut. These upper-irons can be shifted up or down as required. Some jack-planes are made with single irons, for planing outsides or rough work. They work easier, and are more quickly sharpened, as there is no upper-iron to unscrew and replace, The first thing to learn is how to sharpen the plane-iron, and, in order to do this, to learn to get it out of the " stock." Take the plane in the left hand by the middle, the thumb in the plane mouth ; then with a mallet hit two or three sharp strokes on the top of the plane in front ; this loosens the wedge, and the iron comes out easily. Never hit the plane with a hammer if you have a mallet or heavy piece of wood at hand ; the hammer dents the wood deeply. Always re- member the carpenter's old rule, " Wood to wood, iron to iron," and never hit a wooden tool or handle with an iron one, or an iron tool with a wooden one ; the wood always a comes to grief." Remember this is a carpenter's adage, Oot a stonemason's. Having got out the plane-iron, lay it on the bench, and unscrew the upper-iron, and proceed to sharpen the plane- my iron, as directed in first chapter (page 6), taking care, before commencing, that there is not the smallest particle of grit on the stone. When screwing on the upper-iron, remember that the farther it is from the edge of the plane-iron the easier the plane will work, but the cut will be more rough, the wood more likely to be torn ; the lower down or nearer the edge AND WOOD CARVING. 81 of the plane-iron, the harder the plane will work, but then the cut will be cleaner. Replace the iron in the stock, and holding it in position with the thumb of the left hand, drive in the wedge, but don't drive it in too hard, as it will " " spring the plane-iron, and make it concave, when, of course, it will not plane true, or, as I have known it do, it may spring the upper-iron, so that shavings get in between the two, and constantly choke the \ plane. If on driving in the wedge the plane-iron projects too far, give a tap with the mallet on the hinder end of the plane, and this will send it back. If it does not project enough, give the top of the iron a tap or two with a hammer until it is set as required. The very foundation of all good carpentry is planing the 8a A MANUAL OF FRET CUTTING stuff true ; therefore make every endeavour to learn to plane A a board true and without winding. board is said to wind or wynd, when the two opposite corners that is, the left- hand nearest corner and right-hand furthest corner are lower than the other two. Place the board firmly on the bench against the stop or dog, which must be knocked up to a proper height ; then, to prevent the board from shifting or drawing back with the motion of the plane, fasten it down with the holdfast, or, as English carpenters do, drive a bit say an inch and a quarter of an old knife into the bench, and at the same time into the end of the board below the level of the upper surface. This will keep it perfectly firm j but it is a clumsy con- trivance. Now, standing a little behind the end of the board, put the plane on it, grasp the toat or horn with the right hand, and put the left hand over the front part of the plane the knuckles on the further side, the thumb on the side next the workman. The illustration shows the position. Then push the plane smartly forward, taking care to keep the front of the plane well down with the left hand when beginning the stroke, but bearing harder with the right hand on the handle at the end of the stroke. Beginners always reverse these motions, and the consequence is the nearest corner gets planed away too much, and the board winds. As the planing proceeds, lay the edge of the plane-stock occasionally across the board in various parts, and the light coming under it will show at once whether the board is planed evenly, or whether in any part it is cut away too much or not enough. When the board has been planed all over and the two edges dressed, take up the board, and holding it across the AND WOOD CARVING. 83 body, raise the nearest edge, look over it, and bring the lower edge as nearly as possible in a line with it, and it will at once be seen if the board is planed true or if it winds. When one surface has been planed true, take a marking gauge, set it to the thickness the board is required, run a line with it along the edges of the board, plane to this line, and if the surface first planed was true, the whole board will now be true. The marking gauge is composed of two pieces, the gauge block, through which passes the bar or strig on which is fixed the iron point that marks the work. To hold the gauge properly, the third, fourth, and fifth fingers of the right hand should grasp the strig just behind the gauge-block, the forefinger should be on the gauge-block, and the thumb on the fore part of the strig, just by the marker. When a board is being planed, it may very well be reversed, that is, turned end for end, to suit the grain or the convenience of the workman. The smoothing-plane is held in a different way from the jack-plane. The board having been planed down and got true by the jack, the smoothing-plane is merely used, as its name denotes, to smooth any roughness left by the jack. I may here remark, that, to plane true any long piece of board, a longer plane, called a trying-plane, would be required ; the jack would not be sufficient. The smoothing-plane must be set very fine, and the upper iron should come quite low down towards the edge, according to the fineness of the shaving to be taken off. The heel of the smoothing-plane is held in the right hand, fingers on the off-side, thumb on the top of the plane, or next the workman ; the left hand grasps the front of the plane in a similar manner. 84 A MANUAL OF FRET CUTTING The plane is then worked backwards and forwards over the board, or with a circular motion, until the board is perfectly smoothed. To take out the iron, for the purpose of sharpening, hit a smart blow or two on the heel of the plane j this will loosen the wedge, and the irons will come out. In grinding plane-irons, be careful not to make the bevel too long, for if too long the iron may quiver and produce uneven work. Plane with the grain of the wood whenever possible, turning the board end for end when necessary. But in some cases it will be found desirable to plane across the grain, particularly all hard, close-grained woods. I am not aware if this plan is adopted by English carpenters, but I got the first notion of it when watching the native carpenters in India, and seeing how quickly and with what ease, with their rough, imperfect tools, they reduced a plank of very hard wood by cutting across the grain. Now, suppose a hard bit of oak or walnut has to be reduced from seven-eighths to five and a half. To plane it down in the ordinary way is a hard, tough job ; so try my plan, and proceed thus : Smooth one side quite true, and square the edges, then take a marking-gauge and mark off the required thickness all round ; then with the plane bevel off A both edges nearly down to the gauge-mark. section through the board will then have this appearance : r Place the board across the bench, and against the dog, Now fastening it down with the holdfast. begin and plane across the grain, and it will be found that the plane will take AND WOOD CARVING. 85 the wood down quite easily and very rapidly. As the board is planed push it along, and so plane the whole length gra- dually, turning it round when necessary. The reason why I advise the edges to be bevelled off is, that if not bevelled off, when the plane side comes to the edge it is likely to splinter it ; when bevelled of course it cannot. Turn up the edge of the board as before directed, to see if it is being planed true, and use the plane accord- ingly. Of course when planed in this way, the board is very rough ; but when the board has been cut down to near the gauge-line, turn it endways, and plane with the grain in the usual manner. I think these few hints for handling the saw and plane my will be acceptable to young readers, and all that is neces- sary to enable them to prepare their own wood j and we can now proceed to the consideration of carving, in the solid. A MANUAL OF FRET CUTTING CHAPTER VIII. I PROMISED in my last chapter to give one instance, out of many I have witnessed, of the ingenious way in which the natives of India produce great results by small and simple means I might have said with great and perfect truth, innumerable, instead of many ingenious ways j for the natives of India are rarely at a loss for expedients, and much of what they have accomplished, and still do accomplish, seems to us the more extraordinary, because all is done without any of the machinery or appliances to which we are accustomed. During the time 1 was at Agra, a friend gave me some very beautiful transparencies he had received from England. I was most anxious to mount one of these in a frame to stand in front of a door leading to the private apartments, so as to cut off all view into the apartments, yet allow the door to be left open for that free circulation of air so necessary to health and comfort in India. I borrowed from a neighbour a very handsome frame such as I desired to have, that had been turned and made up by an English workman in Calcutta, and I hoped to get a feeble imitation of it; so I bought the necessary wood, and sent to the Cotwal of the Bazar for a turner. Cotwal is the head of the police of the Bazar, and in fact the governor. In two or three days two men walked up to my house, AND WOOD CARVING. 87 one of them with a frail, a carpenter's basket and not a very large one either over his shoulder. Who " " are you ? I asked. " Huzzoor, your Highness," replied the foremost of the two " I am the turner." ; "Well, when can you do my work? " " Hazzoor, tyar hoon. I am ready to do it." " But where are your implements ? '' " Oh, I have everything here." With a " considerable of a stare," as our Yankee friends say, I looked at the man, who very coolly walked up to a large shady tree, made his man put down the basket, selected a spot, gave the man orders to clear away the leaves, and then came and asked me what he was to turn. I showed him the wood and the pattern frame ; he gave a nod of approval. " Can you make me a frame like that ? " Oh " yes, there is no difficulty in it." I stared again. " But your highness must tell your tent-pitcher to give me two long tent pins and two short ones." These were soon given, and as I saw the man was intent on business, I deferred my own, and went out to watch his proceedings. Squatting on the ground, he first took out of his basket what may be called the national implement ; it is a short bladed adze, with a thick, heavy head, weighing from three to four pounds ; with two cuts of this implement he made a small flat space at the side of the head of each tent pin. Then he took out a couple of old thick nails and a hammer, laid his adze down on its side, and making use of the head as an anvil, gave the nails two or three blows each, to knock them into the desired shape, then out of his basket he took a drill and bow, which were just a long stick with a 88 A MANUAL OF FRET CUTTING thick bit of twine fastened to one end, and with this he drilled holes in the flat place he had cut in the pins. Into these holes he drove the nails, leaving about an inch sticking out, and with a roughly-made file he soon brought these to a point. Then he got the tent-pitcher to drive one of these pins upright into the ground to within eight inches of the head. Taking one of the pieces of wood to be turned, he cut off the proper length, laid it on the ground with the end just touching the pin, and at the extremity of the wood he made the tent-pitcher drive in the other pin. As soon as this was done, he cut the two smaller pins into the shape of wedges, then he took the wood to be turned, chopped it into shape with his adze, centered the two ends, made at the intersect- ing points a small hole, applied one hole to the nail point in one pin, and gave a little shove with the wood until he could get the other end of the wood on to the other nail point. When the wood was thus suspended on the nail points, he took the two wedges and drove them in the ground at the back of the tent pins until they were firmly wedged up. Then he tried if the wood could turn properly and freely, and as soon as he was satisfied on this point, he again put his hand into his basket and pulled out a bit of board of very hard wood, about a foot long, an inch thick, and eight inches deep, with a square hole in the middle ; into the hole he in- serted a piece of wood two inches wide and a foot long, fitted in such a way that it sloped downwards. The edge of this board he placed against the wood to be turned, the end of the fitted piece he put down on the ground, placed his left foot upon it to keep it steady in position, and there was the rest for his tools. Then diving his hand once more into his basket, he took AND WOOD CARVING. 89 out a long narrow leathern strap ; twisting this twice round the wood to be turned, he threw the ends to his mate, who immediately began to turn the wood round backwards and forwards with long, regular strokes, and the lathe was complete and in perfect working order. The turner now took out of his basket a rough pair of compasses, a bit of an English pencil, then a rough pair of callippers. Putting the pattern beside him, he carefully mea- sured off and marked the different parts on the wood to be turned As soon as this was done, he once more dived his hand into