My comment was merely meant to reflect my personal preferences. I certainly don’t question the historicity of using nails and I most certainly don’t mean to criticize you.

Please forgive me for the offense. There was none intended.

Most sincerely yours,

Don Butler

For contemporary furniture, I would agree. However, for the furniture I build (generally traditional), nails are used throughout. They are used thoughtfully and (in many cases) are hidden from view.

Any furniture conservator could back me up on this.

Chris

Don

Cut nails work best, but another trick is to blunt the tip of a wire nail before driving it home. I usually hold the head of the nail against the floor or a piece of scrap and then tap the tip twice with my framing hammer. That seems to do the trick and greatly reduces the amount of split moulding I have to deal with.

with that said, i had a question about the comment stating that you should only "cut on the push stroke" with a file, because "drawing" will dull a file….. now this is something that i have always heard, but while actually thinking about it i started wandering…. is this true for only single ct files or does it go with double cut ones also…. cuz i follow the rules with a single cut but when i get a double cut in my hand, i "cut" on the forward the backwards the sideways the upside down…lol…. you get my point…am i damaging my files ???
thank you all

Keep your personality and your thoughts in your writing. I tend to ignore those critics with too much time on their hands.

Thanks!

OK – now back to woodworking amusement. I expected the phrase "Nothing looks as odd as a piece of 18th-century furniture made with drywall screws and pneumatic finish nails." to be far more controversial. While it is a statement of opinion, it is indeed true – modern fasteners have absolutely no place in 18th century furniture, as does plywood.

However, a certain woodworking TV personality is absolutely famous (infamous?) for taking perverse pleasure in tacking moldings on reproductions of 18th century colonial American furniture with a pneumatic pin nailer, and has been derisively called "The Biscuit Joiner" for his propensity to employ that tool in just about every conceivable situation. So does that make you a "Normist"? (grin)

David

Much of what I have seen in area of "period reproduction" (that is, using methods of the times to reproduce, say, Queen Anne, Country, or Federalist reproductions) center on the periods, as well as others (think Shaker and different forms of Arts & Crafts), I listed in the parenthese, seem to be of American or Colonial provenance. When I branch out to other magazines, Fine Woodworking comes to mind, then I see a Ming reproduction in this month’s FWW, as well as Tansu chests and some incredible contemporary-like pieces using techniques rarely covered in PWW, like bent lamination (the best way I can describe it.

Our Westernized tools work on the P.U.S.H. principle (something like Pray Until Something Happens?). Push saws. Push planes, Push chisels. Tools from ancient and non-Western cultures seem to work differently; pull. Pull saws. Pull planes. Having worked with both push and pull saws, as far as I’m concerned, the push saw shouldn’t have gotten past the first guy (or gal) who used it. I’m finishing up a project now, and I had to throw away a piece because my push backsaw for my miterbox is so frustrating and exhausting to use, I mitered the piece on the wrong side. And I haven’t accounted for the hairiness of my cut. The teeth are really too few and too big. Doesn’t help that I’m shaping select SYP (southern yellow pine) from the big blue box down the boulevard. Next time, I’ll try my ryoba in the miterbox to see how it works. Might help to use some camellia oil (or failing that, the canola oil off the top of the stove) to lubricate the saw befroe I start cutting.

Anyway, the point is to build respect for other ways of working wood. Put away your Disston in favor of your ryoba, your Sheffield in favor of your dozuki, your Bedrock in favor of a Japanese or Chinese (or even Roman) plane you buy (or build) yourself. Seems it’s only when you use the other guy’s (or gal’s) saw that you truly see inside the heart, yours and your companion’s.

Sorry, just a few random PC thoughts.