 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Woodworker's Manuals 1931-1940
What follows immediately below are preliminary remarks designed to highlight matters that I have discovered in beginning a survey of woodworking manuals published over a period of three centuries.
Why survey three centuries of woodworking manuals?
The main focus of my study is the 20th century, but since woodworking manuals published in the 18th century remain popular among certain amateur woodworkers today, I believe that I need to explore approaches that allows you to visualize the context in which these "original" woodworking manuals were published, and thus may be able to sense their significance as timeless artifacts.
My first convictions about woodworking manuals is that the intent of their authors in assembling these manuals is to instruct and to inspire.
The "to instruct" -- the "how-to-do-it" function -- is obvious. Potential woodworkers need guidance, and guidance comes best from other woodworkers' experience.
The "to inspire" part may not be obvious to beginners, of course, but finding any evidence of attempts toward inspiration is usually not difficult, especially if you read the introduction to a woodworking manual.
For example, read the introduction to the 1946 woodworker's manual, How to Get the Most Out of Your Home Workshop Hand and Power Tools, published by Popular Science. Click here to read Document 8: Popular Science "How the Hammer, Saw and Try-Square Can Satisfy!" 1946
How to Get the Most Out of Your Home Workshop Hand and Power Tools "Introduction" revives the term, "Skill Hunger", coined and popularized in the Depression by promoters such as Lawrence Pearsall Jack, for promoting use of "leisure time" wisely.
What is "skill hunger?"
For the editors of How to Get the Most Out of Your Home Workshop Hand and Power Tools, skill hunger concerns "How the Hammer, Saw and Try-Square Can Satisfy the Urge to Make Things". Read more on this term by clicking on this hyperlink.
In comparison, how does this 1946, How to Get the Most Out of Your Home Workshop Hand and Power Tools, manual stand up in promoting use of power tools over competitive manuals?
I checked this matter by doing a survey of woodworking manuals published between 1941 and 1950 in the Worldcat bibliographic database.
(Worldcat, the world's largest bibliographic database of books, periodicals, publications of governments, etc, etc., currently contains records for over 50 million items.)
For How to Get the Most Out of Your Home Workshop Hand and Power Tools, Worldcat registers only 17 copies in libraries worldwide -- telling us that libraries did not perceive this title as a "keeper", meaning that we can't use library holdings as an indicator of the impact of this manual on the amateur woodworking movement in the '40s.
(Since How to Get the Most Out of Your Home Workshop Hand and Power Tools is over 50 years old, and has been "replaced" by numerous other more up-to-date manuals, most public libraries could have "discarded" their copies for more recently published books.
By discard, do not think the trash can; instead, it is more likely that the book was offered for sale at one of the book sales public libraries conduct annually. As a rule, public libraries -- unlike college libraries -- do not consider themselves "last copy" repositories. However, while this assumption may be soundly based, it is still only speculation.)
Worldcat registers that in 1946, 35 volumes were published, and for the decade, i.e., from 1941-1950, 206 volumes were published that libraries classified as woodworking manuals. So, with these figures, we can conclude that the How to get the most out of your home workshop hand and power tools volume had much competition, especially in a nation occupied by a war.
How to Get the Most Out of Your Home Workshop Hand and Power Tools was, however, indexed in the Index to Handicrafts, Modelmaking and Workshop Projects, 2d supplement, 1950. This is one volume in a series of five volumes, published between 1943 and 1975. These volumes were purchased widely by public libraries, because their contents are indexes the internal contents of manuals. Pages of The Index to Handicrafts where certain "how-to" plans are accessible: for example, the following entry shows that you can find:
"Mortising and shaping on the drill press". In How to Get the Most Out of Your Home Workshop Hand and Power Tools, pp. 91-95.
The Index to Handicrafts began as an in-house file of hand-written 3 x5 inch library cards in the Pittsburgh Public Library. Click on this link for an online example of how a public library lists these volumes.
How to get the most out of your home workshop hand and power tools is still in the Index to Handicrafts, Modelmaking and Workshop Projects volume, but the manual itself -- probably because in public libraries it is considered outdated -- has been removed from the shelves of many public libraries.Popular Mechanics shop notes. v. 25 (1929), v. 27 (1931)–v. 30 (1934) Popular Mechanics Press. 50e each.
Popular Science. v. 112-126. Ja. '28–Jc. '35. (Occasional references from earlier volumes included). Popular Science Pub.1931: Franklin H. Gottshall. Simple Colonial Furniture: Building Your Own Family Heirlooms. Bonanza Books, 1931.
1935: William W Klenke Unique simple toys. McKnight & McKnight, 1935. 1935: William W Klenke. Things to make and how to make them. Manual Arts Press, 1935. 1935: Klenke, William W. Home workshop. 1935. Manual Arts. 1935: Klenke, William W. Things to make for the camp and game room. 1935. Manual Arts. 1935: Klenke, William W. Things to make for the home. 1935. Manual Arts. 1935: Klenke, William W. Things to make for the lawn and garden. 1935. Manual Arts.Indexed in Index to Handicrafts 1936 Klenke is prominent in Industrial Arts circles in the 19120, 1930s, 1940s. When time allow, I will investigate why he published five books in a single year. |
Getting the most out of your lathe. 4th ed. Delta
Mfg. Co., Milwaukee, 
1937 Archie Frederick Collins, Amateur Power Working Tools Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1937
| Now
it matters but little what
your financial or social position may be, how well educated you are, or
what your vocation is, if you have never used woodworking
tools you have missed one of the greatest pleasures and lasting
benefits that is the heritage of the human race. To
be able to use tools is a special education in itself, for it
coordinates the mind, the eye, and the hand, and this kind of training
will help you to do many other things well and, it follows, will prove
to be of the greatest value to you as long as you live. |
|
You won't find the word modernage in the dictionary for it is so new that the lexicographers haven't caught up with it yet. Obviously it is compounded from two perfectly familiar words modern and age, but when these are coupled together and the accent is put on the first syllable—it gives them a very up-to-the-minute, or a little beyond it, sound. Now the word modernage, which under any and all circumstances is spelled with a lower-case m, has been adopted by a New York firm of furniture dealers to indicate that they handle only ultra-fashioned furniture, and this is the kind I'm going to tell you how to build in this chapter.
|
| FRENCH PROVINCIAL FURNITURE
DURING the past score of years the
American people have shown marked interest in quaint historical types
of furniture. This interest has been fostered through the
renewed popularity of the early American antique. [Here, Shea and
Wenger refer to the Colonial Revival.] It has
continued to include other kindred styles of furniture which
emanated from other countries. Among the offerings of these other
countries, that of There is something about these unsophisticated provincial furniture designs which attunes them to our popular imagination. Perhaps the feeling of inherent warmth or homely well-being which they convey, furnishes some clue to their current popularity. People are impressed by the charming simplicity of these designs—a sort of simplicity that is in absolute contrast to the modern scene. It may even be thought that provincial furniture brings with it warmth and comfort and relaxation and that it distinguishes the home in which it is used as a proper retreat from the harsh hubbub of everyday life....” While Shea and Wenger don’t use “French” in this book’s title, perusing the contents soon makes it evident that, throughout, the concern is with furniture produced in[Note to self: this account of Provincial Furniture is incomplete. In folder, under Shea, is reprint of the authors’ masterful brief account of “French Provincial Furniture".] |
|
Woodworking,
almost
as old as civilization itself, is by far the most popular of hobbies. The
development of fine hand and power tools has contributed
in no small measure to the present-day popularity of woodworking as a
hobby and an art. These make woodworking not only comparatively easy,
but also interesting and at times even profitable. The idea
underlying the production of this book is to acquaint the craftsman
with every phase of woodworking, from the choosing of proper tools and
equipment, their care and maintenance, to the actual
construction of many useful objects. |
1939: Hooper, Rodney. Modern Furniture Making and Design. Manual Arts, 1939. 160 pages.
Indexed
in Index to Handicrafts 1943.
Click here for an
extended treatment of this important manual First
published in
1939:
these projects are not too difficult" for boys who have learned "to square to dimensions" and to make a respectable mortise-and-tenon joint,” meaning that any boy introduced to these techniques in high courses would not be immune to applying them in his own woodworking later, as a mature man taking up woodworking seriously as a hobby. |
|
Most of the pieces of furniture described and illustrated in this book are small in size and therefore economical as to the material needed. They have all been made in the author's classes of second-and third-year high-school boys. While not intended for beginners or very young students, these projects are not too difficult for boys who have learned "to square to dimensions" and to make a respectable mortise-and-tenon joint. A few simple exercises in wood turning may be given as a parallel course.The majority of the designs are adaptations of classical prototypes, which are widely known and appreciated and therefore welcome, or at least acceptable, in most American homes. In order to produce a finished article that will compare favorably with factory-built furniture, several refinements in design and construction, as simple veneering and carving, have been introduced. These processes are not difficult, but rather unfamiliar or untried by the nonprofessional woodworker. They have therefore been described in some detail in separate chapters. To spend a little time on the study and practice of veneering and carving is well worth while, because such refinements not only add enormously to the ,appearance of a piece of furniture, but also — and this is more important — give students an entirely new interest in woodworking, an eagerness to achieve, and a wholesome pride in their accomplishments. Although this book was developed in schoolwork it is hoped that it will not be limited to this field, but that it may also prove interesting and stimulating to the many who practice woodwork as a hobby. Grateful acknowledgment is hereby given to The Veneer Association for use of Figures 2, 3, 4, 4A, and 37, to the Mahogany Association, Inc., for Figures 35 and 36 and to Albert Constantine & Son, Inc., for the use of Figures 55 and 56. I wish in particular to acknowledge my indebtedness to Mr. W. F. Leicester, vice-president of the Casein Company of America, who encouraged me to experiment with casein glue both for veneering and furniture making in general. HERMAN
HJORTH
Yonkers, New York March 23, 1939 |
