Biddle

We are ramping up to thatch the new frame in the village, and to prepare I have been diligently researching the period tools necessary for traditional thatching. We will be thatching in the public eye, so authenticity is an absolute must. So first on the docket is the precursor (at least in my humble opinion) to the modern hook ladder used for slate roofing, the biddle.

Basically, a biddle is a short ladder with some iron hooks that pierce through the thatch and hook onto the lath on the roof. This gives a nice versatile working platform that you can move around at your leisure. I started with a bow of Sassafrass and hewed it on four sides. Working such a small piece of wood was a nice change of pace. I didn't even score to my line, just started hewing with a hatchet, and within the hour I had a relatively squarish timber.

I love the sweet smell of Sassafras while it is being worked

Next, I bored holes through the piece. I think I did every 12", but it is more important to be consistent than to hit an exact number. These holes will accommodate the rungs of the biddle, and are about 7/8" diameter. It is best to auger the holes before ripping the stiles apart, that way you don't have to bother with that shop math that always seems to go wrong to line up all the holes.

Two squares keep me boring plumb

Before the comments start flowing in, I know a screw auger is not 17th century accurate, but unlike the Brewster Chair, no one will know I used it because these are through holes. Sometimes efficiency trumps authenticity, especially when no one is the wiser (I think I just blew my cover).

Next was ripping the small timber into stiles. Luckily I learned the Tao of Saw Sharpening from the always helpful Saw Wright, Matt Cianci, so I had a newly sharpened rip saw waiting in the wings.

Using a wedge keeps the piece from pinching

This biddle will be used on roofs up to 30 ft in the air, so I wanted it to be as robust as possible. This lead me to put mortised rails on the top and bottom to hold the whole thing together. I chiseled the mortises with a 3/4" chisel, and cut the tenons to fit.

It is easier to fit the tenon to the chisel, than fit the chisel to the tenon

Keeping with the "I don't want to fall off the roof and die" mentality I also draw bored the mortise and tenons for a nice tight assembly. For the pegs I used bone dry riven white oak and noisily banged it through a dowel plate.

Dog holes in the bench are perfect places for the pins to be blasted through the plate

Remember my note on screw augers above? Yeah...refer to that in regards to dowel plates.

In addition to the draw bores, I also made all of the rungs with stopped shoulders and tiny little wedges to secure them into the stiles. Note to self, there is a reason they didn't wedge ladder rungs...it makes construction about twice as long. Now all I needed was a mallet and earplugs to knock this bad boy together.

Tap, Tap, Tap

I got a little carried away knocking the whole assembly together and it fell right off the bench, but it didn't self destruct, so that is reason to be happy.

It is easy to get giddy when approaching the end of a new, exciting project

The last piece to be dealt with was making the tiniest stupidest through tenons I will probably cut in my life. These were for the iron hooks that our blacksmith made for me. The mortises were 3/16" x 3/4" and went through the whole 3-1/2" piece of Sassafrass, and they had a stepped shoulder to boot.

A tight fit now ensures a tight fit later

Clenching the biddle hooks is pretty much the same as clenching nails...except you use a sledge hammer and swing as hard as you can.

There is a fine line between clenching and splitting with these bad Larrys

Finally, I step back and admire my hard work, not bad if I do say so myself. Total hand tool construction, all the way from felling the tree with an axe. Next on the list of thatching tools is a biddle (that is not a typo...but it IS a story for another time).

I need to get The Boss to take better pictures for me...

Loffel Brecher

Three broken spoons does not a spoon carver make. In fact, it makes the opposite of a spoon maker, it makes a spoon breaker, which is now my new nickname at work.

For Christmas I got some Frost Mora knives. I will keep comments on the knives to a minimal (read "do your own d@%n research") but I do have to say the 106 is a fantastic knife, while the 164 leaves a lot to be desired.

New spoon carving knives #106 and #164

On to the spoon massacre...ing. My first victim came in the form of a straight piece of Sassafras.  I started hacking away with a hatchet, and then switched to the knives. There was some strange grain in the handle so I kept going back and forth trying to get a smooth cut. Before I knew it there was 1/16" of wood left in the handle. Botch number 1.

The bowl is funny shaped anyways.

Next, I did some independent research into spoon carving methods and forms. I highly recommend this Woodwright episode, anything on Follansbee's website, and Robin Wood's spoon porn. My second attempt I used a piece of Sassafras with a crook and whittled it down to a fairly respectable impersonation of a Swedish style spoon. It wasn't till the very end when I was getting to the anal retentive bowl thinning phase that I cut too deep...which ended up with a nice hole. Botch number 2

A hole in one side...and a pinhole knot.

For my third spoon shaped object I talked to P.Follansbee and got some great pointers on wood selection, spoon geometry, and he even gave me a tour of his spoon carving tool roll. Before leaving he let me take a nice clean piece of Birch. I thought for sure that this would be the time that I actually completed a crappy spoon, but again when thinning out the bowl I took one hard cut and snapped off half the spoon. Botch number 3.

A broken birch spoon

While cutting rafter poles for a house frame I walked the woods for some suitable white birch. I didn't find the birch, but I did run across an interesting tree with olive green heart wood, internet says it is Staghorn Sumac. So I should have plenty of branches to mangle into spoon shaped chunks of wood in the next month.

This is neon green in real life, my next victim.

P.S. Sassafras, fun to say, fun to spell. Also, the oils from the tree were used as a cure for "Social Diseases" in the 17th century. Look it up, you will eventually get it.

P.P.S. I may have just found the topic for my next post.