Thanks to our customers, 2010 has been a record year for Lost Art Press. The book “The Essential Woodworker” has sold like crazy – we had to go back to press for a second printing after only four weeks. We sold out completely of our first book, “The Art of Joinery,” and overall sales have been great.
To thank you, we’d like to offer you a small downloadable gift: Henry Adams’s “Joints in Woodwork.” What, you’ve never heard of it? Well read on.
We first learned of this document years ago when reading “Spons’ Own Mechanic’s Companion.” The authors of Spons called out this Adams’s document as the definitive source on wood joinery. So we have been looking for it for a few years now.
This fall, I finally found it bound into a series of papers presented by Henry Adams, a professor of engineering at the City of London College. Most of the papers dealt with steel structures, ironwork, fireproof floors and cisterns. But there is also a paper that Adams presented to the Civil & Mechanical Engineers’ Society on March 1, 1877, called “Joints in Woodwork.”
What’s neat about these papers is that they include these huge 11″ x 15″ foldout posters relating to each topic. Then there is a 33-page paper discussing the joints. After reading Adams’s paper, it’s clear that most of the audience was concerned with carpentry first and joinery second.
So there is a lot of discussion on 19th-century house construction. But if you look past that, I think you’ll find some really good information in here. Adams’s six principles for designing any joint are excellent, and I haven’t seen those published anywhere. The discussion of the material itself is also interesting, including how the medullary rays play a role in splitting.
But the coolest part of the paper is by far the poster, which contains all manner of joints that we (and carpenters) use to build furniture. And it’s done in a nice 19th-century style. I’m going to print it out on nice paper and hang it in my shop.
Using the links below, you can download both the poster and the 33-page paper. There’s nothing to buy, or register for or what not. Just click on the links and the download will begin.
Download the “Joints in Woodwork” poster.
Alternate non-Google link: http://blog.lostartpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/joints_in_woodwork_illo2.jpg
Download the “Joints in Woodwork” paper.
Alternate non-Google link: Henry_Adams4
We hope you enjoy this little gem from 1877. Thanks again for supporting Lost Art Press.
— Christopher Schwarz
