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Time-travel with trees
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A glimpse at an old-time craft rekindles love for traditional hand tools
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By Steven Maxwell, illustration by Paul Perreault
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see detailed illustration on next page
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Every so often I catch a glimpse of something that changes woodworking for me, and that's what happened one sunny Saturday morning as I explored a forest path a few miles from my home. What I discovered that day might just lead to the best summertime woodworking you'll find.
The transforming sight was an ancient wooden gate hinged to a crib that sat across the end of an almost-abandoned forest trail. Besides the fact that the installation was old enough to be completely shrouded in a velour-like skin of bright green moss, the most striking feature was the way it was put together.
I doubt it would be possible for any woodworker to look at that old gate and not feel the urge to build something like it. The methods of traditional joinery were rugged, strong and beautiful, yet entirely different than anything a modern carpenter would use. The gate was still square and straight and surprisingly strong, even though the wood was getting punky. The only metal I saw were the iron strap hinges and what was left of hand-forged square spikes holding the crib together. The top, bottom and diagonal gate braces were made of cedar logs, hewn square with a broadaxe and carefully fitted. Each of the dozens of crisscrossed pieces forming the crib were also hewn and still sat plumb. Obviously, someone knew what they were doing.
The first thing to understand about traditional woodworking of this sort is that it's an exercise in hand-eye skills. You'll certainly measure and mark where you can, but final results rely more on your judgement and co-ordination than modern woodworking usually does. Think of it as improvisation in wood. There's not a patch of forest anywhere in Canada that couldn't sustainably supply the right kind of material for at least a small chair, garden bench or fireplace mantel. Another plus: working with forest wood is almost cost-free.
Seeing that old gate was like stepping back in time, and it's worth remembering when you consider some history I discovered about it later. The maker was probably a man named Isaac Bailey-a backwoods farmer and timberman who died in 1947, sometime during his 80s, still wearing his workboots. Astonishing durability, in both the maker and his work.
There's something wildly attractive about stepping into the forest to hand-pick lumber and build with wood just as nature grows it. This is especially true now that the weather's warm and workshops are stuffy. Since being in-spired by that gate more than 15 years ago, I've acquired and used a broad axe, adze, broad hatchet, drawknife, spokeshave and hand brace to make a bench, garden arbour, chair, a bunch of rafters for a shed, a wagon rack and the beams holding up my house. If you can set aside the addiction to productivity that power tools instill, traditional hand tools are great fun and yield beautiful surface textures you won't see anywhere else.
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