A fine, well used jointer plane. Like most of the planes I saw, it had a rosewood body and a narrow blade.
A fine, well used jointer plane. Like most of the planes I saw, it had a rosewood body and a narrow blade.
Bench Chisels
The smaller sizes of a set of chisels. These chisels come from the tools
maker whose forge is shown on the toolmakers
page. When I bought the set they were unhandled as the set shown below.
The set was handled at my request. The narrow chisels are very similar
to sash mortise chisels because this is primarily what they are used for.
Asian woodworking as a whole uses incredibly complicated joinery but not
too many dovetails. Most of the joinery is mortise and tenon, with some
very fancy permutations of the basic joint. Splines or locking wedges
are commonly used. As a result, the thin bevel- edged bench chisels that
are so important in the west aren't made here. The blades taper slightly
from front to back and extensively in thickness from tip to tang.
(Blade length approx 5". Overall length approx: 10.5". Steel blade, copper ferrule, miscellaneous local hardwood handles.)
Bench Chisels
The wider sizes of a set of chisels. While the fan shapes of these chisels
is typically associated with Chinese and Vietnamese tools, the shape is
the same as early hand forged Western tools. Mechanick Exercises
(a woodworking manual published in 1678) shows a set of similar chisels
from about 1700. The key point here is that the parallel shape of Western
chisels is more a function of forging machinery than anything else.
Bench Chisels - Detail of Cutting Edge
As the chisels get wider in width, they thin down considerably. On this hand forged set, all the blades have a hand filed and scraped finish. The backs are pretty flat, but required a fair amount of hand work on a water stone.
Bench Chisels - Details of Several edges, including Gouges
Common Bench Chisels
Unlike the fancy chisels above, these are basic factory-made bench chisels
that are widely available. They are all sold unhandled, about 5"
long edge to tang. The backs are moderately flat but requre a good bit
of hand work.
Carving Tools
The same maker in Hoi An who made the set of chisels illustrated above
also made the carving tools illustrated at left. This is a fine set, carefully
forged and filed to a bright finish. The full set is pretty large, although
the range of sizes that exists in the West isn't found. The set was sold
unsharpened and would require a fair amount of honing before use. Length
of the widest gouge shown in the illustration: 4 1/4" edge to tang.
When I first saw cabinetmakers hitting a chisel with a chunk of wood that looked like an old chair leg, I thought it was a shame that they didn't use a proper hammer. Then I saw other craftsman do the same thing and I realized that a tapered block of wood is exactly the thing everyone uses to hit a chisel with. Later on, when I was buying chisels in a hardware store, I motioned for a hammer to hit my newly bought chisels. This mallet is what the proprietor sold me. It's not a bad design and it certainly is a lot easier to make than a fancy mallet or steel hammer.
This is the classic form of Vietnamese planes. The handle in the back helps give a longer and more powerful stroke. This is important because the woodworker is seated on the floor and planing away from him or herself. This particular speciman isn't usable. The wood was warped, checked and isn't fit correctly. Shorter planes will sometimes also have a push rod, but a the long jointer planes I saw did not. With a long plane, you must work standing and move with the plane or otherwise you cannot plane a long piece.
This plane is as purchased and is so bad as to be unuable. I didn't see any usable wood planes for sale, but every cabinetmaker I saw had an identical one made out of rosewood. Wooden rabbet planes are also sold but are unusable. I did not actually see any planes in use except for various lengths of bench planes.
Bow Drill
The only drills I saw in actual use were hand held electic drills or western
eggbeater style drills. However, the toolmaker in Hoi An showed me this
very nice bowdrill and a set of very fine hand made bits. The fishtail
end of the bit is held in a wedge cut in the drill shank .The bit is wedged
in place and a forged ring keeps it from splitting. The top part of the
drill has a hole in it so that you can grab solidly on the upper part
of the drill shank and saw away with the bow. (Length of bow: 24".)
Bow Drill Bits
Hand forged drill bits for a bow drill. Approx. 6 1/2" long.
Identical to the Western version, this marking gauge locks the beam with a wedge. A simple tap on the thick side and it locks; a tap on the thin side and it unlocks. It works well, is very simple and has no metal parts. This one is brand new and doesn't have a nail in the head of the beam - that you would have to add yourself. I did not see any mortise gauges.
Bow Saw
Everywhere I saw a cabinetmaker, I saw a bow saw such as this. The blades look like they were made out of a piece of bandsaw blade tensioned by a nut welded into a handle at the end. The stiles on this saw are mortised into a rail at the top. In less expensive saws, a steel band is used instead. The center piece is free floating and is held in place by the tension of the entire saw. The major difference between these bow saws and their Western counterpartst is that Western saws are tensioned by a twisted bow at the top and these use a screw on the blade. This particular blade has no set for ripping. Other saws have teeth set for crosscutting. (Blade length: 20".)
Tools are sharpened with natural waterstones. These are very fine stones with a grit approaching about 4000.
These hand forged hammerheads are used primarily for nailing. Like Western hammers, they come in several weights, depending on use.
Not woodworking tools per se, but these hand forged sissors are a pleasure to use.
