Donald Lamond ⁽¹⁷⁾

Hand tool woodworking cannot easily achieve the accuracy of machine work, but traditional craft workers found ways of making interference tight joints by using wedges and wedge shaped elements . The wedge is often seen in mortise and tenon frame structures such as frame and panel doors windows that use through mortises. The mortise is flared at the end walls to the outside of the joint to create wedge shaped spaces on either side of the tenon. When the joint…

The abacus is a simple aid to calculation whose origins go back at least to the ancient Mediterranean and Middle East, and which has spread around the world over the centuries, reaching its most mature form in eastern Asia. The value of the abacus for the different world of an energy poor future are that it can be made in the village or small town, it uses no power source apart from the human hand, and skilled users can match…

The fret saw, or coping saw, may also be called a "turning" saw because it is able to cut tight curves. This makes it useful in any work where curved cuts are required, as in decorative fretwork, which was popular at times in the past, and no doubt will be again, since fashions tend to be cyclical. The fret saw is a light example of a narrow bladed frame saw, of a kind that has been in use since Ancient…

In the midst of the global Covid19 pandemic of 2020 we have become acutely aware of the simple old fashioned health measures that can reduce the spread of disease and not only in times of pandemic. One important measure is washing our hands with soap and water. The entire surface of the hands, backs and palms, and the fingers all around should be thoroughly scrubbed with soapy water, if there is any chance that you may have picked up virus…

One of the most remarkable discoveries of the twentieth century was the discovery that digging, ploughing and harrowing were not necessary to prepare the soil for planting crops, and are even counter-productive. In his book Plowman's Folly, written in the late nineteen forties, Edward Faulkner mentioned an experiment done some twenty years before at an agricultural research station in the western United States. In this experiment a large field was divided into plots, all of which were planted to…