Old craftsmen's use of scrub planes
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I’ve heard Paul say on some of his videos that if you wanted to emulate the old craftsmanship of the Shakers, you could use a scrub plane and leave the wood with the slight undulations. Why didn’t the Shakers use a smoothing plane to finish the boards off? They were famous for their attention to detail. I don’t think he was just talking about the undersides of drawers or other parts that wouldn’t be seen. I believe Paul was talking about the parts of their furniture that were exposed.
30 April 2017 at 1:05 am #311547I dunno.
You may have misinterpreted what Paul said about that ( I admit I don’t recollect the statement) He may have been referring to the final surface finish from smoothing planes, or perhaps colonial work from an earlier time. But scrub plane marks? I don’t think Shaker pieces show much of that.When I look at authentic shaker furniture I see pretty well finished pieces. ( there’s a Hancock table in the family). They had water driven planers, table saws, ( mother Sarah Babbitt is credited by some with the invention of the sliding table saw in 1813! Among other mechanical inventions), band saws, drill presses, lathes,jig saws, shapers… pretty well equipped shops. They can hardly be claimed by the unplugged shop folks, though they plugged into a water flume and not electricity until late.
The Shakers ran a production operation. They specialized on a rather small number of pieces where they could maximize volume in what was basically a mail order catalogue and newspaper ad enterprise. They did little custom work for sale. Though I guess you could call all the work they did for themselves custom, it was to fixed patterns, probably because it had to be vetted by the elders for ethical conformity to simplicity.
They were not at all averse to using machinery to dimension their work. They did final finish ” show” surfaces with smoothing planes rather than sandpaper, and maybe that’s what Paul was talking about. They didn’t spend as much time finishing what couldn’t be seen, but by the 1830’s, there was lots of dimensioned lumber for sale from sawmills. I don’t really see all that many scrub plane marks on the undersides of tables, for instance.
The colonial stuff from 50 years earlier, on the other hand, did show decidedly rougher work in the hidden areas, which is understandable since they did it all by hand. Lots of scrub plane evidence on those pieces. But even those pieces were well finished where it was seen. People still struggle to capture the look of Hepplewhite and Chippendale.
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You must be logged in to view attached files.30 April 2017 at 5:08 am #311554If you watch his scrub pane iron making video he talks about using one to replicate old furnature makers. Mostly to replicate the backs and unseen parts of furnature
30 April 2017 at 8:28 am #311561I cannot say for the Shakers however you sometimes see a “scrubbed” surface on the traditional Austrian/Southgerman Farmers furniture we have here. It may have been done to keep time and cost down or as a deliberate means to add some texture to the surface, i dont know.
We do use the latter sometimes today to add a nice texture to the surface instead of brushing it for example, just as a reminder that a surface doesnt always have to be perfectly smooth and flat to have a nice feel and look to it.I can’t recall Paul making that statement — does the OP have a link? I’m curious if it might have been a statement open to multiple interpretations.
My wife has a few Shaker pieces, and the outsides are nicely finished. I just went and spilled a bunch of clothing on the bed so I could remove the drawers and look inside of one. I attached some (admittedly terrible) pics where you can kind of make out the drawer side and the drawer front, and maybe see the difference in level of finish. Also one of the inside of the carcass. My wife says this piece was one of many purchased for my wife’s great-grandmother by her great-grandfather when they first moved into their new home, around 1890.
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You must be logged in to view attached files.In Paul’s video “Preparing rough stock” he uses his scrub plane on a board and then says you could leave the surface like that ” mocking the original plane marks. I noticed when I was at the Hancock Shaker museum that you could see all these undulations on the surface of the wood after they had finished it”. It’s about 30 minutes into the video. I wouldn’t think the museum would let him take the drawers out to look at the bottom, so I assumed he was talking about the exposed surfaces.
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