End Grain Shooting Board

[G S Haydon]

Just a question. I don't think I have seen (although I have most likely missed them) any shooting boards in my older reference books. Long grain ones yes but not end grain. Any help on early examples would be appreciated.

 

[bugbear]

Just a question. I don't think I have seen (although I have most likely missed them) any shooting boards in my older reference books. Long grain ones yes but not end grain. Any help on early examples would be appreciated.

(roughly) how early do you mean by "early" ?

BugBear

 

[AndyT]

I think one basic design serves two purposes.

This is from Wells and Hooper in 1910, showing the familiar design being used to shoot the edges of a thin board for a panel:

but this description is from Cassell's Woodworking ed Paul Hasluck in 1912 - alongside illustrations (Figs 49-52) of the same sort of shooting board (as well as a ramped design and a combination model for mitres.) His most favoured design has an open slot along it, where the main board rests on cross rails below.

"Each of the cross-rails also acts as a ledge to the upper board, materially stiffening the whole; while advantage may be taken of the opportunity thus afforded to leave room for the powdery waste produced in shooting the ends of the wood to fall out of the way."

So you would have one design of board and use it for small panels too thin and fragile to plane in the vice, or for cross-grain planing of the ends of boards.

That does however leave the related question of what is the best way to arrange things so that the shooting board and the work are held comfortably on the bench. For planing ends, I have the work lying along the bench so I can push the plane away from me, at 90° to the length of the bench. If I was using a slightly longer board, that would be too far to reach, and I'd want the length parallel to the bench, I think.

 

[G S Haydon]

Andy, thanks very much indeed for that "produced in shooting the ends of the wood" is the kinda stuff I'm after.

Although as BB has picked up, I wanted to know of pre 20th cent if at all possible.

 

[AndyT]

Not much earlier, but fwiw, "Every Man His Own Mechanic" - a diy manual of about 1882 - has a long description of a shooting board - but only as a means of planing straight edges on thin, narrow boards. It's also available on line, so rather than looking at my dodgy phone photos, start reading here http://www.archive.org/stream/everymanhisownme00youn#page/224/mode/2up

And you've probably read it already, but Peter Nicholson, in the Mechanic's Companion (1850) wrote:

"The Shooting Block

is two boards fitted together, the sides of which are lapped upon each other, so as to form a rebate for the purpose of making a short joint, either oblique to the fibres, or in their direction. By this instrument the joints of panels for framing are made, also the joints for mitres of architraves, or the like."

 

[Cheshirechappie]

I couldn't find any reference to end-grain shooting in 'Modern Practical Joinery' (Ellis, 1907).

However, in 'Turning and Mechanical Manipulation' vol.2 (Holtzappfel, 1847) on page 502 there is shown the usual long-grain shooting board, with an end-stop on the work-rest to prevent the work being pushed off the end by the plane. Holtzappfel then writes, "In squaring the ends, the traverse block of the shooting board is the rectangular gage (sic), and the cross-piece also partly supports the fibres from tearing away; for bevils, corresponding blocks are fitted to it as represented at 'h', but the mitre, or angle of 45 degrees there shown, is the one principally required."

Translated, that says the same as AndyT's example above - the long-grain shooting board is used for end grain, with the shooting board lying along the bench, and the workpiece held transverse to the bench; removable blocks are used to accomodate end angles other than 90 degrees.

(Holtzappel also writes that for panels, the board is first faced and thicknessed, then one edge shot true, then the ends shot and finally the second edge finished to width, thus removing any spalled grain that may have occurred in shooting the ends.)

Speculating now - at some time during the 20th century, the shorter end-grain shooting board we are now familiar with developed to avoid the problems Andy described, but they were either unknown or uncommon during the 19th and early 20th century.

Interesting question! It's always fascinating to see how the craft may have developed over the centuries.

 

[Corneel]

Only in text. In a German technical dictionary from 1714, you can find this text about the Stoszladen. Shooting board in German. I´ve tried to read this many times but don´t really understand much from it. It´s used by joiners to make mitres, that´s how much I understand.

My translation: Shootingboard, are for the Joiners from all kinds of corners strong pieces of wood, which they use for shooting mitres.

 

[G S Haydon]

Andy you beauty . Further to that I think the reason you dont read much about end grain shooting boards in the older text is that most old text is joinery which relies more on face side and face edge derived shoulder lines. Thanks for all the input!