experimental history

Wood

From a historical perspective, books and woodwork are closely connected. Before the days of wood pulp paper, the tools of the book trades were made primarily of wood. From the vats used to pulp linen rag in the paper trade, the printing press with woodcut pictures and wood text blocks in the printing trade, to the stitching frame and presses used in the binding trade. To this day, many of the bookbinder’s tools are wooden. As a hand tool woodworker, this makes establishing a traditional hand bindery an exercise in experimental history.

I am embarking on a long-term and expansive set of projects in the book arts and bibliography as an experimental historian. The first phase is to get the workshop back to a hand tool wood shop. This involves scaling back in several areas, and building the infrastructure necessary for woodworking and book arts. The primary piece of infrastructure the rest of the shop is built around is the workbench.

This joiner’s bench has a Moxon-style face vise with 24 inches between the screws. It is a relatively small bench at just 5 feet long and 17 inches wide. A typical joiner’s bench is 7 to 8 feet long; some are as long as 12 feet or more, and the typical joiner’s bench is 24 to 30 inches wide. This bench is made from Douglas Fir except for the face board and vise, which is Maple; it still weighs in at over 300 pounds unloaded. The workshop space available is small, just over 150 square feet of usable space, this set the scale of the bench.

The second step is to remove all of the existing factory-made shop furniture and replace it with options that save floor space and are custom-designed for the space and the work at hand. The first project is a Dutch tool chest.¹ The chest being built is a little different from the ones in the book in that this chest has two smaller detached chests under the double shelf version of the main tool chest. The one pictured below is the bottom chest with heavy-duty casters. This chest is 27 inches wide, 14 inches tall, and 12 inches deep. The middle chest is the pile of cut lumber sitting on the workbench and is 27 x 13 x 12. That build starts tomorrow. The top chest build should start within the next two weeks; its final dimensions have not yet been determined, but should come in around 27 x 31 x 12. The total height of the three should be between 60 and 65 inches.

Once all three sections of the tool chest are completed, the factory-made furnishings can be emptied, either into the Dutch chest(s), or into temporary storage containers. The factory tool chest and rolling cabinet/bench will be sold, and the workshop’s cabinetry projects can begin.

The keen observer might have noticed the two wood tap and die sets on the workbench to the right of the lumber. These will be for a set of parallel projects. The 1-inch tap and die is for making the wooden screws for a stitching frame, and the 1 ¹/₂ inch set is for the screws of a finishing vise and trimming frame. A small nipping press will also use a 1 ¹/₂ inch screw. The factory-made wood tap and die sets were purchased for expediency. Down the project path, there will be a need for 2-inch, 4-inch, and 6-inch tap and die sets that will be shop-made. These large shop-made tap and die sets will be substantial projects in and of themselves. As one might expect, the projects requiring such large wood screws will be epic adventures.

Between the cabinetry and bookbinding workshop infrastructure projects, research will continue with an emphasis on bookbinding and bibliographically adjacent subjects as the workshop and bindery come into their own. The workspace and bindery are just the beginning. The journey will be filled with research and experimentation with materials, processes, and equipment. Along the way, conservation and preservation projects will be popping in from time to time, expanding opportunities. I have several 18^th, 19^th, and 20^th century books and documents that need some love and should start making appearances this summer.

Things are beginning to take shape. It will be a very interesting and informative long and windy road. ‘Tis an adventure to my liking.

Fitzpatrick, Megan. Dutch Tool Chests. Lost Art Press, 2004. ↩︎

Two Years and Ten Days

December 1, 2023, was the first post on this site when it was reimagined, and it has been a very busy two years. I started and completed my second master’s, applied and was accepted into a doctoral program, considered withdrawing from the doctoral program, applied for and was accepted into a third master’s program at Johns Hopkins, before deciding to recind my application to that program, and now, waiting for the start of the Spring term to re-engage with the doctoral program already underway. This reengagement was only possible after taking the fall term off to seriously reevaluate whether or not I would continue with this doctorate. In all honesty, the majority of the ‘drama’ has been between last July and September. However, it is official, I am enrolled in the spring term for my last academic class, HIUS 713 American Entrepreneurship Since 1900, and my first dissertation class, HIST 901 Doctoral History Research. I still have three Comprehensive Examination and Reading classes, HIUS 911 Early America, HIUS 912 Modern America, and HIEU 914 Modern Europe, before starting the formal dissertation phase, when I can consider myself a Doctoral Candidate and not just a Doctoral Student.

I have a wide range of interests, which has been both a blessing and a curse. On the positive side, it is relatively easy to shift from one subject to another and to learn new methods for presenting research. It also allows for a broader perspective to view subjects of research. This is great as a student in the academic setting, less so outside the academe. In a time where increasing specialization is the preferred mode, being a generalist can be disadvantageous. On the negative side, falling down a new rabbit hole is all too easy. It can be difficult at times to set the blinders and focus on one thing. This has been a contributing factor in not having fixed on a specific topic for the upcoming dissertation.

As a maker, my perspective on history is often guided by how things were done. Understanding how things were done and how the processes of doing have evolved can open up many avenues of inquiry in the historical record. At the core of making, for me at least, is knowing how things function and how they were made. Thus, my broad interests in machinery, transportation, communications, engineering, architecture, and design. Woodworking is one of the root trades for all of these categories. From Archimedes’ water screw to wind and water mills, wagons & carts, the printing press, early long-distance mechanical visual communications systems, and of course, the shelter and furnishings of our ancestors for thousands of years. Woodworking is also a self-supporting craft with tool-making historically being a key skill learned by the apprentice early on, making their own tools, chests, and benches, all being made in whole or in part from wood.

Before moving north from the San Francisco Bay Area to the Klamath Basin, a fair amount of time was spent building a workshop space that focused on bookbinding, restoring old tools, and woodworking.

One thing that did not make the move was the workbench. Proper positive workholding is one of the most important keys to effective and safe workshop processes in wood, metal, plastic, or any material. Without a proper workbench since moving, many cherished shop skills have languished in disuse. This week marks a reversal, a new heavy bench is now under construction.

The new bench is an interpretation of the traditional hand tool joiner’s bench. The list of projects that will rely on this bench includes the cabinetry and chests that will replace all of the current shop furniture, making specialized hand tools, making workholding & pressing tools for book repair and binding, and furniture making. Most of these projects will also have a historical component to them, particularly the tool and furniture projects.

One of the concepts under consideration for a dissertation includes developing and employing a framework for Experimental History, using period-appropriate tools and methods to replicate an object of importance to a specific line of research inquiry, whether as an artifact or process. If this concept is to be included in the upcoming dissertation, there will most certainly be a need for tool and pattern making, as well as the construction of the object of inquiry itself. This requires the re-establishment of a working shop, the joiner’s bench being the anchor of the shop.

Between shop projects and the possibility of employing Experimental History, the urgency of getting a working hand tool shop up and running is high. To that end, the materials for the bench were acclimating in the shop last week: (10) 2″ x 8″ x 10′ nominal fir construction lumber, and a 6/4 – 14″ x 12′ maple slab. Two days ago, the materials were milled down from nominal lumber to near-dimensional boards, and yesterday, glue-ups started for the major components in rough sizes: (4) legs 5″ x 4″ x 36″, (4) stretchers 5″ x 3″ x 48″, and (1) bench top 5″ x 20″ x 60″. By the end of next week, all of the glue-ups should be done, and final dimensioning can begin. The target size for the bench is a 5″ thick bench top, 20″ deep, 60″ wide, standing 32″ tall, with a 1″ thick fir shelf about 7″ from the floor, inset into the stretchers. The draw-bore mortise and tenon joinery should be all marked out and cut next weekend over the winter solstice. Installation of the mapleface, back, and ends, along with a Moxon-style face vise, tail wagon-vise, the hold-fast and dog holes, and finishing should be done over Christmas week. The plan is to be finished and dressed by January 1^st, so work can begin with the new year.

A Field That Does Not Yet Exist

Some time ago, before or around 2015, I saw a documentary following the journey of an archaeologist who wanted to answer the question, could the Vikings have been the first Europeans to land in North America? From a navigational perspective, the Polynesians have been navigating the Pacific for centuries, there is no reason to doubt that the Norse seafaring people had some similar skill. Unfortunately, there isn’t a definitive navigational tradition that has been passed down through Norse legend, but we can see it as a possibility. The next question is, could their vessels have made transatlantic crossings? This is a question that can be answered, Viking ships have been located and unearthed. It is known what they looked like and how they were constructed, there are examples available for reference. Likewise, there are references for the tools they had. To answer the question if it was possible, a ship would have to be built from materials like those available, with tools they had according to the historical record, and techniques evident in the example ships available. Assembling a team of woodworkers and sailors they embarked on building a historically accurate, to a reasonable degree at least, Viking ship. The process of building the ship provided a lot of insight into the process and provided some answers to questions about the building process. On completion of the build, the vessel was eventually sailed from Scotland to Newfoundland by way of Iceland and Greenland in an epic North Sea adventure. This was one of the first documented Experimental Archaeology enterprises. It was also the inspiration for some of the paths I have chosen over the years.

The Viking adventure above was a big project that took years to accomplish, had a good-sized team, and had a sizable price tag. It would be great to consider myself an archaeologist, and it is not completely out of the realm of possibility if I were to approach it from the experimental history direction. The concept of experimental archaeology is very appealing to a maker with a broad range of skills. As a historian, the thought of bringing more experimentation into the process is exciting. This post is inspired questions posed to one of my professors floating this idea of experimental history and his incouraging responses.

I prefaced my questions with this…

“My thoughts on the differentiation between the two fields are that experimental archaeology would involve fieldwork and unknowns whereas experimental history would be more of an archive-to-lab/workshop affair to reproduce a known to illustrate the function and operation.“

“As an amateur radio license holder, I am passionate about radio communications, and communications technologies in general. My vision of experimental history is conducting historical research and building the equipment that either no longer exists or is so rare that replicas or reproductions are the most practical path forward, documenting the process, and conducting operational experiments with the end goal of producing historical documentary products, papers, articles, books, documentary films, and exhibits. The technologies I am most interested in are the early forms of the electric telegraph through radiotelegraphy and the early forms of telegraphic printing to radioteletype.“

Is there a path to experimental history as a field, or is it too close to experimental archaeology?

“I think so, and I’d love to have you consider it.“

If it seems like it could be a distinct field, how does one promote a field like this?

“Maybe, but I don’t know. …Feel free to do research on items of interest, working on a functional model for experimental history“

Clarifying later in another email he said “I used the expression “functional model…” because this is a novel concept. … As you work on projects, you can refine your thinking and present this as a legitimate approach to dissertation research.“

What are your general thoughts on the concept?

He liked the idea of “experimental history” and would be happy to see this in practice noting that it would “draw heavily on historical sources and methodologies, albeit with some specialized skills” which I agree with entirly.

Also in a later email he said “As you think about “experimental history,” you will want to consider research approaches and methodologies that you would use in your dissertation research.“

This is all very encouraging, it also is a paradigm that affects my current class and well beyond, it could mean a significant shift in my dissertation topic. To what degree is yet to be determined, but it is clear I have a considerable amount of thinking to do.

~Jon