Old videos

rjdankert said:
Hungarian film on building a chest.





Bob

First time I have seen the tool used for putting the grooves in the boards:

GyTkonyv_SZUSZEKszerszamok_.jpg


http://acsoltlada.hu/index_en.html


Chests made from green riven Beech:

10-img_8986_phototamasgyenes.jpg

https://thrownandriven.com/2016/07/12/hungary-part-1/
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I think its called a Twivel.
Bunch a old primitive Pete's hanging out around here that have sniffed to much saw dust...
 
The word you're looking for might be twybill or twibill. Also sometimes called a kruezaxt, though the kruezaxts I've seen pictures of were generally wider. I think Ernest Dubois could tell us more about them.
 
I'm not sure that twivel, or is it twivle, and twybil/twibil are synonymous. Possible the names refer to two separate things.
I'm pretty sure though there is widespread confusion on the matter in general - maybe I can add to it by drawing distinctions where drawing distinctions may just be misplaced.
This tool at hand - from the video - maybe it is a twivle but it's not a twybil though both began as carpenter's tools. Twybil gets mentioned by Ben Johnson like that in 1623 and no carpenter then is going to be caught making sheep hurdles. In this context - that the tool is from the carpenter - I draw parallels between twybil and kreuzaxt and they are true axes in the sense we understand. That is to say, a tool that gets swung and whose primary action is chopping.
This twivel is categorically different if that category is the action behind the use because it never gets swung, it gets pulled, just like the german name, Nut ziehen implies and also the similar Dutch name, ritsmes.This twivel is basically a carving tool, not necessarily limited to grooves but also wavy lines. A version of it was standard in timber frame assembly for marking components in order to get them back together in the right order.
http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/jans353hout01_01/jans353hout01_01_0005.php
 
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garry3 said:
From a picture you posted.
From 'A Museum of Early American Tools' by Eric Sloane.
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads...or-what-was-that-one-called-i-forget.1111081/
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Thanks for the refresher.

So the twivel is a primarily pulled tool and the twibil is an impact mortising tool.

I wouldn't necessarily say that Sloan's drawing is inacurate. It may correctly depict a tool differing from Ernest's kruezaxt. Sloan depicts a tool used for shearing rather than chiseling. The angle of the point is not a chisel angle and would be more appropriate for a shearing cut.

It's likely that each tool in this family was made to order to fill a specific carpenter's desire.

With the twivel one end appears to be for scoring and the other for gouging. From the film and Sloan's drawing I can't be certain the gouging end is actually a gouge or a hook like a hook knife. How do you guys see it?
 
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Square_peg said:
So the twivel is a primarily pulled tool and the twibil is an impact mortising tool.
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This is indeed the basic distinction. There are others.
I see it now that Slone says twivel for one and twybil for another. I think that's looking at it with a clear head.
Still we have the confusion coming out of England - surprise surprise - between the contemporary use of twybil and the historical. The contemporary idea, we can look it up on the computer, being a misappropriation popularized by Mike Abbot and his band of merry country craftsmen, (probably got started before them though), and which has taken root, thanks in no small part to that same internet's influence, so we have to accept it going forward to one degree or another, which is not to deny its origins, recorded from as far back as 1623, as the tool swung by the carpenter.
 
rjdankert said:
hornyol%25C3%25B3%2Bi.jpg


hornyol%25C3%25B3%2Bii.jpg


hornyol%25C3%25B3%2Biii.jpg


http://johanninternational.blogspot.com/2016/04/a-mystery-solved.html

Bob
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Wonderful, Bob!

"He then sent me another more lengthy email a few days later, explaining about the tool and how it works etc. In Hungarian, it is called a hornyoló. It seems that the cathedral window artist even got the detail of the cutter on the tool right, as it is a ‘U’ shaped hook on the end of the tool. By holding this tool with both hands, one on the iron part, the other on the wooden handle, the artist pulls the tool through the wood, repeatedly removing strips as is done with a plane, until the desired depth is achieved. I assume that only skill and practice render straight and accurate rebates, as there is nothing, save the craftsman’s dexterity to guide it."

These are some of the things that struck me about the video. He cuts the groove (rebate, rabbet) totally free hand. And the way the shavings came off made me think it might be a hook knife.
 
Looked to me it was just like a saw in that one end scratched or scored the line, the other end cleaned the line out. I was also amazed it was made in 1955, or at least that is what was on the screen at the end of the film. Might have been a lot earlier as only hand tools used, and I noticed he was wearing what looked to be Army issue hobnailed boots. His wife did a lot of the heavy work too. I guess I should have not been surprised at the year it was made if it was in fact 1955. In the mid to late 70's we had a man in our unit who had escaped from Bulgaria. One day I gave him a ride home to his quarters on post and he was telling me that when he was a kid in Bulgaria, which would have been around that same time, his ambition in life was to ride in a car, not own a car, but just ride in one. Then he said that the Communists tried to tell him how good life was under Communist rule, but now he OWNED two cars and what would they say about that? In any case a very interesting film, thanks for posting it. John
 
Thanks garry3 that was real good.Looked like a single bevel axe about boys axe size is that right?Whatever that tool is he sure could make it work.
 
The business ends of this tool are identical so when it gets flipped the cutting action is reversed to give the groove symmetry otherwise you'd have a rough go of it keeping the groove perpendicular with the plank's edge and having a chance at creating a flat surface once the planks were stacked. With this kind of chest construction everything has to work in your favor otherwise you'd end up with a pile of firewood after the chest started to dry.
 
I found this poking around on youtube.
Its amazing how all of the manufacturing process was done by eye and was still so accurate. The tool he has for seating the handle at 9:32 looks like it would be very handy.
 
A17 said:
I found this poking around on youtube.
Its amazing how all of the manufacturing process was done by eye and was still so accurate. The tool he has for seating the handle at 9:32 looks like it would be very handy.
Click to expand...
That's become a very popular video clip on here. Credit should go out to the wonderful man who had the presence of mind to capture all this on film 1/2 century ago. The smithy does start out with a specific amount of bar stock and shows once you've mastered the tricks of the trade and repeated the process 1/2 dozen times a day for 20+ years that tool and machine familiarity, muscle memory, timing, tactile feel and visual appearance greatly diminishes the need for templates, models and measuring tools.
 
A17 said:
I found this poking around on youtube.
Its amazing how all of the manufacturing process was done by eye and was still so accurate. The tool he has for seating the handle at 9:32 looks like it would be very handy.
Click to expand...

Yes this is certainly one of my more liked and frequently watched videos.

Their experience individually and as a team shines thru and I appreciate every second of it.
 
A17 said:
I found this poking around on youtube.
Its amazing how all of the manufacturing process was done by eye and was still so accurate. The tool he has for seating the handle at 9:32 looks like it would be very handy.
Click to expand...
I have to admit to fondly viewing this vignette two-three times a year. It's nice to be nostalgic and reminisce about 'the good old days' but when you realize that competitors elsewhere (around the world) had steadily been updating their manufacturing facilities and methods in order to produce quality product cheaper and faster it's an absolute miracle that Emerson & Stevens 'held on' for as long as they did. The owner of Walters Axe of Canada for instance 'saw the writing on the wall' during WWII and modernized over to drop hammer/closed die forging by the late 1940s. What formerly required 70 skilled workers the new process reduced the workforce by half and yet upped production (I'm guessing: by a multiple of 4) to 1000 axes per day. When profit margins are slim in free enterprise's quest of staying up with or ahead of the next guy you can readily envision E & S 'falling by the wayside'. The Swedes 'threw in the towel' towards the late 80s and went from mass production back over to 'retro' forging but in doing so gave up on the mass market. It's too bad that a few foundries/forges in north America couldn't 'weather the storm' in a similar manner because there's always been a niche market for 'lifetime' hand-forged tools.
 
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