How the old masters of carpentry worked. Joinery is a reality of modern production. Amusing fleet of Peter I and carpenters
Every house, apartment, shop and municipal building is not complete without interior items, furniture, stairs - made of wood. In fact, these are not simple wooden products, but a lot and painstaking work, especially when the work is done by hand, individually and according to an exclusive design.
Joiner's industry is considered one of the most interesting spheres of human activity. It is here that an ordinary piece of wood can make a great object. We are surrounded by a lot of products made of various types of wood, because carpentry is both doors and a wardrobe, and, of course, furniture for the kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, dressing room.
Our carpentry production has been working for you for several years now, and today we will try to reveal all the complexity, essence and history of woodworking technologies.
Carpentry history
The history of the emergence of joinery production goes back to ancient times. Manufacturing from wood was initially directed to tools, and then to household items. This tendency arose wherever human culture developed and the settled life of human communities took shape.
Wood is a material that does not resist the harmful effects of time. Only a few monuments of this production have come down to us from ancient times. However, scientists are aware of the high development of carpentry in ancient Egypt, Rome, Greece and Byzantium. Carpentry also achieved a high degree of mastery in ancient Russia, where it developed in parallel with wooden architecture.
Woodcarving and painting, which often reached a high degree of technical perfection and artistic expressiveness, served as a favorite technique for the architectural design of furniture among Russian masters.
Along with the carpentry craft, carpentry industries also developed in Russia, but they were also semi-craft in nature. The manual labor of highly skilled carpenters prevailed. Mechanisms were used only in operations where complex machining of parts was required and, as a rule, they occupied an insignificant share in the total volume of labor expended on products.
Division of joinery production by directions
The division of carpentry work into white-wood and red-wood ones was characteristic of the past years.
The first included relatively rough, not requiring high precision work on the manufacture of windows, doors and cheap furniture from coniferous wood. The work of cabinetry included work that required special precision and the manufacture of parts, valuable furniture from hardwood. The result was multidirectional objects, musical instruments and other products that required much higher qualifications and skill from performers. Accordingly, they were divided into Beloderev carpenters and Krasnodar workers.
The global industrialization of the country, the collectivization of agriculture, the creation of new industries, the growth in the well-being of the population of the city and the countryside, as well as the increased demand for furniture, building parts and other products created the conditions for a radical restructuring of joinery production.
The character of furniture factories changed from semi-handicraft to modern mechanized factories.
A new, unknown before the revolution, type of carpentry and mechanical enterprises was created in the form of integrated woodworking plants, allowing the most complete use of wood.
A strong impetus for the development of carpentry and mechanical industries was the creation in the USSR of such new industries as automotive, aircraft, agricultural machinery, etc. The woodworking and joinery and assembly shops of such enterprises are highly developed industries equipped with modern high-performance equipment, and are based on the latest scientific achievements in the field of mechanical woodworking.
Carpentry has turned into a carpentry and mechanical direction, which is an independent industry.
Distinctive features of modern carpentry and mechanical production are the high mechanization of wood mechanical processing operations and the spread of mechanization to assembly and finishing operations. The organization of labor is characterized by the division of the process into a number of small operations, production planning, which includes new methods of operational accounting and management, the widespread use of Stakhanov's methods of labor and the organization of workplaces.
In general, the successes achieved by Soviet industry in the field of woodworking technology in general and carpentry and mechanical production, in particular, put carpentry and mechanical production to the highest degree. Here, the success of the entire enterprise was taken into account, its qualitative and quantitative indicators are determined by the high skill of both the performers and the correct construction technological process production. The fact and the degree of mechanization of operations, the correct setting of equipment, a clear organization of work and unconditional adherence to technological discipline are also important.
The industrial age in carpentry
We are currently able to show new ways in woodworking. Carpentry production of the company Massive Plus is a high-tech workshop, machine tools, cabinetmakers. We are constantly developing, studying, implementing, successfully using new types of wood, technologies and ways to implement any ideas of our client. Thanks to our rich experience and our capabilities, you can completely move away from the usual, commonplace and little-functional pieces of furniture. Our carpentry production is ready to go for the most daring ideas in the furniture industry, we will develop or complement your exclusive design, making any piece of wood unique, unique, beautiful, fashionable and practical.
Woodworking crafts (DR) - the most ancient, arose at the beginning of human history along with the manufacture of primitive tools. In Belarus, rich in forests, every archaeological era, wood, along with stone, bone, and later iron, was the most important material for making household items, weapons, various devices, furniture, vehicles.
Targeted woodworking (gouging, turning, drilling, burning, braiding, shearing, splitting, sharpening) has been known since the Paleolithic era. With the advent of iron tools, woodworking technology has significantly improved. During archaeological excavations at the Detinets of Grodno, many wooden items were found: rivets of various sizes from buckets, tubs, barrels, tubs, oil-hammers; bottoms of various diameters, carved ladle, turned bowls, cups, crosen parts, shoe lasts. Residential outbuildings, 2 street pavements, palisade fences, wooden log cabins, etc. were uncovered. Depending on the peculiarities of handicraft techniques and the range of products, among the DR can be distinguished carpentry, carpentry, cooper work, the art of making carts, sleighs, turning, making hollowed-out dishes, wood carving, manufacturing roofing materials, making bast and wicker containers.
Carpentry - one of the most ancient crafts that exist in synchronic unity with the carpentry craft: both crafts were aimed at creating living conditions and arranging the living environment, each carpenter, as a rule, was a good carpenter, both used almost the same tools, the difference was only in their frequency application and specialization of the production process. Carpentry includes carpentry work on the installation of wooden foundations, walls, floors, partitions, ceilings (beams, decking), auxiliary structures (scaffolding, platforms), etc. Optimal forms and solutions tested by folk carpenters-architects are successfully used today in wooden structures of public and industrial construction.
Joinery - production of a variety of wood products - tools (forks, flails, rakes, shovels, plows, harrows, mortars, looms), household items (shelves, dishware, hangers), furniture (chest, sideboard, wardrobe, sofa, bed , chair, table), applied elements of housing and outbuildings (doors, window frames). Today the Svisloch master is trying to revive traditions S. T. Poluektov.
Cooper - making dishes from rivets - trapezoidal or oval (parabolic-rounded) along the edges of wooden dies, hewn to the required thickness. Cooperage products can be grouped into several of the following groups: Dishes for water and liquid substances (a barrel for supplying water, dropsy, buckets, baklag, barrel, tub with a lid, mug with a handle); vessels for storing agricultural products (barrel for grain, tub or tub, barrel with one bottom for pickled vegetables, pickled apples, etc., double barrel for drinks, half barrel, barrel with lid or stuffing box for meat products); utensils for a variety of household needs (a barrel or tub for clothes, a beech or a tripod for soaking linen in an ash solution, a tub for washing clothes and bathing, a bowl or dough, milk pan, butter churns, tub or gang, tub); capacity measures (octopus, shesnastka, or pudovka, quarter). Cooper traditions in Ponemane continue , .
The art of making carts, sleds - these are several diverse production processes that differed in technology and craft techniques: thermomechanical processing (steaming) of wood, making circles, arcs, sled runners, carriages, cargo sledges, strollers, sledges, yokes, etc. Decorative carriages and wheels are produced today .
Slotting craft - one of the oldest among woodworkers. Teslo, chisel, chisel, scrapers, ax, chisel, chisel made it possible to make a well hive, a kitchen cabinet, a chisel for grain, a chamfer or a tub for honey and kvass, a salt shaker (salt shaker), a bark, a trough, a lump (log, trough) for water , usually located next to a well, a trough (trough) for washing clothes, a dairy (polushka, trough) for winding (flaming) peeled cereals. Certain elements of slotting craft can be seen in the work of the folk master S. N. Leshchuka.
Turning closely related to woodcarving, the turner and the carver are related by the same nomenclature products: tableware - dishes, bowls, bowls, mortars, graters, salt shakers, ladles, scoops, spoons; household items and accessories - candlesticks, vases, ashtrays, pipes, snuff boxes, toys, etc .; applied elements and details for furniture, carriages, cornices, platbands for decorating dwellings, religious objects; production devices - self-spinning wheels, spindles, parts for krosen.
Making and weaving from bast, vines, straw and reeds of various household items: boxes for linen, basket, cradle, jugs, baskets, boxes, garnets, etc., as well as decorations (spiders, stars).
Production of roofing materials - production of boards, chips, shingles.
With the evolution of society and the improvement of craft techniques, production specialization deepened, which led to the differentiation of woodworking crafts into relatively independent production activities. So, in the carpentry business, the manufacture of roofing materials, the construction of bridges, defensive facilities, in the carpentry business - the manufacture of applied elements of housing (windows, doors, etc.), furniture, agricultural tools, in the art of making sledges, carts - the production of working carts, carriages, wheel, sleigh, arc craft, etc. In the 17th century. in Belarus, there were about 30 handicraft professions associated with wood processing. Already in the 16th century, artisans of one or several related specialties formed their own corporate associations - brotherhood, or workshop. For example, in Grodno, carriage-makers entered the workshop since 1570, which united blacksmiths, boiler-makers, swordsmen, locksmiths, and since 1639, independent workshops of these crafts were created. In 1593 a united workshop of blast furnaces, roofers, masons, potters, carpenters was organized. In 1699 August II granted a certificate to the coopers 'and carpenters' workshops. Among 15 workshops in 1777 there were carpentry, bondar, carpentry, coachman workshops. The most widespread woodworking crafts were in the countryside. In the Middle Ages, almost every peasant family built housing, made agricultural implements, vehicles, household items, dishes, and simple furniture. Rural foremen usually did not have a special room; in the courtyard, under a canopy, there was a workbench, there were simple production devices and tools. In winter, they made dishes in the house, weaved sandals, baskets, etc. Some of the products were intended for fellow villagers, residents of neighboring villages or sold at local fairs. Some of the rural artisans served at castles, highways, farms and lived in separate yards or villages. The services of carpentry, architecture, wheel, cooper, and others are known. The second part of the rural masters was freed from permanent service and paid a quitrent. With the development of capitalist relations and the revitalization of trade and economic ties, woodworking crafts acquired the form of waste trades. Some master-owners had apprentices and auxiliary workers who were sent to neighboring villages to repair carts, make barrels, tubs, tubs, sharpen spindles, etc. Many carpenters and joiners went to work in remote places. In the first half of the XIX century. a significant amount of logs, boards, oak riveting, shingles, beams, ship timber was produced for foreign trade. Along the Neman, these products were annually exported to Riga, and from there to England, Belgium, France, Holland and other countries. Socialist reconstruction and the development of large-scale industry led to a decrease in the demand for wooden products by craftsmen working on their own, an increase in the number of metal and glassware. Currently, woodworking crafts exist in the form of individual labor activity as a folk skill and an auxiliary craft in agricultural production.
Most of the city buildings were wooden. Houses, city walls and towers, bridges were built from wood; streets and squares were paved with logs. To build a city in ancient Russia meant “to cut down a city” - so inextricably was the idea of \u200b\u200ba city and of wooden buildings. Rooks, colas (wheeled carts), battering tools, and home furniture were made of wood. Various dishes and utensils were cut from wood: barrels, kadis, troughs, forging (bowls), bowls, ladders, spoons, carved ladles, etc.
It is quite natural that in the conditions of the city of the XI-XIII centuries. all this mass of everyday wooden things could not be made within each household. If for the village we could not outline the specialization of carpentry and joinery and limited ourselves only to indicating cooper, then for the city we have a lot of information about artisans - carpenters and joiners.
Carpenters were called woodcutters, and carpenters were called adzes, adzes (from the verb "to hew"). Specialists in fortress buildings were called gorodpiks, or gardeners.
The carpenters who worked in the city, obviously, could not be seasonal artisans who combined their craft with agriculture, since the time of carpentry, summer, coincided with field work; in the winter they prepared logs for construction sites, and in the spring the forest was brought into the city by rafts, in the summer they built it. Carpentry works are described in detail in the Kiev-Pechersk Patericon and in the Legend of Boris and Gleb, which deals with the construction of churches and monasteries. From here we can glean very interesting information about the organization of carpenters. Having conceived to build a church in Vyshgorod, Prince Izyaslav Yaroslavich, “having called the elder to the woodworkers, commanded him to build a church in the city. The elder tu abiye gathered all that was under him a tree-builder, having died what was commanded to him from the faithful, and in a few days, reward the appointed place. Here we have an artel of carpenters with their elder at the head. The names of the Vyshgorod architects are also known - the "gardener" Mironyeg and the elders of the "gardeners" Zhdan. It is possible that the Novgorod land, rich in wood and poor in bread, was the supplier of the carpenters. In Novgorod itself, the Carpenter's End existed since ancient times, and Novgorodians were sometimes called simply "carpenters". So, for example, when in 1016 40,000 Novgorodians, who came with Yaroslav, stood for three months on the banks of the Dnieper near Lyubech against the Kiev troops of Svyatopolk, then the governor of Svyatopolk Volchiy Khvost, “driving into the coast, began to shake Novogorodts, the verb: with this lame, but you are a carpenter; but let us set you to chop down with ours ”” (Laurus l.).
Russkaya Pravda sets out in detail how reckoning should be made with carpenters who build or repair bridges. From the time of Yaroslav
Vsevolodovich reached the Charter of the Bridge (c. 1230), according to which the obligation to pave the streets was precisely distributed among the entire population of Novgorod the Great.
Man has been able to process wood since ancient times.
On the territory of Ancient Russia, Slavs, Vyatichi, Radimichi, etc. lived in wooden huts. People made boats, furniture, kitchen utensils, buckets, carts and other household items from wood.
Ax
The main assistant of the first carpenters was an ax. With the help of it, trees were cut and processed. The tool was made of flint or basalt. With the advent of blacksmiths, axes were forged from iron.
In Russia, axes were divided into lumber and carpentry. Lumberjack tools had a narrow and elongated blade. Cutting deep into a tree, such an ax did not get stuck, which simplified and accelerated the felling process. Logs were cut and processed with carpenter's axes, patterns, decorative details, etc.
The logs were hewn in two directions alternately. The width of one strip was equal to the width of the tool blade. The result was a textured chisel - the surface of the hewn boards was smooth and at the same time embossed and wavy. On such a surface, rainwater did not linger, and structures made of such logs stood for hundreds of years.
When working with logs, it was important not to damage them, not to scratch them, as this increased the possibility of infection in the wood and reduced the service life of the whole structure.
Carpenter tools
Over time, an adze, a scraper, a plane, a chisel, a chisel came to the aid of carpenters and joiners, and in the 17th century - a saw.
In Russia, Peter I was the first to take up the saw when building ships. At the time of Peter, every sailor was obliged to be able to work with wood.
In the 18th century, Tabitha Babbitt, a Protestant weaver from the United States, invented the first circular saw to make it easier for workers in a sawmill in her commune. Band saws and circular saws soon appeared. Finally, a sawmill came to the aid of the lumberjacks and carpenters. This device greatly facilitated and accelerated the processing of logs, the production of boards, beams, veneers and other materials from wood.
V. I. Melekhov, L. G. Shapovalova
According to the "Venice Charter" adopted by UNESCO, the restoration and preservation of wooden architecture monuments requires the use of historically reproduced technologies of wood processing and tools. Therefore, when carrying out the reconstruction of the monuments of the Russian North, it was necessary to conduct accompanying studies of various historical sources (archives, private and museum collections, etc.), which made it possible to classify carpentry tools of the 17th – 18th centuries. by the types of work performed, note the features of its manufacture and use for its intended purpose. Ethnographic sources were also involved - numerous consultations with old master carpenters and field examinations of old wooden buildings, with special attention paid to the traces of wood processing left by the tool. Thus, it was possible to largely restore not only the old carpentry tool, but also the ways of handling it.
The north of Russia is a country of endless forests. A man living in a forest land could not help but be a carpenter. Carpentry came to the North along with agriculture from ancient times. Almost everything necessary in household use, starting from the house and the “yard”, was made of wood: spoons and tues, buckets, baskets and other utensils, furniture, spinning wheels and a weaving mill, a boat, a sleigh and a cart, hunting and fishing devices - even the chimney and chimney were wooden. A newborn man was laid in a wooden cradle, an old man was escorted to last way... And, of course, above all else, man was building a House for himself. A roof over your head is the most important thing in life. The feeling of homelessness is like being an orphan. I didn't build a house - horums! Two-story, and often with a light on the third floor, with four or more often six spacious rooms, a huge courtyard, where everything you need is under the same roof with living quarters. “Building housing can be compared to writing icons. Since ancient times, the art of a painter and carpenter has fed the origins of Russian culture. There are no completely identical icons on the same plot, although each of them should have something obligatory for everyone. It's the same with houses. ”
And then the man built a Temple for himself. “The wooden temples of the North breathed, shone and conducted a conversation with a person ... in conjunction with houses, threshing floors, baths. They ... crowned everyone, even a small village ”. And in the church, a man worshiped a tree, prayed on a tree: icons are painted on boards, iconostases, "royal gates", sculptures are carved from wood.
In the North, there is a saying: "A carpenter is the first worker in the village."
“… All grown men had to do the carpentry! Whether you feel a tree or not, whether the ax obeys you or does not obey you, you will still be carpentry. It's a shame not to be a carpenter. And need will force. Therefore, they were all different. And bad, and average, and good. And there are innumerable numbers in between. But everyone all his life, of course, even in his youth, strived to be not worse, but better than he is. Carpentry skill was on that. ”
However, the construction of any building, even the smallest, without good tools is a bad job. Not just good ones, but comfortable to hold in the hand, commensurate with the hand and body of a particular person (they say: “handy”) and, of course, correctly and sharply sharpened. It should be noted that each craft had its own tools, and each tool was used only to perform a specific operation. The carpenter did not work as a carpenter's ax, and the cooper's scraper was not much like a carpenter's.
The masterpieces of folk wooden architecture are not just architectural monuments, but also evidence of the highest carpentry skills of the northerners. To buildings and structures that are protected as architectural monuments, especially to monuments of wooden architecture, the usual approach, modern methods of restoration and repair are in most cases inapplicable. These buildings are subject to restoration, which should be carried out in accordance with the instructions of the "International Charter for the Conservation and Restoration of Monuments and Sites" (the so-called "Venice Charter"), adopted in 1964. According to this document, the purpose of the restoration is to "preserve the monument as a work art and as a witness to history ”. According to the “Venice Charter”, all parts of a building, all structures, parts, assemblies and even features of surface treatment of elements must correspond to the time of construction of the structure. This can be achieved only with strict adherence to the historical technology of erecting a structure, the use of a historical tool and methods of working with it. Modern technology of restoration and construction can be applied on a monument only if the secrets of the technology of building a building have been lost, but at the same time efficiency modern technology must be confirmed by experience.
In modern restoration practice, there is often a discrepancy between the restored wooden structure and the original, so the structure takes on the appearance of a remake. The famous architect-restorer A.V. Popov proved that the reason for this discrepancy is a radical change in the historical technology of construction from wood, which in the past was based on the craft organization of labor and the use of different from modern carpentry tools and methods of working with them.
When restored in 1981-1988. under the leadership of A.V. Popov Church of Dmitry Solunsky in the village of Verkhnyaya Uftyuga, Krasnoborsk District of the Arkhangelsk Region (built in 1784), it was possible to identify and re-manufacture the tool that was used by carpenters in the past, and partially restore the methods of processing wood with it. To understand which tool the craftsmen used and how they used it, the characteristic traces of work with one or another tool, preserved on the wood of structures in different places of the structure, especially on hewn surfaces, helped. In Russia at the beginning of the XIX century. (in the North until the middle of the 19th century), a complete modernization of the carpentry tool and methods of working with it took place, therefore, using the tool and technology of our days, it is impossible to obtain on the processed surface traces, even remotely resembling those that were preserved on the buildings of the 18th century. and earlier. The restorers had to recreate the samples of the tool, through trial and error, trying to match the traces of wood processing. We managed to do this in many ways. At the same time, it turned out that most of the constructive and technological methods of the work of the craftsmen who erected the mentioned temple at the end of the 18th century are common to the building culture starting from the 16th century. and ending in the middle of the XIX century. However, some individual methods of work of craftsmen at this object were also identified: for example, for an unclear reason, carpenters did not use a chisel or chisel, dispensing with an ax, and also remains unknown “a tool with a shaped metal tip for scraping architectural profiles”. In restoration practice, it is permissible, and in some cases even necessary, to use modern technological techniques and tools in combination with the use of historical experience. It should be especially noted that adherence to the historical processing technology increases the long-term preservation of wooden elements and the durability of the entire structure. This is also recognized by modern wood scientists.
Discussions about carpentry tools should start with the ax - the main tool of carpentry in the past. “The ax is the first assistant”, “The city is built not with the tongue, but with the ruble and the ax” - say the proverbs. And also - "The carpenter thinks with an ax." The vast majority of all construction work was carried out with an ax.
Trees in the forest were felled with a lumberjack ax with a narrow blade, the cutting edge of which, in comparison with a carpenter's ax, was significantly farther from the ax handle (Fig. 2a). This was necessary so that the ax, when struck deeply obliquely, entered the layers of the tree, but did not bog down in the wood.
Logs, blocks, and planks were hewn off with a chisel with a wide rounded blade (Fig. 2b). Such an ax is more reminiscent of the ax or reed of the guards in historical films. By the way, the word “ax” itself is of Turkic origin, it came to Russia together with the Tatar-Mongol invasion and replaced the Russian word “ax”. Fifteen years ago, in the village of Ratonbvolok (Kholmogorsk district of the Arkhangelsk region), an elderly local resident decided to show us an ax and carried it out of the depths of his farm yard. It was a real ax! A slightly curved handle, polished by many hands, is fitted with a long sickle-shaped blade with an elongated toe and a straight heel. The length of the blade was 35 cm, and the total length with the handle was almost a meter. The ax was in perfect working order: it was tightly wedged and sharpened, even now it’s in action! With such an ax you can not only cut a log or a block, but, probably, you could safely go to battle with the Horde.
Logs were hewn with a carpenter's ax, bowls were cut into them, knots of joining elements, decorative details and much more were made. Carpenter's ax of the 17th – 18th centuries significantly different from the modern one. The ax itself (the metal part) was short, teardrop-shaped in section, the blade was narrow (9-15 cm), semicircular, thickened, with a large wedge-shaped shape (resembling a cleaver for splitting firewood and logs) (Fig. 2c), and the ax itself is heavier ... The axes were forged from highly resistant, high-strength steel. The hatchet (handle) is long and straight (and not curved, like modern), thickened at the end so as not to jump out of the hands. A straight birch block without knots was chosen for the ax. The length of the handle was different, because it depended on the height of the carpenter: a carpenter, placing an ax on the ground vertically near his leg, with a freely lowered hand could take the thickened end of the handle into his fist (Fig. 2d). The long ax, being essentially a lever, allowed the carpenter to spend less energy.
On book miniatures and icons of the XVI-XVIII centuries, fragmentarily depicting the process of erection of a particular church, the axes are shown exactly as follows: the blade is short, arched, and the ax is long and straight.
Carpenter's ax of the 17th – 18th centuries when chipping, it cleaves wood without sinking deep into it and leaving no traces in the form of scratches, notches and notches, and with its concave side and its mass upon impact simultaneously compacts wood on the treated surface. During the work, the ax was held in the hands so that its blade was not directed parallel to the log, but moved in an arc towards it - then at the end of the blow the ax itself came out of the tree. If the ax nevertheless stopped in the wood and thereby left a scuffle, the latter was removed by the next blow, delivered before the place where the previous blow ended in the log. By these means, the cut wood fibers were tightly adhered to each other without scoring. A thin ax goes deep into the wood and gets stuck there, which makes it very difficult to test.
Plakhs and roofing boards were cut in two directions - back and forth - alternately, in strips, along the log. The width of one strip was equal to the width of the ax blade. Ax of the 17th – 18th centuries left characteristic marks on the hewn planes. On the board, a drawing was obtained that looked like a herringbone or the ribs of a fish skeleton, and in the longitudinal section of the board, these marks are wavy, reminiscent of a washboard. The surface of the hewn boards turned out to be so smooth that it was impossible even to splinter a hand on it, and at the same time not flat and even, but embossed, wavy. From the surface treated in this way, rainwater was removed more easily, so the hewn boards were less exposed to moisture and biodeterioration (decay). “However, it was possible to hew like this only on condition: to look at the work surface slightly from the side, through the ax (italics of A. V. Popov - Auth.) At the tree. Apparently, this was a principled technique in the work of carpenters until the end of the 18th century ”, it was used in all types of processing of wooden elements with an ax. “In the 19th century, a carpenter, while tesca, looked at the work surface between a tree and an ax along a plumb line and could see only the vertical of the surface, but not the place where the ax stopped in the material.”
The work of a carpenter is physically very difficult, requiring a lot of energy, so the carpenters were fed meat cabbage soup even in the midst of haymaking and during fasting. “A good carpenter, of course, was never hindered by his heroic strength. But even without her, he was still a good carpenter. The proverb “There is power - no mind is needed” was born in the carpentry world in a mockery of stupidity and fervor. Strength was respected too. But not on a par with talent and skill, but in itself. Real carpenters saved energy. They were unhurried. Without single-row mittens did not work. "
A young worker, usually a teenager, began to master the art of carpentry with an ordinary hatchet. To make an ax is to pass the first exam. The hatchet was made from a dry birch blank. “The ax must also be planted, and correctly wedged so that the ax does not fly off, and cleaned with a glass shard. After all this, the ax was sharpened on a wet grindstone. Each operation in itself required ingenuity, skill and patience. So life in childhood and adolescence taught the future carpenter to patience and consistency. You cannot sharpen an ax until it is wedged, though unbearable! " - notes the famous writer and connoisseur of northern life V.I. Belov.
And he continues: “Already in the first season of artel work, the teenager acquired his own instrument. It was considered bad form to ask someone for a tool, especially an ax. They gave it reluctantly and not at all out of hoarding. Every carpenter had an ax, as it were, an extension of his hands, they got used to it, made an ax according to their peculiarities. A good carpenter could not work with someone else's ax ”. If an employee does not take his own tool, then he will soon have unpleasant sensations in the joints, and calluses on the palms: inconvenient. Time for sharpening axes was never spared.
For most carpentry work, the ax was held with both hands; the bowl was chopped off from both sides, striking alternately, then from the right, then from the left. A good carpenter could cut a block, a log equally well on the right and on the left. Which side to hit, right or left, was determined by the location of the wood fibers in order to press the cut fibers upon impact. Therefore, the ax blade was sharpened symmetrically, at the same chamfers, at the same angle. However, sometimes, due to the specifics of the processing of the element, the sharpening of the blade was made asymmetrical.
The ax was never stuck into a log intended for construction, because then the meaning of densely cutting its surface disappeared. In general, with logs prepared for laying in a building, i.e. debarked (sanded), hewn and scraped, as well as finished parts were handled very carefully, protecting them from mechanical damage, dirt, etc. Any bully, wrinkle or even scratch is a “gate for infection”. This increased the likelihood of bio-damage to the wood of the building element and, in the end, could shorten the life of the entire structure.
The ax was never left stuck into a log or block and was not placed against the wall, but only placed under the bench. Let us recall the children's riddle: "Bows, bows, comes home - stretches out." It will be stretched out under the bench, and the ax was turned with the blade against the wall so that no one would accidentally get hurt by picking up something that had rolled under the bench. In general, any actions associated with a threat to health when working with an ax and other tools were specially warned.
To trim the log walls from the inside of the room, a special ax was used, the blade of which was straight and somewhat elongated in comparison with a conventional carpenter's ax, and the blade itself was turned at an acute angle so that the axis of the hatchet was parallel to one edge of the blade (Fig.2e). The hatchet for such an ax was specially selected from a thin curved tree trunk, so as not to hammer the hands during work. In this case, the carpenter needed two axes, forged in a mirror, i.e. one with a blade offset to the right of the carpenter, for trimming from right to left, the other with an offset to the left, for trimming from left to right. In the corners, the surface of the logs was hewn out in an arc. It turned out to be a "round" corner. The cleaning was carried out from the corner to the middle of the wall. Do not cut the left side of the corner rounded in an arc with a “right” ax. Instead of two axes, they sometimes used one, but double-edged, double-sided, which had one eye and two mirror-forged blades (Fig. 2f). It was with such axes that the Arkhangelsk masters cut off the walls.
In this case, the angle of sharpening of the ax was also important. The ax blade was sharpened asymmetrically, at different sharpening angles, depending on which side the wall was cut from - to the right or to the left (Fig. 2g). The chamfer of the ax blade, facing the wall during trimming and intended for cutting wood (i.e., the outer chamfer in relation to the carpenter, parallel to the axis of the hatchet nozzle), was sharpened at a sharper angle relative to the axis of the blade than the other. The internal chamfer for chipping wood chips was sharpened at a less acute angle. Such an asymmetry of the sharpening angles allows the blade to be in reliable contact with the work surface, the ax does not slide over it and does not bounce, it is as if “pulled” into the wood.
In the “Course of carpentry work ...”, issued in 1906, a “transverse” ax is presented, designed also for “trimming log walls” (Fig. 2h), the straight blade of which was turned perpendicular to the handle, in fact, a widened adze with flat blade. Modern practicing carpenters-restorers assume that only “round” corners in the interior were cut with such an ax, because it is inconvenient for them to cut the vertical surfaces of the walls. In addition, after processing with such an ax, the vertical surface of the walls remains uneven, with large waves that would have to be removed with a scraper and a plane in several passes.
Teslo is, in fact, also an ax, the ax of which is long and straight, and the blade is not only deployed perpendicular to the ax, but also has a semicircular cross-section, in the form of a scoop (Fig. 3a). Tesla was used to hew out gutters of different sizes on a log along its fibers (for example, a shallow groove in a log intended for laying into a wall, or a deep gutter), performed sections of a smooth transition from a round log to a bar at window and door openings, cut after an ax “ corners ”in the interior and other curved surfaces. A groove - an adze with a narrow flat blade - served for the final, finishing groove excavation after cutting the groove out roughly with an ax (Fig. 3b). As a rule, the groove was first cut out roughly with an ax to obtain a U-shaped profile, and then wood was selected in the depth of the groove with a groove.
A carpenter's ax differs from a carpenter's ax in smaller dimensions and lighter weight - after all, the joiner does not process logs, but structural parts that are smaller. The toe of a carpenter's ax is sharp and the blade is straight. But there were also a cleaver, a cooper's and wheel axes, and even an “American”, the butt of which was replaced with an ordinary four-sided hammer. But these are already tools of other crafts.
The masters were so proficient in the art of carpentry that with the help of a simple tool they created truly world masterpieces of wooden architecture.
In 1586, the French traveler and merchant Jean Sauvage from the city of Dieppe arrived on his ship to the newly built “Wooden Arkhangelsk City”. He testified in his travel notes: “The construction of it (the wooden Arkhangelsk. - Auth.) Is excellent, there are no nails or hooks, but everything is so well finished that there is nothing to blaspheme, even though the Russian builders have all the tools in the same axes, but no architect will do better than they make…" . This Frenchman, wanting to praise the Russian carpenters for their skill, wrote the opposite. When in a museum of wooden architecture a guide tells you that “this structure was built with one ax,” do not believe him, no matter how they persuade you. A knowledgeable specialist will never say so. First, “with one ax,” that is, one person, alone, can build only a small building - a bathhouse, a barn, and then working alone is simply inconvenient. Working with an artel or two people is much more convenient, and more fun. How, for example, can one lift a log onto a wall? Secondly, “with one ax,” that is, only with an ax, do not build anything. How, for example, can you plant one log on top of another with an ax, drill a hole for a dowel, or gouge a groove? You can't do without a line, drill and chisel. But there were many (in the North they say: "a lot") and other tools, and each was determined to perform a separate job.
A line is the most common tool for drawing parallel straight or curved lines on the surface of wood for the purpose of subsequent cutting or sawing of logs and building parts (Fig. 4 b, d). To do this, the edge of one board was carefully cut along a thread. They applied the next board to this edge and, pressing the line tightly to the straightened edge, scratched, traced a deep parallel scratch with a metal point on the adjacent board or adjacent structure. Along this scratch line, the adjoining edge was cut off. Marking with a line requires accuracy, since the mark left is a deep scratch: this is not a pencil mark - you cannot erase it. By loosening or tightening the winding of the line or fixing the distance with a wedge and a ring, the distance between the sharp ends of the line was changed. The logs were drawn with a devil to cut a longitudinal groove in order to achieve a tight adjoining of the logs in the walls, a bowl in the logs before finishing it. With the help of a line, they traced (beat off) and then straightened out the even edge of the blocks and boards for their tight abutment (laid in the line or in the line) (Fig. 4 e, f). The lines were used to mark the junctions of the elements and to make other marks, which are now marked by carpenters with a pencil. Subsequently, along with the line, a carpenter's compasses were used (Fig. 4a).
Devil, carpenter compasses, dragging and thickness gauge
In the process of research and restoration of the above-mentioned church in the village of Verkhnyaya Uftyuga, the architect-restorer A.V. Popov suggested that when cutting the walls of this building (only when cutting the walls, and not in other parts of the structure. - Author), the carpenters used only two tools: an ax and a devil, although other tools were certainly known to them. He determined this by the characteristic connections of the elements of the frame, for example, L- and M-shaped grooves in the cuttings, while to make a rectangular groove, one more tool is needed - a chisel or chisel. The restorers could not find an explanation for such a commitment of the old masters to these instruments only. However, it cannot be ruled out that in this case the individual methods of work of the masters of the 18th century were manifested. ...
With a large number of boards, it is more convenient to draw them in by dragging them, taking the boards into a kind of machine (Fig. 4 c, g). In the Arkhangelsk Territory, this instrument is called "dandy", they say: "draw under a dandy", "dial the floor under a dandy", i.e. especially tight, without the slightest cracks.
Subsequently, in many technological operations, the line and drag was replaced by a thickness gauge. "Thicknesser" is a German word, literally means "a tool for drawing parallel lines" (remember: thicknesser, track). The gage was also used to transfer dimensions from one part to another. The principle of its operation is similar: drawing a scratch on the wood with a sharp hairpin, only instead of a ring and a wedge, like a line, the planer has a movable block, which is fixed with a screw (Fig. 4h). (By the way, Russian construction technology owes foreign names of tools, mainly of Dutch and German origin to the crowned carpenter Peter I.)
For finishing, after an ax, debarking logs and removing sapwood, a plow, or a scraper (from “scraping”), was used. This tool was a scraper, a sickle-shaped metal plate with a cutting edge and two handles. In some areas of central Russia, this scraper was called a hack (from the strained sound “ha” made by a carpenter when working with this tool). There were two types of it: straight and rounded (curve) (Fig. 5a, b).
The bark was removed from the logs with a staple at the border of the bast without damaging the wood, and at the same time the surface of the log was leveled, shaving off irregularities and small knots. They anchored the logs in the direction from the butt to the top so as not to leave scuffs. When debarking a log with an ax, chips and notches would inevitably appear, which increased the likelihood of bio-damage; when using a scraper, the surface of the log would be smooth and without scoring. Logs with an intact, dense and smooth surface remain in the building for an unusually long time.
The “waves” remaining after processing with an ax and an adze were also removed from the hewn surface with a scraping bar and the surface was brought to a perfectly smooth surface. They scraped out walls, roof boards, door and window frames, doors and shutters. It should be noted that structural elements were scraped out only in small volumes or in the interior of churches and living quarters of the house, since it is very difficult to work with a scraper, more difficult than with a plane. Straight surfaces were scraped with a straight staple, “round” corners in the interior - round. Frames of door and window openings, door leaves, boards, etc. scraped along the grain of the wood, the walls - at an angle of about 60 ° to the axis of the log. Due to the fact that the logs of the walls had in one way or another the inclination of the fibers, they were scraped in two directions: half a log in one direction, half a log in the other. After the scraper, the surface treatment was finished. "After scraping with an ax" - they say about any completely finished work, which, wishing to improve, was only spoiled by additional processing.
Top left - chisels
Top right - borava: spoon, screw, feather
Below - a square, a malka and a level
With a spike chisel (Fig. 6a), along with the groove, we cleaned the grooves in the window and door frames. The flat chisel and the clearing (Fig. 6b) were wider and thinner than the spike chisel, they cleaned the grooves and nests from the sides and punched holes in the building elements. A chisel was used for the most delicate, delicate work. The chisel, clearing and chisel were sharpened only on one side.
To drill the holes, various drills were needed: spoon, screw, feather (“feather”, “feather”) (Fig. 7 a, b, c). Screw drill in the North was called "naparya". They drilled nests for dowels ("kuks") in logs.
The saw appeared in Russia during the reign of Peter I, and entered into everyday carpentry use only in the 19th century. A two-handed transverse saw is needed for sawing logs across the fibers. With a bow saw, also a transverse saw, they used to fell trees in the forest. The bow saw outwardly is an X-shaped frame, on one side of which the saw blade was fixed, and on the other the blade was pulled with a twist - a bowstring. Its cutting blade is flexible, the steel is tough. A narrow blade, no more than 5 cm wide, was inserted into the bow saw in order to protect the blade from pinching during cutting down of large-diameter trees. For sawing logs along the fibers, a special two-handed fly-saw (longitudinal) with long oblique teeth and a small set was used. A hacksaw saw is used to make longitudinal and transverse cuts and cuts in thin elements and boards. For precise processing of thorns at the joints of parts and sawing boards at different angles, for example, when joining parts of window frames, a special template was used - a miter box. But this is no longer so much a carpentry as a carpentry device.
Carpenters and joiners have always worked with sharpened tools. A sharp tool, firstly, requires less effort when processing wood by hand and, secondly, compacts the cut wood fibers, which contributes to its safety. Sharpening of tools was carried out on a grinding wheel made of natural stone, mounted on an axis in a trough-shaped block, less often with a bar. The saw teeth must not only be sharpened, giving them a certain profile, but also “spread” one by one in different directions, depending on the purpose of the saw. Correct wiring makes work easier and faster.
Metal hammers (a hammer, or a handbrake; a hammer, or a sledgehammer) were optional for a carpenter, but wooden ones were necessary. For light blows on wood, a wooden mallet was used, for heavy blows, for example, for settling logs when cutting walls, for planting logs on dowels ("coke") - a large wooden hammer, the handle length of which is about a meter, and at the end a half-meter chock was set. The mass of this hammer reached 15 kg or more. Try it, wave it like that all day! In some localities this wooden hammer was called “leopard”. When struck with a wooden hammer and a mallet, there are no noticeable traces on the wood - dents.
A regular carpenter's plane was also optional. This is a carpentry tool. The preliminary roughing of the material (roofing timber, building elements) was carried out with a bear-plane (bear), they worked together. A rough cut was also performed with a plane with a semicircular blade (scherhebel), but with one pair of hands, and then the board was planed with a plane with one or two blades (one knife-blade was called a piece of iron, the other, breaking the shavings, was called a croaker). An ordinary plane has one blade (piece of iron) with a straight bottom end. It is easier to plan if you lead the plane not strictly along the grain of the wood, but at a slight angle to them - this is how the blade of the pickup removes the chips. The thinner and longer it is, the more noble the surface is. Finally, the surface of the board or part can be covered with a jointer. To plan the quarter and tongue, a chisel was used, for the profile processing of the edges - a sampler, and to create a relief surface of the board - a moulting. A plane can handle not only planes, but the edges and even ends of the boards, paying attention to the correct preparation and sharpening of the knife blade.
The square was used to break only the right angle (Fig. 8a); malka - the same square, but with one movable edge - was used to remove and mark different angles (Fig. 8b). A folding yardstick (later a meter) is also necessary for a carpenter. All other accessories carpenters made themselves during the work (plumb lines, lace, wedges, etc.).
Experienced carpenters carried out a rough check of the verticality of the elements by easily holding the ax lowered down by the end of the ax handle and “shooting” the vertical with a trained eye. To check the strict verticality of the installation of the structures, a plumb line (weight) in the form of a cord with a weight was used. A professional carpenter made for himself a wooden level with a plumb line - a weight (Fig.8c). A level in the form of a wooden bar with an air bubble in a glass tube with liquid appeared much later. They called it the German word spirit level. Not everyone could have such a purchase level: expensive thing. For a long time they used wooden, homemade ones.
A cord was also needed, first of all for “covering up” the structure, i.e. marking the plan, laying out a plan for a future building in full size with the help of a measuring cord, divided by knots into simple sazhens and arshins. The cord was also used for marking logs, striking a straight line on them in order to split them into blocks for subsequent cutting of the boards. To do this, the debarked log was laid on a flat surface and one nail or wedge was driven into each end at the ends - in the middle, or two - at the required distance along the width of the log. For these nails vnatyag, carefully, so as not to stain the log, tied a cord, before rubbing it with coal (“stretched over the firebrand”). Then, in the middle of the length of the log, the cord was pulled back so that it would move away from the log, and released - from the blow of the cord, a perfectly straight black trace remained on the log. ( Famous writer and an expert on northern life V.I. Belov wrote: “detach” a straight line on a log.) This is how the blocks were marked “along a cord” or “along a thread”.
Wedges were needed for many works: they were inserted into cuts, splits and splits to prevent tool jamming, wedges were clamped on building elements for their tight joining (for example, blocking blocks), by wedging they straightened gaps in the nodes and joints of elements, wedged the handles of tools, wedges were placed to correct small carpentry flaws. It is not for nothing that they say: "Wedge is the first assistant to the carpenter", "Not a wedge but not moss - and the carpenter would have died."
When building large public, including religious, structures, such as churches, customers - monasteries or a peasant community, as a rule, provided contractors - a carpentry artel headed by a master - all building materials and products (logs, blocking blocks, roofing boards, ploughshare , moss, etc.), purchased materials (nails, hardware, etc.) and ancillary equipment (ropes for lifting building elements, etc.). The tools have always belonged to carpenters, were the personal property of each and had individual characteristics: "... axes, and scrapers, and gouges, and glades, and veils, and chisels ... that is ours, everything is carpenter's ...".
Undoubtedly, when carrying out restoration work on a wooden structure of cultural and historical value, building technology, carpentry tools and techniques and methods of work, they should, if possible, correspond to the historical period of the construction of this structure. Tools and historical construction technology are also cultural and historical values. When carrying out restoration work, one should strive to produce replaceable wooden elements in the same way and with the same tool with which the originals were made.
Restoration of the church of Dmitry Solunsky in the village. For the first time in Russia, the Verkhnyaya Uftyuga of the Krasnoborsk district of the Arkhangelsk region was carried out in accordance with the historical construction technology using an old carpentry tool and methods of working with it
It is gratifying to note that the historical experience has not completely disappeared; people return to it when conducting research and restoration of wooden architecture monuments. Thus, historical carpentry technology and tools are widely used in the restoration of ancient religious buildings of the 17th - 19th centuries. in Kenozersky national park, on the temple ensemble of the village of Nyonoksa (early 18th century) and in the church in the village of Zaostrovye (1683) of the Primorsky District, the church in the village of Kimzha (1709) in the Mezensky District, as well as during the construction of a wooden church in Arkhangelsk.
List of references
1 Belov V.I. Everyday life Russian North. Essays on the life and folk art of the peasants of the Vologda, Arkhangelsk and Kirov regions. M., 2000.
3 Belov V.I. Everyday life...
4 Popov A.V., Shurgin I.N. About the recreation of the Russian carpentry technology of the 17th – 18th centuries. M., 1993.
5 Popov A.V., Shurgin I.N. About recreation ... p. 10.
6 Such images are extremely few, but as an example we can point out: Milchik M.I., Ushakov Yu.S. Wooden architecture of the Russian North. Pages of history. L .: Stroyizdat, 1981.S. 43, 44.
7 Popov A.V., Shurgin I.N. About Recreation ... pp. 9–10.
8 Popov A.V., Shurgin I.N. About recreation ... S. 9-10.
9 Belov V.I. Everyday life…
11 See: Course in carpentry, compiled by N. N. Ignatiev, staff teacher at the Institute of Civil Engineers of Emperor Nicholas I, with 136 drawings in the text. SPb., 1906.
12 Carpentry course ...
13 Russian Bulletin. 1841.V.1. Part 1. P.228.
14 Popov A.V., Shurgin I.N. About recreation ... С.11.
15 See: A.A. Sobolev. Russian house. Boston, 1997.S. 15.
16 Popov A.V., Shurgin I.N. About recreation ... P.9-10.
17 Quarter - a rectangular cut on the edge of a bar or board; tongue - a groove of rectangular cross-section, made along a bar or board.
18 See: Course in carpentry ... Carpentry art with 203 drawings, presented by Colonel Dementiev. SPb., 1855.
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