under construction 4-21-2010 also under construction is an entry on bandsaw blades

Glossary F

Face Frame

Fairing off

Associated with boat building, fairing off means to scoop out a curved surface to gain an even, flowing curve.

Source: Home Craftsman 4 March-April 1935, page 172

Feather Board

A device on a saw or other cutter to hold the workpiece in contact with the fence/table. Comprises multiple slots cut comb-like into the end of a board and then attached the saw so that the tips of the tines place pressure against the stock as it is fed.

Files, Rasps, etc.: under construction 6-8-08 definition coming

Files are available in three different types of cuts: single cut, double cut, and rasp. Single cut files are made with a series of parallel cuts running diagonally across the file. This type is used largely for work on softer materials such as brass, lead and wood. Double cut files are made with two series of cuts crossing one another. Such files are for machine shop work in general.

The rasp—with single projecting teeth—is used for wood, for hot iron and for softer metals. These types of files are available in varying sizes and in many shapes including flat, square, round, triangular (three square), half-round, etc. In addition to this variety of styles, files are obtainable in several cuts termed as, rough, middle, common or bastard, second, smooth, dead-smooth and double-dead smooth.

Source:Home Craftsman 4 1935 July-August page 260.

Source: Nicholson File Co, File Filosophy booklet, 1956, in opd.

Files and rasps are valuable in furniture making. The file -- much more than a smoothing tool — is a cutting and shaping tool, with rows of geometrically arranged burrs, or cutting edges, cut into the flat paddle of steel, as the illustration above illustrates.

A farrier's rasp is an excellent tool for preparing a rough piece of wood for the lathe. Where only a small quantity of material is required to be removed it will be found to be more convenient than the axe or paring knife. JOHN PHIN

Files are made of tool steel

By a method that John Jacob Holtzapffel [Charles Holtzapffel, Turning and Mechanical Manipulation, by C. Holtzapffel, 1846, volume II, page 827 -- will fix this situation when I create a separate page on files] describes, the workman sits with the heel of a small anvil almost between his knees. The file blank — which was first greased — is held tightly against the top of the anvil by two leather straps, pressure being exerted by the workman's feet. The first cut is made nearest the off-end of the blank with a special chisel — always wider than the file to make a clean cut — held approximately at an angle of 55° to the perpendicular. The cutting edge of the chisel is slightly blunt, since the object is to indent the steel of the blank — not actually to cut it free. The angle of the chisel makes a cut that pushes the steel up into a sharp ridge. On half-round files, two or three joined cuts were necessary to reach over the curved surface. Source: Aldren Watson, Country Furniture New York: Crowell, 1974, page 99

Files were ideal for finishing the surface of end-grain wood such as the narrow edges of a dovetailed drawer front. The joiner found files just the thing for smoothing molding rounds, cleaning out inside curves, rounding corners, and often as a substitute for glasspaper (a forerunner of sandpaper).

For smoothing fine bead moldings, the tang of an old file could be sharpened (with another file) and then bent in a matching hook. This improvised tool did as nice a job as a piece of freshly broken glass, which by the way should be deemed a "tool" in its own right. And files were useful, too, in making patterns or wooden templates. These were generally sawn from quarter-inch pine or basswood, and carefully shaped and faired up to exact contours, a job that a file did better than anything else. On large patterns such as those for chair seats, thin battens were nailed across the grain to prevent their splitting and warping. A hole bored in one corner provided a simple means of storing the pattern, hung on a peg in the wall. From these templates which were more accurately carved than cut, parts of furniture could be easily duplicated, though not in the sense of interchangeability that we are familiar with today.

For smoothing fine bead moldings, the tang of an old file could be sharpened (with another file) and then bent in a matching hook. This improvised tool did as nice a job as a piece of freshly broken glass, which by the way should be deemed a "tool" in its own right. And files were useful, too, in making patterns or wooden templates. These were generally sawn from quarter-inch pine or basswood, and carefully shaped and faired up to exact contours, a job that a file did better than anything else. On large patterns such as those for chair seats, thin battens were nailed across the grain to prevent their splitting and warping. A hole bored in one corner provided a simple means of storing the pattern, hung on a peg in the wall. From these templates which were more accurately carved than cut, parts of furniture could be easily duplicated, though not in the sense of interchangeability that we are familiar with today.

Files were of course used for sharpening axes, cold chisels, screw bits, gimlets, and many other small tools.

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Fillet: A narrow flat Molding, separating other moldings.

(Source: Home Craftsman 4 March-April 1935, page 172)

Finger Joint:

Firsts and Seconds(FAS): A grade for Wood, it designates the quality of a piece of wood.

Flat Sawn

Wood cut tangentially from a log, where the Grain falls in a lateral direction, rather as in the more ideal, Quarter Sawn, where the Grain, in direction, flows more or less from a board's top surface to its bottom surface, a condition identified as "Vertical Grain".

Flathead Screw: The head of a Screw that, in shape is flat, rather than round or oval. Flathead screws are designed to sit flush in a Countersunk hole.

Fleam (teeth)

Floating Tenon

See Tenon -- Tenon, Biscuit, Floating Tenon, Spline, Tongue, and other similar Joints are treated in one entry.

Flush

Level or even with the adjacent surface.

Source: Home Craftsman 4 March-April 1935, page 172.

Folding Rule

[definition below is borrowed from w f m goss, bench work in wood, rev ed, 1905 - section#18]

18. Rules are measuring strips, and are usually made of Boxwood. Their size is expressed by their length in inches or feet, as a "6-inch rule," a " 2-foot rule".

For convenience, using small brass hinges, they are made to fold, -image in  goss] and one is said to be "two-fold" when made of two pieces, "four-fold " when made of four, and "six-fold" when made of six pieces. Fig. 28 shows a four-fold rule.

To preserve the rule from wear, the better class are "bound" by a strip of brass which covers each edge : others are "half-bound," having only on edge covered and still others are "unbound," having no edge protection.

Carpenters' rules are usually graduated to eighths of inches on one side, and to sixteenths on the other Besides the regular graduations, other numbers are frequently represented ; but their purpose is so varied that their interpretation cannot be given here.

Sources: W F M Goss, Bench Work in Wood, rev ed, 1905 - section #18; Harvey Green, Wood: Craft, Culture, History  New York: Viking, 2006, page 434.

Foot-Powered And Hand-Powered Woodworking Machines

Forstner Bit

Another example eponymous product, the Forstner bit, was named for Benjamin Forstner (1834—1897). This bit-- it forms flat-bottomed holes -- is widely used by woodworkers.

History of Forstner Bits

Forstner was born in Pennsylvania but migrated to Salem, Ore., in 1865, where he was a gunsmith until 1889. His knowledge of metallurgy, boring and rifling helped him develop the bit that was originally called the "Forstner Flange Bit" or the "Webfoot Auger." He patented his bit design in 1874.

Like Phillips (of the Phillips screw-driver), Forstner turned to the great factories in New England to take his invention into full production. The Colt Patent Fire Arms Co. of Hartford, CT, manufactured the bits with a short center point and sharp cylindrical rim. Having perfected strong bits that could provide accurate boring of gun barrels and cylinders, Colt adapted Forstner's bit for drilling wood.

The Forstner bit won a prize at the Centennial Exposition of 1876 and another at the World's Fair of 1883. His business arrangement with Colt was lucrative; Colt paid Forstner a royalty for the rest of his life, and he died a wealthy landowner.

Forstner bits operate without (1) the "lead", or center screw, or, following the anatomy of a Gimlet, the "gimlet-point" and (2) cutting spur or nicker of more conventional wood boring bits. The Forstner bit proved especially useful to gunsmiths, to cabinetmakers, and icreasingly to the wider audience of amateur woodworkers who make furniture.

Until the Plunge Router, Forstner bits were unsurpassed in drilling smooth bore holes with flat-bottoms. [It was better than the Russell Jennings spiral bits for boring at an angle and not following the grain of the wood. Benjamin Forstner eventually worked out licensing arrangements for the manufacture and sale of his Forstner bits by a number of companies. Even today, the Forstner bit continues to be manufactured, although its has changed to a split-ring design. Forstner bits still command a premium price over that of ordinary spiral bits.]

Bio: Benjamin Forstner himself had an interesting life story. He was born in Beaver County, Pennsylvania in 1834, but in the early 1850s moved to Missouri where he came under the influence of communal utopian William Keil of Bethel, MO. He followed Keil to the Pacific Northwest where they founded the colony of Aurora, Oregon. Forstner later settled in Salem, Oregon where he was established as a gunsmith. He traveled East on business often, including to the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia and the 1893 Columbian Exposition where his Forstner bits on highest premiums among wood working tools. Through lucrative royalty payments he became a wealthy Salem citizen and property owner. Benjamin Forstner died in 1897.

Sources: Philip Leon, "Name Brand Tools", Popular Woodworking, December 2006, page 104

Fractional-Horse Power Motor

Fret Saw

see extended entry. See also Scroll Saw

Furniture Design and Designers

[Done correctly, this entry will be extensive. In the interval, I will simply list some of the books that I own personally.]

The Buffalo (NY) Architecture and History website dedicates extensive pages to definitions (with examples) of furniture design.

1762: Thomas Chippendale. The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker's Director

Click here for access to full reprint of Chippendale's 1762 style book with 200 plates plus 24 photos and links to websites celebrating Chippendale's influence.

1762: William Ince and John Mayhew. Authentic Georgian Furniture Designs: Universal System of Household Furniture, 1762 Over 300 finely engraved designs for parlor chairs, claw tables, sideboards, desks, bookcases, writing tables, candlestands, couches, and much more. A magnificent sourcebook for antique collectors, craftworkers, artists, and cultural historians.

1794: George Hepplewhite. The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Guide. 1794 stylebook illustrating 300 different chairs, beds, side boards, etc. 128 plates. eb 1911 on hepplewhite http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/H/HE/HEPPLEWHITE_GEORGE.htm

1853: Blackie & Son. Victorian Cabinet-Maker’s Assistant . British style book (1853) includes full text, 116 figures and 100 plates.

Original Date? Clement Meadmore.The Modern Chair: Classic Designs by Thonet, Breuer, Le Corbusier, Eames and Others 192 Pages ISBN: 0486298078

A noted furniture designer discusses functional and aesthetic elements of more than 40 "classic" modern chairs. Profusely illustrated with photographs and explanatory drawings. More than 40 "classic" modern chairs, illustrated and discussed by a noted furniture designer, exemplify the marriage of practicality and aesthetics. Thonet’s Bentwood armchair, Breuer’s Wassily chair, van der Rohe’s Barcelona chair, and many others are depicted in photographs and explanatory drawings.

Original Date? Thomas Sheraton. Classical Revival Furniture Designs (The Cabinet Maker and Upholsterer’s Drawing. Definitive selection of important plates from several editions showing all aspects of elegant style. 97 plates. article in eb 1911 on sheraton http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/S/SH/SHERATON_THOMAS.htm

1829 Thomas King. Neo-Classical Furniture Designs: A Reprint of Thomas King's "Modern Style of Cabinet Work...ISBN: 0486282899

1931: Franklin H. Gottshall. Simple Colonial Furniture: Building Your Own Family Heirlooms. Bonanza Books, 1931.

In 1931, "simple" to Gottshall would definitely not be simple to the craftsman in the home shop. For example, on pages 36-37, Gottshall describes for the homecraftsman that the "construction" of the paneled chest is "self-evident from a study of the drawing". Study of the drawing shows an attractive chest, yes, but the more you study it, the more you're convinced that it is NOT simple!

1937: Franklin H. Gottshall. How to Design Period Furniture, Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing Co.

1947: Marguerite Smith. Modern Design in American Domestic Furniture, 1925-1945. [thesis] Chicago: Univerisity of Chicago, 1947

1968: Charles H. Hayward,  English Period Furniture Designs New York: Arco, 1968

1978: Alonzo W. Kettles,  P. Designs for wood. NY, Prentice Hall. 1978. (ISBN: 0684155419)

1997: Graves, Garth. The Woodworker's Guide to Furniture Design (1997).

1998: Bill Hylton. How to Design and Construct Furniture That Works. Rodale Press 1998.

1990: Norman Vandal. Queen Anne Furniture: History Design and Construction.  (Reprinted by Lee Valley in 2006.) check amazon

2001: In the Craftsman Style: Building Furniture Inspired by the Arts and Crafts Tradition, edited by Fine Woodworking, Taunton Press Inc.,U.S., released: July 30, 2001. isbn: 2002: Mario Livio. The Golden Ratio (2002) [I don't own this book yet -- simply taken by its title]

Furniture Styles: click on this link to go to Appendix 10, for an extended treatment of Furniture Styles