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Glossary B
Back saw
Source: George Marshall Brace and Dexter Dwight Mayne, Farm shop work: practical manual training 1915 page 173.
A hand saw, the upper edge of which is reinforced to prevent bending. Used in conjunction with a miter box and frequently in cutting veneer wood.
The extensive article by Chris Schwarz cited below is worth seeking out for brief historical background and current lore about the backsaw and its cousins: the dovetail saw, the carcase saw, the tenon saws, and the sash saws.
Sources:George Marshall Brace and Dexter Dwight Mayne, Farm shop work: practical manual training 1915;Home Craftsman 4 March-April 1935, page 172; Christoher Schwarz, "Understanding Western Backsaws", Woodworking Magazine Issue 9 Spring 2008, pages 20-23.
Ball Bearings
A bearing is a part of a machine's assembly designed to reduce friction between moving parts or to support moving loads. Of the two main kinds of bearings, the antifriction type, such as the roller bearing and the ball bearing, function on "rolling" friction. Another type, the plain, or sliding, type, such as the journal bearing and the thrust bearing, employ "sliding" friction. (In this entry, our concern is for the ball bearing.) (photo coming)
In the Wooden Age, it was necessary to construct bearings suitable for a wide variety of settings, such as shafts revolving at high speeds, steel blades, i.e., bandsaw blades, under severe pressure, "resawing" large pieces of wood, and so forth. According to John Richards, the leading authority in the 19th century on the history of woodworking machines,
The greatest difficulty in the early developments of woodworking machines was the construction of suitable bearings for shafts revolving at high speeds.Source: John Richards,"Early Progress Made in the Manufacture of Woodworking Machinery," Wood Craft 14, no. 4 January 1911.
Historically, according to William F. Holtop and Herman Hjorth (in Modern Machine Woodworking, 1960, p. 3), around 1790, the Englishman, Sir Samuel Bentham, is said to have
These inventions were patented in the years 1791 to 1793, and manufacture was started immediately in the residence of Jeremy Bentham in London. The frames of the machines were made of heavy timbers bolted together and only the cutters and bearings were made of metal. Not until about sixty years later were woodworking machines made entirely of metal.
Here's more testimony from John Richards about the early use of ball bearings in woodworking Lathes:
Ball Bearings on Lathes: The Defiance Machine Works, Defiance, Ohio, have of recent years used ball bearings on certain of their woodworking machinery where high speed was not required, such as in chucks and similar places. About a year ago they built a set of eight handle lathes on a special order from Fayette R. Plumb, Inc., Philadelphia, Pa. These machines were equipped with ball bearings for the spindles. These bearings were of the type made by the Hess-Bright Mfg. Co., Philadelphia.
(Source: John Richards, "A Pioneer in the Woodworking Machinery Business", Wood Craft 14 January 1911, page 105)
Ball bearings, as we know them today, did not come about until the first decade of the twentieth century. The modern ball bearing was constructed by the Swede, Sven Wingquist, in 1907. While similar friction-reducing devices have been used in machines devices since the Middle Ages, Wingquist's construction represented a true improvement.
Today, we think nothing of a woodworker using a Router to create a Profiled edge for a table. With its Universal Motor, the router rotates the Bit at 24,000 revolutions per minute. At that speed, it is the bearings that keeps the bit form burning up from the friction generated.
Here's an apt analogy: In outer space, when asteroids, as falling stars, near the earth, friction with the earth's atmosphere causes them to "burn out" in a fiery streak.
Ball bearings have long history -- On line background sources: Ball Bearings entry on Wikipedia; history of bearings file on Reliable Bearings website; Patent Pending Blog-- Patents and the History of Technology
Source: Encyclopedia Britannica 1911 on bearings http://60.1911encyclopedia.org/B/BE/BEARINGS.htm;
William F. Holtop and Herman Hjorth, Modern Machine Woodworking, 1960, page 3;
Bamboo Caning:
Banding: A contrasting strip or band of colored or grained wood, in-laid or overlaid. Banding is commonly made of several different woods.
Source: Home Craftsman 4 1935 July-August page 260.
Bandsaw, sometimes Band Saw: A Saw with a long continuous blade for Resawing, or cutting Outside Curves. With the exception of Blind Cuts, Dadoes, and Rabbets, the bandsaw is a one of the most versatile tools in today's woodwork shops. Excellent for Rip Cuts and Cross Cuts (Cross Cuts) are limited by the Bandsaw's post. Read more here. Link content(link to bandsaw seminar)
Bandsaw Blade click here for entry on the bandsaw blade (under construction 4-15-08)
Bauhaus: A school of applied arts and architecture founded in 1919 by the designer/architect Walter Gropius, with the ideal of integrating art, craftmanship, and technology.
Almost from its beginning, the school came under increasing threat from the Nazis. The Bauhaus located in first in Weimar until 1925, Dessau until 1932, and then Berlin, until its closing, under the architect L Mies van Der Rohe. As well as Gropius, its faculty included Josef Albers (1888-1976), Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946), Lyonel Feininger (1871-1956), Paul Klee (1879-1940), Vasily Kandinsky (1866-1944), and Marcel Breuer (1902-1981)
In origin, its approach -- functionalist -- did, however, emerge in part from the Arts and Crafts movement and, in impact, led to Modernism. Realizing that the inevitability of the future was mass-production, it rejected the Arts and Crafts ethic that the only true was individually-produced products. Using austere, rectilinear geometric forms, and modern materials -- such as tubular steel and plastics -- by integrating art, craftsmanship, and technology, its ideal was to create prototype designs for mass-produced everyday items.
Given its impact upon style of design in the 1920s in America, the inevitably that Bauhaus style would permeate amatuer woodworking was only time. In 1929, a curious article, "Manual Arts and the Modern Art Movement" appeared in the Industrial Education Magazine. And, as a new periodical -- May, 1930-- the Chicago-based Popular Homecraft acknowledged the pull of the modern style by includidng small projects in it issues (more info to come). Check out section seven in Chapter 4
Bead:
Bearing: See Bushing and/or Ball Bearing
Belt: See also V-Belt
Belt Sander:
Bench dog: A small piece of metal which may be fitted in a hole in a workbench so as to project enough to act as a stop or brace for a piece of work.
(Source: Home Craftsman 4 May-June 1935 page 220.)
Bench Screw: A threaded metal or wood bolt in one end of which a handle can be inserted to make a vise or clamping attachment on the workbench.
(Source: Home Craftsman 4 September-October 1935 page 44.)
Bending Wood:
Source: Matt Berger “All About Bending Wood” Fine Woodworking ?
Bevel: need image
Biscuit Joiner: under construction -- info adapted from foster's manual and other sources -- more to come
Biscuit joinery traces back to 1956. Hermann Steiner, a Swiss cabinetmaker, opened a cabinet shop in 1944. In the middle of the 50’s, after chipboard was introduced to the market, began looking for a simple means of joining the recently introduced chipboard. The upshot: nted almost by accident, Steiner invented the now world-famous Lamello Joining System. Steiner started manufacturing wood-joining plates under the brand name Lamello. (For more history and image of Steiner, click here. Lamello derives from the German word Lamelle, which translates to "thin plate.")
Primarily used in joining sheet goods such as plywood, particle board and medium-density fibreboard, biscuits are also widely used with solid wood, replacing mortise and tenon joints as they are easier to make and almost as strong. They are also used to align pieces of wood when joined edge-to-edge in making wider panels.
(Recently -- ca 2006 -- the German firm, Festool, manufacturer of upscale, high-quality woodworking tools, introduduce a product it calls Domino. Pricey, the Domino marries the biccuit joiner's adaptation of mortise and tenon joint making to the more traditonal mortise and tenon operation -- used in most cases with horizontal mortisers -- that incorporates the "floating tenon" concept.)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mode of operating biscuit joiners: (I have some images of my own to add here)
Both of the faces of the machine have reference marks on the center line of the blade for easy alignment to setting out marks on the material being joined.
The body of the machine with the blade is spring loaded -- in the normal position the blade sits in the retracted mode. In operating a biscuit joiner, the tool is aligned with the reference marks and, to make the cut -- using a firm pressure -- pushes the biscuit joiner against the base plate.
Because the slots are longer than the biscuits, it is still possible to slide the panels sideways after the joint is assembled.(Before the glue sets). This fact makes the biscuit joiner easy to use, because it does not require extreme accuracy or jigs to achieve perfect joints.
The depth of the cut can be altered by an adjustable stop, the smaller base can be rotated through 90 degrees. and accessories are provided for altering the offset of the base to the blade.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In 1969, the privately-owned company changed to Steiner-Lamello Ltd.
The 1970s saw much activity by Steiner-Lamello, including in 1973, a second production plant. Most significant, in 1977, the Lamello Top, image on left.
(Original image copyrighted by American Woodworker, used with permission.)
The Lamello clamping system -- complete with clamps, tension hooks, and corner profiles -- was added in 1980.
In 1982, the Spanish firm Virutex began fabricating the 0-81 joiner, a high-quality fixed-angle joiner for about half the price of the Lamello Top. In 1983, Steiner responded to the Virutex 0-81 came the following year with the Lamello Junior.In the latter half of the 1980s, innovations on biscuit joiners included: on the Lamello Junior, a combination right angle/mitre plate replaced the right-angle-only plate; to ease blade-changing, a spindle lock was added to the Lamello Top . Freud introduced a low-cost joiner, the JS-100. In mid-1988, Porter-Cable introduced a joiner driven by a belt rather than by helical gears.
Sources: Ernie Conover, "The Answer [on "plate" or "biscuit" joinery], American Woodworker 2, no 3 Fall 1986, pages 5+; Hugh Foster, Biscuit Joiner Handbook New York: Sterling Publishing Co, 1989
Bow Saw: for an extended entry, click here
Brad Point Bit: The brad point bit is of a family of Drill Bits perfected for drilling in wood. "Brad" in its name comes from the point on the tip. To achieve greater precision in drilling holes in wood projects, before it penetrates into the wood, the bit's point prevents it from wandering uncontrollably during rotation. Brad Point Bits are discussed more fully under Drill Bits
