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Building Practicesand Carpenters' Tools That Created Alexandria's Kent Plantation House By N. H. Sand and Peter Koch Southern Forest Experiment Station Forest Service. U. S. Department of Agriculture ily, and he succeeds so well that the dwelling still remains sound and attractive after 175 years, a very great age for a house in America. To reach it takes good luck-escape from fire, flood and the Civil War. Continuous occupancy and the care that goes with it also helps. Most of all, the house must be soundly I t is the year 1796 or thereabouts. Louisiana is a Spanish colony with French traditions and culture. Pierre Baillio II, of a prominent French family, has a sizeable grant of land along the Red River near a small town called EI Rapido. Baillio undertakes to have a house built for himself and his fam- ... p~ designed and made with good materials. Now known (from a later owner) asthe Kent Plantation House,Bail- lio's home has recently beenmade into a museum in Alexandria, a short distance from where it was originally constructed. There it standsas testimonyto the skinsof early Louisiana carpenter crafts- men. In contrast to architects, who seem to leapinto print with no great difficulty, carpenters are a silent tribe. They come to the job with their tool chests, exercise many skins of construction and someof design, and then pass on. Often their works are their only record. Occasionally some tools survive and, after generations of neglect and abuse, these mayfind their wayint() antique shops or museums. Thus it is difficult to speak in de- tail of the builders of any given house. Here, methods, materials and tools of colonial Louisiana win be described in generalterms but with the Kent House drawn upon fM examples. By 1800, when Baillio's house is completed,the LouisianaPurchase is 3 yearsaway. The IndustrialRev- olution has not yet progressed far in America. The first Mississippi River steamboat win not appear until 1811. Upriver transport is limited, roadsarefew andpoor and the cost of haulingfreight by land is immensely high. Human travel overland is tedious. Iron is scarce and steelfor cutting tools is scarcer yet. Lumber is scarce too, at leastin one sense. There is no shortage of timber but turning the trees into Carpentrytools typal of those used in ttIe construction of Kent House. Ph«CWfBph by ThomasSend.
Transcript
Page 1: Building Practices and Carpenters' Tools That Created ... · Louisiana Gazette for November 15, 1806, reads: The Builders O. P. Roberts, having lately arrived in this city, offers

Building Practices and Carpenters' ToolsThat Created Alexandria's Kent Plantation House

By N. H. Sand and Peter Koch

Southern Forest Experiment StationForest Service.

U. S. Department of Agriculture

ily, and he succeeds so well thatthe dwelling still remains sound andattractive after 175 years, a verygreat age for a house in America.To reach it takes good luck-escapefrom fire, flood and the Civil War.Continuous occupancy and the carethat goes with it also helps. Mostof all, the house must be soundly

I t is the year 1796 or thereabouts.Louisiana is a Spanish colony withFrench traditions and culture.Pierre Baillio II, of a prominentFrench family, has a sizeable grantof land along the Red River neara small town called EI Rapido.

Baillio undertakes to have ahouse built for himself and his fam-

...

p~

designed and made with goodmaterials.

Now known (from a later owner)as the Kent Plantation House, Bail-lio's home has recently been madeinto a museum in Alexandria, ashort distance from where it wasoriginally constructed. There itstands as testimony to the skins ofearly Louisiana carpenter crafts-men.

In contrast to architects, whoseem to leap into print with no greatdifficulty, carpenters are a silenttribe. They come to the job withtheir tool chests, exercise manyskins of construction and some ofdesign, and then pass on. Oftentheir works are their only record.Occasionally some tools surviveand, after generations of neglect andabuse, these may find their way int()antique shops or museums.

Thus it is difficult to speak in de-tail of the builders of any givenhouse. Here, methods, materialsand tools of colonial Louisiana winbe described in general terms butwith the Kent House drawn uponfM examples.

By 1800, when Baillio's house iscompleted, the Louisiana Purchaseis 3 years away. The Industrial Rev-olution has not yet progressed farin America. The first MississippiRiver steamboat win not appearuntil 1811. Upriver transport islimited, roads are few and poor andthe cost of hauling freight by landis immensely high. Human traveloverland is tedious. Iron is scarceand steel for cutting tools is scarceryet.

Lumber is scarce too, at least inone sense. There is no shortage oftimber but turning the trees into

Carpentry tools typal of those used in ttIe construction of Kent House.Ph«CWfBph by Thomas Send.

Page 2: Building Practices and Carpenters' Tools That Created ... · Louisiana Gazette for November 15, 1806, reads: The Builders O. P. Roberts, having lately arrived in this city, offers

Kent House Plantat.ion, built 1798-1800, by Pierre Baillio II and named, by a subsequent owner, for Kent County, Maryland.

in a few decades steam power willbe widely used in transportation andto drive woodworking machinery.Yet at the turn of the century build-ing technology in Louisiana con-sists mostly of taking local materialsand transforming them with toolspowered by the human arm.

Mud and Moss

boards and planks is another matterfor sawmills are few and primitive.In New Orleans several mills arelocated along the Mississippi Riverand are driven by water wheels setin ditches cut in the levee. Whenthe river is high the mills run brisk-Iy, mainly sawing cypress. Whc=nthe river falls the mills shut down.In general, however, the streams ofLouisiana don't offer nearly asmany wheel sites as do the smallwaterways of rocky New England.

The design and constructionmethods that Baillio chose weretypical of the French and Spanishcolonial period in Louisiana. Theplan called for two large, almostsquare, rooms surrounded on allsides by a wide gallery. There wasno second floor.

A big hipped roof extended with-out break over the galleries, shadingthe walls and allowing doors andwindows to be kept open for ventila-tion even during heavy rains. Theend galleries probably were en-closed before construction wascomplete, creating another room ateach end and a smaller one at eachrear comer.

Still in the tradition of countryarchitecture, Baillio had brick piersbuilt as a foundation. He thus raisedthe main floor for easy passage be-neath his house but he may also

Possibly some horse-powered millsexist. There are no large circularsaws yet and certainly no band-saws. Instead, mills operate witha straight blade set vertically in awooden frame or sash that is pushedup and pulled down by a pitman orconnecting rod attached to thepower source. There are no planingmills for dressing boards and mak-ing mouldings.

But important technologicaldevelopments are in progress and

Page 3: Building Practices and Carpenters' Tools That Created ... · Louisiana Gazette for November 15, 1806, reads: The Builders O. P. Roberts, having lately arrived in this city, offers

,.FRAMING FOR MUD-AND-MOSS WALL

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made with a circular saw.Cypress heartwood is very resis-

tant to both decay and termites, andin the slow-grown stands of that daythe stems were nearly all heart-wood. Southern pine is stronger andthus serves well where resistanceto bending is wanted-as in floorand ceiling joists of large rooms andrafters of long span. But the pinewas more difficult to work withhand tools and so, as one studentof the subject remarks, "If youneeded more strength, you justhewed the cypress pieces larger."

The framing was carefully puttogether with mortise-and-tenon orlap joints locked in place with pegsdriven into auger holes. Such jointsare probably better than those madewith spikes. Typically again, theroof was covered with hand-rivedcypress shingles. Window wood-work is cypress, shutters and doorsalso. Moulding was sparingly used.

Ironwork such as hinges and fas-teners was simple and may havebeen forged locally from iron barsand strips purchased from NewOrleans importers. It may also havebeen purchased ready-made from

feather-edged cypress boards.In that age of poor transportation,

materials were taken close at hand.The rose-colored bricks were madeon site from local clay, the timbercut from nearby forests. Dr. FloydG. Manwiller, of the U. S. ForestService in Pineville, has sampledwood from various parts of thehouse and found it predominantlybaldcypress. The only other woodis southern pine, probably the fa-bled longleaf pine, which alsoabounded in the region. One of the12- by 12-inch main sills is pine. Itis probably a replacement since itshows the witness marks of sawteeth rather than the broad-axmarks common to the cypress sills.Also pine are the cap beam overthe east wall of the original house,some of the rafters and some ceilingboards. Rather surprisingly, thepanel over the mantle in the originaleast room is pine also. Any or allof these pine pieces may be replace-ments but the cap beam at least isprobably original. Floors of thesoutheast and southwest rooms arecypress. The northeast room, add-ed about 1842, has pine flooring

have been thinking of protectionfrom floods in the spring and coolingeffects in the summer.

Large timber sills were laid downon the piers and hewn vertical mem-bers were mortised into them andthe ceiling plates above. These ver-ticals were less numerous than thestuds in a modern house and muchheavier. Some were set at an angleto provide bracing. Probably theframing was jointed and assembledon the ground and the sections forthe various walls then erected withthe aid of pulleys and push poles.

When the frame was up and theroof in place, the spaces betweenthe timbers were filled to ceilingheight with mud-largely clay-inwhich Spanish moss or. sometimesdeer hair was mixed as a binder.This mud-and-moss wall filling,called bousillage, is also seen in theRogue House of Natchitoches. TheKent House walls are about 6Y4inches thick and contain both deerhair and moss.

As it aged, the mud became verydry and hard. The roof overhangsheltered it in many places and else-where it was covered with wide,

Page 4: Building Practices and Carpenters' Tools That Created ... · Louisiana Gazette for November 15, 1806, reads: The Builders O. P. Roberts, having lately arrived in this city, offers

THE CARPENTER'S ADZ ORAWKNIFE end SHAVING HORSET- ADZ ... -- -.

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value and might help to stop anIndian's bullet or arrow. It providedan inside wall that could be coatedwith lime or other preparation andthen painted. Outside walls pro-tected from rain by galleries or roofoverhang could be given the samefinish or left bare, at a saving ofsiding lumber. The method waspopular in Louisiana for almost acentury after the early settlersarrived in the 1720s.

and other states of the recently inde-pendent Union which Louisianawas yet to join in 1812. C. C. Robin,a Frenchman who traveled in Lou-isiana from 1803 to 1805, observedthat carpenters' wages were excel-lent.

It is also clear that many whocalled themselves carpenters werecapable of performing duties of anarchitect and contractor. Some hadskilled slaves of their own. Anadvertisement in the New OrleansLouisiana Gazette for November15, 1806, reads:

The Builders

O. P. Roberts, having latelyarrived in this city, offers his ser-vices to the public as an ARCHI-TECT and HOUSE CARPEN-TER and presumes he can giveevery satisfaction in his branchof business. .. .Either public orprivate buildings executed inevery stile (sic) with a generalestimate of materials necessaryfor the same. Any communica-tion left at the store of Messrs.David and Harper, will be dulyattended to.

France. Window glass was similarlyavailable in New Orleans as an im-port. In simpler country houses ofthe time locks and hinges were oftenof wood and window panes vergedon luxury.

Machines for making old-stylerectangular shaped nails were inproduction in the eastern states butby 1800 most nails were probablystill hand wrought. The trade of nailmaker was a recognized one andcould be practiced wherever ironwas available. Whether purchasedor made locally. nails were expen-sive.

Bousillage walls were a commonchoice of country builders evenwhen they had considerably lessmeans than Baillio. Log cabins. ithas been said. did not become com-mon until English-speaking peoplefrom the Southeastern UnitedStates came to northern Louisianaafter 1830.

What was the appeal of this meth-od? Besides being adapted to localmaterial. it required less work andtime than brick const4"uction(though brick-between-posts wasalso in use. especially in New Or-leans). It gave weight and perhapsrigidity to a house-an advantagein windstorms. It had insulating

While no records are known. itis likely that actual construction ofKent House was done by slave la-bor. Newspaper advertisements ofthe time often mentioned slaveswith carpentry skills. Perhaps Bail-lio had sufficient expertise amonghis own slaves but he probably alsohad the option of borrowing or hir-ing such craftsmen from other plan-tation owners.

To supervise the workers he mayhave employed a master carpenter.perhaps a freed slave but moreprobably an itinerant carpenter.Records show that many carpentersemigrated from France during theeighteenth century and there prob-ably were others from New England

Architects with formal traininglived in New Orleans and books on

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Page 5: Building Practices and Carpenters' Tools That Created ... · Louisiana Gazette for November 15, 1806, reads: The Builders O. P. Roberts, having lately arrived in this city, offers

planter decided to erect a dwelling.One of Northrup's supervisors

was a carpenter named Bass. Bassresided in Marksville but was aCanadian by birth and had traveledwidely in practice of his craft, beingmost recently from Illinois. He wasregarded as an eccentric and anabolitionist. but also as an excellentcarpenter, and hence nearly indis-pensable to the community. (Trueto this characterization of his politi-cal views, he left his work and jour-neyed to New York State to enableNorthrup to regain freedom.)

house designs were available butBaillio probably used neither. Thetraditional house he had in mindcould have been executed by anygood carpenter.

It seems likely that he sent slaves,armed with axes and saws, to cy-press stands of the nearby RedRiver bottoms to cut timber for thewood he needed. The workers mayhave girdled the big trees inadvance, let them stand for a yearor so to partially dry out, and finallyfelled and floated them to highground. Shaping of the logs into tim-bers could have been done at thelanding to save hauling weight orthe entire logs could have beentransported to the building sitebefore being shaped into dimensionmaterials.

Though his testimony is from the1850s, the experience of SolomonNorthrup may apply also to thetimes of the Kent House. Northrupwas a free man who had been kid-napped in Washington, D. C., andsent to A voyelles Parish, adjoiningthe parish where Baillio had hisland. Here he was put to work underitinerant white carpenters. Herelates that he was once sent outwith a logging crew that includedfour women who proved to be ex-cellent choppers and equal to menin piling logs. Since there were nosites for water-power sawmillswithin many miles, Northrupadded, planks and boards weregenerally made by slaves with whip-saws. Thus, he commented in hisautobiography, there was plenty ofextra work for the slaves when a

early, perhaps about 1900 to 1400B. C. This iron was almost free ofcarbon and therefore was easilybent and much too soft to hold acutting edge. Very early men also,learned that heating the iron inexposure to carbon would producea surface layer of steel tHat greatlyenhanced the properties of all kindsof cutlery, from swords to saws.

This cementation process servedthrough long ages, and until the mid-dle of the eighteenth century thereliance of carpenters was on a formof it that yielded "blister steel."The steel was made by heating agood grade of soft iron in conjuntionwith carbon-containing substances-charcoal, wood ashes, bones orthe like. After a week or more ofheating the iron absorbed enoughcarbon and also displayed surfaceblisters created by a reaction be-tween the carbon and slag in theiron. After being worked to improvedistribution of the carbon the steelwas ready for use. In the LouisianaGazette for July 7, ]810, two NewOrleans merchants advertised thatthey had received, "per ship Maryfrom Philadelphia... 20 bundlesBlistered Steal." (sic)

In 1742 or thereabouts the En-glishman Benjamin Huntsmangreatly improved the quality bymelting pieces of blister steel in aclosed crucible. Fluxes removedimpurities and melting made themetal homogeneous. At the end ofeach crucible run, the steel was castinto ingots that were later reheatedand formed into bars and flat stockfrom which tool bits could be made.

The advantages of this crucible(or cast) steel seemingly were firstappreciated in France. The British

Steel Tools Are Best

In basic form, the hand tools ofwoodworkers are very old. The por-table power tools of our own dayhave heavily infringed on a traditionthat began when Stone Age manchipped an ax blade out of flint andcreated the hammer by hafting astone to a stick.

If we can imagine a nineteenth-century carpenter dying and takinghis tools with him to the far shore,we can also imagine that he wouldfind it easy to explain their use toa Roman of the time of Christ. Andhe would not encounter undue diffi-culty with an Egyptian of 1,500 B.C.Both ancient carpenters would besurprised to see handsaws cuttingon the push stroke instead of thepull. The Egyptian would findplanes new to him but, being accus-tomed to doing fine joinery withcopper tools, he would be mostastonished by the cutting propertiesof the new arrival's steel-edgedtools. The Roman may have hadsteel available if he could pay a highprice.

Men learned to smelt iron very

Page 6: Building Practices and Carpenters' Tools That Created ... · Louisiana Gazette for November 15, 1806, reads: The Builders O. P. Roberts, having lately arrived in this city, offers

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teenth century but thereafter bladeswith pretensions to quality werealso labeled as cast steel, a practicewhich survived until well into ourown century. Blister steel con-tinued to be manufactured but couldnot compete in prestige.

Whether cast or blistered, steelwas expensive. Whenever possible,it was used only for the cuttingedges. The rest of the tool was madeof soft iron. Blacksmiths mademany tools locally by welding butit took skill to get both metals tothe right temperature at the samemoment. Too much heat wouldbum the steel, whereas the iron hadto be very hot before it could bewelded.

Wherever the tool was made, theweld between the hard steel edgeand the soft iron body can easilybe seen when the rust is scrapedoff old axes, drawknives or planeblades. Some tools, like files, wereof steel throughout.

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regarded it as unnecessarily hard.French carpenters moving to Loui-siana may have had tools so edged.At any rate, French competitioncaused manufacturers in the greatBritish tool-making city of Sheffieldto step up their export productionand promotional efforts. Moderntool collectors cannot escape theimpression that thousands of Shef-field workers must have spent theirentire lives stamping "cast steel"on the many edge tools made in thatcity. Manufacture did not begin inthis country until well into the nine-

The Tools Themselves

In general design as well as inedges, English tools became thestandard in America. The travellerC. C. Robin observed that in 1803-1805 all tools used by the wheel-wrights, carpenters, and coopers ofNew Orleans were of English man-ufacture. Though inclined to mea-sure things by the standard of Paris,Robin concluded that English toolswere superior in shape and finishto French ones. So much so, heaven-ed, that Frenchmen arriving in

Louisiana abandoned the tools theyhad brought with them and adoptedEnglish ones. He particularlyadmired the handsaws, thinkingthern less clumsy and tiring thanFrench frame saws. For a reason-able sum, he said, one can importa chest of carpenter's tools fromPhil adelphia.

Though Robin's comments indi-cate that complete tools were beingimported, many craftsmenpurchased blades and made thewooden parts themselves. Theycou ld thus suit their own ideas

Page 7: Building Practices and Carpenters' Tools That Created ... · Louisiana Gazette for November 15, 1806, reads: The Builders O. P. Roberts, having lately arrived in this city, offers

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about design and also save money.With a blade in hand, for example,it is easy to make the rest of a frame-saw and old woodsmen often hadtheir own personalized patterns forax and adz handles. A testimonyto the scarcity of metal is the con-siderable number of surviving toolswith blades formed by reshapingand retempering worn-out files andrasps.

Many tools of colonial times arereadily recognizable in moderncounterparts. A chief difference isin items made obsolete by the com-ing of steam-powered sawmills andplaning mills. Another difference isthat many tools formerly made ofwood are now of metal. Followingare brief descriptions of tools thata journeyman or master carpenterof 1800 probably owned. To protectand transport the smaller tools hetypically built for himself a stoutwooden chest with dovetailed cor-ners and a paneled top.

A modern builder is likely to havean ax and a hatchet, but an earliercarpenter had several. Besides achopping ax, he had a wide-bladedbroadax for squaring timbers out oflogs. To use it, he propped theround log a foot or so off the groundand with twine and chalk snappeda line along the length to mark thefirst face. Next he took an ordinaryax and chopped guide cuts at rightangles to the log length and as deepas the line. Then he broad-axed hisway down the log, cutting parallelto the grain. It was a man familiarwith broadax technique who firstsaid, "Hew to the line, and let thechips fall where they may." De-pending on how the -timber was tobe used, the worker then turned thelog and hewed only the oppositeface, or squared all four faces. Somebeams of the Kent House plainlyshow the transverse guide cuts ofbroad-ax work.

The side of the broadax towardthe finished face of the beam wasflat, the sharpening bevel beingentirely on the chip side. The car-penter typically had a large hewinghatchet sharpened in the same wayas a broadax and also used for shap-ing timber. He probably had ashingling hatchet. He mayor maynot have had a flat-topped hatchetfor splitting and nailing on lath, forthe involuntary carpenter Solomon

Northrup said that plastered roomswere rare in A voyeUes Parish evenas late as the l850s.

To aid in making the rectangularholes for tenons of mating beams,the carpenter may have had a short-handled mortise ax. For smoothingthe rough cuts of this ax, he mayalso have owned a twibiU, a kindof cross between an ax and a chisel.

Adzes were premier tools of ship-builders in an era when most long-distance transport was by water.House carpenters used them also,as when they. wished to smooth offbroad-ax marks on beams exposedinside the house. Good adz worklooks much like planing. Contraryto some opinion, adzes were seldomemployed for squaring timbers outof logs. But since the adz can beused to dress top surfaces of timbers(while the heavier broad-ax is re-stricted to side surfaces), it washandy for trimming and levelingafter framing was in place but beforefloors were laid. It could also beused to surface beams exposed toview inside the house.

An adz must be very sharp to dogood work, and the direction ofswing is toward the user. Thus thetool was dangerous to feet. It hasbeen said, one hopes untruly, thatexpert adzmen sometimes usedtheir toes as chip breakers.

The carpenter needed a varietyof chisels. Perhaps his most unusualone had two cutting edges, at anangle of 90 degrees to each otherfor cleaning out the corners of mor-tises. He also had conventional

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Page 8: Building Practices and Carpenters' Tools That Created ... · Louisiana Gazette for November 15, 1806, reads: The Builders O. P. Roberts, having lately arrived in this city, offers
Page 9: Building Practices and Carpenters' Tools That Created ... · Louisiana Gazette for November 15, 1806, reads: The Builders O. P. Roberts, having lately arrived in this city, offers

it cut at any desired distance fromthe edge of the board. Further, ashoe could be set to regulate thedepth of cut.

Additionally, the carpenterwould want at least a few planesfor making simple mouldings.Partly for decoration, partly tomask any unevenness between mat-ing boards, he often planed a beadon the edges of tongue-and-groovepaneling or on corners of exposedbeams and other interior wood-

work. Such beads can be seen inthe Kent Hou:se. Beading planescame in sizes from one-eight of aninch to more than an inch-a differ-ent plane for each size.

Because there was no othersource of millwork, the carpenterneeded a plane for making woodenwindow sash.

If he wished to run some purelydecorative mouldings, he had a verywide choice in size and style ofplanes. Hollows and rounds, astrag-

let for striking the handles of chiselsand driving pegs into joints. Hemight have a very large two-handedmallet, called by English carpentersa commander, for driving home thejoints of heavy framing. A screw-driver may also have been amonghis fastening tools, but screws weresparingly used. They were manu-factured in crude machines pow-ered by hand or water. Until 1846all had flat points.

The planes in a colonial carpen-ter's tool set differed in at least twoways from those of a modem crafts-man. First, they were much morenumerous and varied, 20 to 30 notbeing unusual. Second, they weremade almost entirely of wood,except for the blades.

To start off with; the carpenterneeded a jack plan, a jointer anda smooth plane. Hardly less neces-sary was ~ fourth plane for cuttingrabbets in the edges of boards suchas the joints in shiplap siding. Whenboards were used to cover a largesurface (for example, the ceilingsof some Kent House rooms), theedges were often mated with tongueand groove joints. Such jointshelped to keep the boards in align-ment and also restricted the passageof air and light. Here the carpenterused a pair of planes, one to cutthe tongue and one the groove.Often he had several pairs, for lum-ber of various thicknesses.

Probably he also had a plow planewith 6 or 8 interchangeable bladesfor cutting grooves of differentwidths. The plow was the mostcomplicated and expensive plane inthe chest. It had a fence or guidingpiece that could be adjusted to make

Page 10: Building Practices and Carpenters' Tools That Created ... · Louisiana Gazette for November 15, 1806, reads: The Builders O. P. Roberts, having lately arrived in this city, offers

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penter may have done further cut-ting and fitting with a one-manframe saw that could cut curves aswell as straight lines. If he likedEnglish tools, however, he prob-ably preferred to do his straightcutting with a handsaw like thoseseen today.

He perhaps had a fine-toothedsaw, the back stiffened by a stripof iron or brass, for making dove-tails or small tenons, or for use ina miter box. Probably he had akeyhole saw. He may have had atrenching saw for use in stair build-ing. He kept his saws sharp withfiles and set them with a wrest ora hammer.

als, ogees, scotias, and ovalos wereonly a few of his options.

Beech was the primary wood formaking all of these planes. It washard, yet could be worked and inuse it developed a polish that madeit slide easily. Sometimes splines ofvery hard boxwood were insertedat points most exposed to wear, andmuch less frequently iron or brasswear plates were installed. Bladesextended through holes skillfullycut through the stock and were heldin place by wooden wedges. A tapon top of the blade would deepenthe cut, and a whack on the backof the stock would raise or loosenthe blade. But old carpenters sel-dom spoke of plane blades. In rec-ognition of the reliance on wood,they referred to the cutting part as"the iron." Progressive-mindedcarpenters were likely to have dou-ble irons in their jack, jointer, andsmoothing planes. The second irondid not cut but was a chip breakerto improve smoothness of work incontrary-grained wood.

The carpenter also had a woodenspokeshave-in function a veryshort-bedded plane for use oncurved surfaces. He may have hadsandpaper, and he surely had a rasp.A pincers, made by a local black-smith, was handy for pulling nails.

It is a mistake to idealize the past,but interesting to study it. As onebecomes familiar with the tools andworks of the old carpenters, he seeshow they and their work representa close and very skillful accommo-dation to the materials, knowledge,and economic conditions of theirday. In design the tools were cleanand almost entirely functional, mak-ing them still appealing in their ownright to collectors.

The carpenters themselves werehuman beings, and irrelevancieshad not been as completely siftedfrom them as from their tools. They

For raising heavy weights he mayhave carried a jack and tackleblocks. He probably had wedges forsplitting big logs to size at timeswhen it was inconvenient to use asaw. He touched up his blades withwhetstones and did heavy sharpen-ing on a circular grindstone, turnedby hand.

Finally, his tool set was com-pleted with a number of saws, ofwhich the biggest was a pit saw forripping boards and planks out ofsquared-up logs. Traditionally thissaw consisted of a blade 5 feet ormore in length, strained in a rectan-gular wooden frame. The log wasplaced on a trestle or over a pit inthe ground and a chalkline wassnapped to mark the width of theboard to be cut. The saw requiredtwo men. One stood below, to pulldown for the cutting stroke. and theother stood on top to raise the sawagain. In a second form of pitsaw,probably more common in Ameri-ca, the frame was omitted and thehandles attached directly to eachend. This was often called an openpit saw or a whipsaw. Like theframed pitsaw, it was for rippingonly. For felling trees or cutting tim-bers in two, a two-man crosscut sawwas used.

Once he had his boards, the car-

Page 11: Building Practices and Carpenters' Tools That Created ... · Louisiana Gazette for November 15, 1806, reads: The Builders O. P. Roberts, having lately arrived in this city, offers

restoration. He gave us indispens-able aid in understanding earlybuilding practices, and then com-pounded our indebtedness by re-viewing the manuscript. We are alsoobliged to the Louisiana StateMuseum for advice and library ser-vice, and to Mr. Dutch Flick forinformation on tools and their uses.

Errors of fact and judgment un-doubtedly remain, and are solelychargeable to us. Since our refer-ences tended toward the Anglo-American tradition in tool designand use, we may have understatedFrench influences. In addition,there were many aspects, such aswood seasoning, on which we foundlittle or no published information.

therefore sometimes made mistakesor bungled jobs through careless-ness. But many worked in pride oftheir calling, combining technicalskill with honesty of effort anddirectness of purpose. The KentHouse, among many others, re-mains as a self-created memorial tomen who did as well as they couldin their own time.

Baillio and his wife have theirgraves in Rapides Cemetery inPineville, across the Red Riverfrom Alexandria. Their workers areburied-who knows where? In theirday, these craftsmen sustained atradition of woodworking that be-gan thousands of years ago. Andcraftsmanship did not die withthem.

Acknowledgments and ApologiesThis article owes its existence to

the encouragement of Mrs. Noel T.Simmonds, President of Kent Plan-tation House, Inc. It could not havebeen completed, however, withoutthe guidance of Mr. Samuel Wilson,Jr., the architect in charge of the

Mercer, H. C. 1960. Ancient Carpen-ters' Tools. Ed. 3. Bucks CountyHistorical Society, Doylestown, Pa.331 p.

Moxon, J. 1678-1703. Mechanick Exer-cises. Reprinted 1970, ed. C. F.Montgomery. Praeger Publishers, N.Y. 352 p.

Northrup, S. 1854. Twelve Years ASlave. Reprinted by Dover Publica-tions, N. Y.. 336 p.

Overdyke, W. D. 1965. Louisiana Plan-tation Homes: Colonial and Antebel-lum. Architectural Book PublishingCo.,N.Y.206p.

Robin, C. C. 1966. Voyage to Louisi-ana, 1803-1805. Abridged translationby S. O. Landry, Jr. Pelican Publish-ing Co., New Orleans. 270 p.

Sloane, E. 1973. A Museum of EarlyAmerican Tools. Ballantine Books.N. Y., I~p.

Smith, H. R. B. 1966. Blacksmiths' andFarriers' Tools at Shelburne Muse-um. Museum Pamphlet 7.272 p. Shel-burne. Vt.

Wildung. F. H. 1957. WoodworkingTools at Shelburne Museum. Muse-um Pamphlet 3. 79 p. Shelburne, Vt.

Wertenbaker, T. J. 1942. The OldSouth. Scribner's, N. Y. 364 p. ..

References

Early American Industries Associa-tion. Chronic/e. Various issues.

Goodman, W. L. 1968. British PlaneMakers from 1700. Bell and Sons,Ltd., London. 135 p.

Goodman, W. L. 1964. The History ofWoodworking Tools. Bell and Sons,Ltd. London. 208 p.

Reprinted Iran FORESTS. PEOPLE, volUDe 2S, number 3,pages 16-19,38-43. Third Quarter 1975.


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