Book review - Our Workshop
Gary Roberts' Toolemera Press has set itself the goal of publishing facsimile editions of a number of classic works on woodwork and other trades and crafts which are out of copyright. Gary has collected a number of these works and the copies used for the facsimile often comes from his collection. It is wonderful to be able to get access to these books, many of which are not even in the State Libraries in Australia.
The quality of Gary's work in producing these facsimiles is of the highest order - the books are clean and bright reproductions of the originals produced by Gary's use of digital scanning and enhancement technologies. Gary successfully balances the demand of producing a clear image which is easy to read with the desire to give the experience of reading the original work. A really attractive feature is the creation of a facsimile of the original cover for use as the paper cover of the facsimiles.
"Our Workshop" by Temple Thorold is one of the first four republications. It an unusual book. It has a number of interesting features which make it worth owning and reading.
It is well-written, in the style of the time of its writing. For example, Thorold uses the conditional construction of sentences which shows he was classically educated - so be prepared to read sentences like; "If the bench be about 5 feet long, and 2 feet 4 inches wide, it will be large enough."(p8). We don't write like that anymore, but once it is realised that this is the style, it is pretty easy to accommodate it. I was able to read almost the entire book one afternoon by the pool at the parents-in-law while supervising the kids' swimming.
The book proceeds essentially by looking at the tools that will be required to do a job in wood, starting with sawing the wood, moving on to preparing the stock and then joining them. Finally, the work specially deals with the mortice and tenon and dovetailed joints.
In addition to describing the tools themselves and the techniques of use, Thorold also digresses along the way to consider other associated aspects of the stage of the woodworking task that he is discussing. Thus, in his discussion of planes, he introduces the techniques of sharpening while he adds to his consideration of tools needed for simple joining, he adds discussions of nails, screws and glue.
There are some interesting observations along the way and also some interesting words that we encounter.
One observation will serve as an example - you can let the water in the glue pot's outer pot boil. That accords with my own experience - so long as there is enough water, this will ensure the temperature is 100 degrees C because water won't go any higher. The more common advice of keeping the temperature below boiling is said to prevent cooking and disintegration of the glue, but is much harder to set than a gentle simmer.
As an example of interesting words used, Thorold introduces the expression "spall off" to describe what happens when endgrain is planed with inadequate support - this adds another term when you don't want to use the alternative term "spelching" as found in Moxon.
There are, as usual, some techniques that one might question - for example Thorold advocates when producing wider boards by edge gluing narrower boards the the approach of reversing the orientation of the growth rings to reduce the net effect of cupping. Whether or not this is a technique that you believe in, at least this shows that its pedigree is long!
The book's greatest weakness, however, is that it does not go into great detail on any matter but rather gives an overview with tips added. It raises the question in my mind as to the audience that Thorold was writing for.
It seems clear that "Our Workshop" was not aimed at the tradesman or apprentice (like, for example, Nicholson's various books or even The Joiner and the Cabinet Maker) nor at the upper class amateur with time on his or her hands (like Holtzappfel). Rather the audience Thorold seems to be writing for is the then new middle class - those with jobs that gave them some leisure time, who aspired to improve their material circumstances but for whom the expense of buying professionally made wooden items was a significant impediment. This was also the class that started to pursue other hobbies in the mid- to late- nineteenth century. They were the golfers and football players, the cyclists and the gardeners. they were also the home carpenters.
This audience explains a lot about this work. It explains its somewhat introductory nature, its covering a wide range of topics and its emphasis on value-for-money buying of tools and the value of do-it-yourself in terms of self-satisfaction and economy. It appeals to and underscores all the middle class attitudes and aspirations that George and Weedon Grossmith parodied in The Diary of a Nobody.
The last paragraph is, of course, pure speculation on my part. However it does lead to my only criticism of Gary Roberts' contribution to bringing "Our Workshop" back for us to sample and enjoy.
I believe that the facsimile publication would have extra value if accompanied by a short essay on the book by someone (perhaps Gary Roberts himself - his blog suggests a man well capable of producing a suitable piece), which might seek to put some flesh on the author and some context for his work. Perhaps some of the kind of information that Joel Moskowitz added to the Lost Arts Press's reprinting of "The Joiner and the Cabinet Maker" but with Gary's own interests in place of Joel's would have been useful to prepare the reader for the work, as would some idea of how it was received when it was published.
That shortcoming is a minor quibble and should not deter anyone who would find it interesting to see how the idea of woodworking as a hobby was introduced to readers in the nineteenth century from acquiring a copy of "Our Workshop". It can be bought directly from Toolemera Press.
By the way, if you buy a copy you may notice that page 159 is missing. This is accurate - it was a printer's mistake in the 1866 edition. Gary has however decided that while accurate, things like this should be rectified, so copies of "Our Workshop" after this week will contain page 159 from the 1873 printing (which apparently used the same blocks but had a more eagle-eyed printer!). Gary has consented to me attaching page 159 so anyone who misses out on it in their version can see it and also as a way for you to get an idea of the look and style of the book.
