Joseph Moxon (1627–1691)

I'm marking this as read, but I don't know that I've gone all the way through it. I've picked through it for years, reading sections as needed & they could be found. For years, copies were very scarce & I can't stress how much I appreciate the University of Michigan making the whole text available here:
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015028306002;view=1up;seq=105
I'll keep picking as needed.

This is one of the canons of historical tools, not the only one, but probably the most referenced. While I've mostly heard it discussed for the woodworking & its tools, the original & all the first, best part, is about smithing & it has other sections from brick work to laying out a sundial. I think it might be the oldest such reference in English, but it's an older form of English that's a pain to read - F instead of S & other such horrors. Worse, he sometimes uses illustrations that he doesn't fully explain. I guess he assumes common knowledge, but it's not.

For example, Moxon's plate with the bench & tools was recently covered by [a:Roy Underhill|104206|Roy Underhill|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-d9f6a4a5badfda0f69e70cc94d962125.png] on one of his shows. According to Roy's guest ([a:Christopher Schwarz|981385|Christopher Schwarz|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-d9f6a4a5badfda0f69e70cc94d962125.png]?) & their use of it, the original publisher used a plate from an earlier book which perpetrated the myth that the twin screw vice was mounted to the front of the bench with the back piece. The vice is actually a separate piece, hung on the wall when not in use (as shown in other plates in the earlier book) & could be screwed to the front of the bench with just the face or attached on top of the bench with the back using holdfasts when needed. This makes a great deal more sense from a practical stand point. It only makes sense to use the front of the bench as the back of the vice so that the piece is supported more. All that Moxon has to say about this is ...Sometimes a double Screw is fixed to the side of the bench, as at g, or sometimes its farther cheek is laid an edge upon the flat of the bench, and fastened with an hold-fast, or, sometimes two on the bench.

So, read the text carefully & use some common sense. Other books & practical experience should be used to clear up points, although I more often refer to this one to expand on points glossed over in other references. It's not for everyone, but if you're interested in the history of the actual use of wood & metal tools, this is a good one to look at on your way back through time.

Comparing some of the tools to those of the Romans & Egyptians is really interesting because they didn't change much. Moxon published this in 1694 right at the start of the Industrial revolution & the next few centuries saw far more change than than the few thousand years before.… (meer)

If you're looking for a "how-to" book on woodworking and joinery in particular, this is not the book for you. This is the book for someone that already has the woodworking bug, probably someone who is using hand tools, and who is curious about the development of woodworking tools over the last 300 years. Moxon's treatise was "the first English-language text on the topic" and covers most of the basic tools and some of the techniques.

Chris Schwartz follows up each section with a re-statement in more modern terminology and highlights where things have and have not changed in that time. Perhaps the most surprising thing is how little many things have changed. Nearly all of the tools are easily recognizable, their form and function little changed. The quality of materials and methods of manufacture may be different, but even then old advice is still sound, for example judging the quality of a hand saw - it should flex but not bend.

Oddly enough, given the title, Moxon spends rather little time discussion joinery per se. Instead, he covers what were, presumably, the essential tools for taking wood from log to lumber to final product, with a brief description of the function and use of each. In some cases maddeningly brief, such as his description of the hatchet in woodworking which amounts to "Everyone knows everything about this tool already. Moving on." Aside from a story about George Washington and a cherry tree, I am clueless. In these instances Schwartz's brief elaborations are invaluable.

The quality of the reproduced plates sometimes leaves a bit to be desired, with rough lines and labels that are difficult to pick out. Perhaps these are faithful reproductions of the illustrations in the copies of the original still around, but many online images exist that are sharper and easier to follow. Since a "cleaned up" version of the text is provided, touched up and cleaned up illustrations would not have been amiss along side photographs of modern analogs of Moxon's illustrations.

That nit-pick aside, like all of the books from Lost Art, it is excellent quality, heavy paper, solid binding and a nice clean design to the book. It will make a nice edition to the library of any tool-geek.… (meer)