Tooling Around the Matheson History Museum
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact
  • New Page

Cutting Round Tenons; the Opposite of Boring Holes

8/18/2015

4 Comments

 
In my last post I wrote about bits in the Tison Tool Barn that were used with a brace to bore holes in wood. In this post I will look at hollow augers, which cut wood away on the end of a spoke or post, leaving a cylinder of wood called a round tenon.
Round tenons are a form of the tenon in mortise and tenon joints. Round tenons are inserted into round mortises, which are indistinguishable from bore holes. Round mortises and tenons have primarily been used by wheelwrights in mounting spokes to rims on wooden wheels. Round mortise and tenon joints are also used in making Windsor chairs.
Forming round tenons that fit correctly in their corresponding mortises took skill and care. The development of hollow augers allowed wheelwrights and chairmakers to repeatedly and quickly cut round tenons of a consistent size and shape. Between 1835 and 1928 there were 98 US patents issued for hollow augers and other tools for cutting round tenons. (Although manufacture of wagons and coaches had steeply declined in the 20th century, wooden spokes continued to be used in motor vehicle wheels until well after World War I.) Many of the hollow augers invented during that time cut tenons of a fixed diameter. A worker needed a different fixed-size hollow auger for each diameter tenon he wanted to cut. Other hollow augers were adjustable, allowing a worker to use one tool to cut tenons of various diameters by making adjustments in the settings of the cutting blades.
The Tison Tool Barn collection has three adjustable hollow augers. First is a Bonney's Pattern Hollow Auger, patented Aug. 2, 1870. This bit has one cutting blade. It has a wheel with 8 holes from 3/8 inch to 1 inch in diameter, limiting it to cutting round tenons of those diameters. This range of tenon diameters may have met the needs of most woodworkers. This tool has two slots cut into the tang, indicating that it could be used with at least two different varieties of cut-tang chuck.
Picture
Bonney's Pattern Hollow Auger. Photo by Donald Albury.
The next adjustable hollow auger in the Tison Tool Barn is shown below. It is marked "E. C. STERNS & CO. SYRACUSE, N.Y." and "PATENTED MARCH 16, 1880." Patent number 225,496 was issued to Edward C. Stearns, who had become the head of a company founded by his father in 1864. George N. Stearns & Co. became E. C. Stearns & Co. in 1877. The company was still doing business in 1891. Father and son were obviously interested in improving hollow augers. George N. Stearns was issued 8 patents for hollow augers between 1863 and 1880, several of which were manufactured by the Stearns company.
Picture
Stearns's Hollow Auger. Photo by Donald Albury.
The third adjustable hollow auger in the Tison Tool Barn appears to be a rare find. The only marking on the tool is "PATḎ DEC ~ 1868." US patent 85,423 was issued to J. H. Beauregard of Sandy Hill, N. Y. on Dec. 29, 1868. The Directory of American Tool and Machinery Patents web site, which is a volunteer effort to compile information on patents, had not found any previous evidence that this tool had ever been manufactured. I have found no information on who manufactured this item, or when. This hollow auger has two cutting blades.
Picture
Beauregard's Hollow Auger. Photo by Donald Albury.
Before a hollow auger could start cutting a round tenon, the end of the spoke had to be pointed, that is, have a truncated cone cut on the end so that a hollow auger could be securely centered on it. Spokes could be trimmed with a pointing tool. The Tison Tool Barn has two tools that could be so used. First is this dowel pointer or trimmer. It could point a spoke or dowel up to 3/4 inch in diameter. The only mark on the tool is the trade mark "STANLEY."
Picture
Dowel pointer or trimmer. Photo by Donald Albury.
Next is a spoke pointer. This tool is marked "E. C. STEARNS & CO. SYRACUSE, N. Y." Patent No. 220,442 for this tool was issued to Edward C. Stearns on Oct. 7, 1879. This tool will point a spoke or post up to 1-3/4 inches in diameter.
Picture
Spoke pointer. Photo by Donald Albury.
In my next post I will cover some odds and ends of bits in the Tison Tool Barn that were used with a brace.
Further reading
  • They helped keep America rolling
  • Chairmaker's Tips: Hollow Augers
  • Beauregard's patent
  • George N. Stearns & Co.
4 Comments

    Author

    I have been a volunteer at the Matheson History Museum. Feeling an affinity with old hand tools (some of which I remember from my youth), I have tried to learn more about the history of the tools in the Tison Tool Barn, and how they were used.

    I am not an expert on tools. I have used some of the tools represented in the Tison Tool Barn, though perhaps not very well. I do enjoy digging around to find out more about the tools, and hope that some of you share my interest in the old tools collected in the Tison Tool Barn.

    This is my personal blog. Any claims, suppositions or opinions offered here are mine, and do not necessarily represent those of the Matheson History Museum, its staff or its Board of Directors.

    All text and photographs by Donald Albury in this blog are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. All illustrations taken from Wikimedia Commons are either in the public domain, or have been released under a Creative Commons license.

    Archives

    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    Acme-wrench
    Auger
    Auger Bits
    Barnes Tool Company
    Bemis & Call
    Bicycle Wrench
    Bit Gauge
    Brace
    Center Bit
    Chuck
    Coes Wrench Co.
    Combination Wrench
    Cooper Tools
    Countersink Bit
    Crescent Wrench
    Drawknife
    Factory
    Folding Ruler
    Gimlet
    Hammer Wrench
    H. D. Smith
    Hollow Auger
    Inshave
    Lucas Girder Wrench
    Marking Gauge
    Matheson History Museum
    Miehle
    Monkey Wrench
    Peck
    Perfect Handle
    Pipe Wrench
    Reamer Bits
    Ripley's Patent Wrench
    Sheffield
    Skid Shoe
    Slide Ruler
    Spofford
    Spoke Pointer
    Stillson
    Stow
    Tison Tool Barn
    Wagon Jack
    Washer Cutter
    & Wilcox
    Zig-zag Ruler

    Interesting Sites about Old Tools

    • Collectors Weekly: Tools and Hardware
    • A Woodworker's Musings
    • Walsh, Peter C., Woodworking Tools 1600-1900, Smithsonian Institution. The e-book version is downloadable for free from Project Gutenberg.
    • Directory of American Tool and Machinery Patents
    • Alloy Artifacts - 20th century hand tools
    • Wheels that Won the West - About wagons, which are a type of tool
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact
  • New Page