adzeman
Established Member
I required to cap the gate posts for my newly hung gate which brought back some memories of when I was an apprentice.
At our works the owner always insisted these are to be made by the apprentices for a number of what I thought were good reasons.
1. Time served joiners were too expensive to make these items, they were time consuming and it was difficult to substantiate the cost to customers.
2. We worked Saturday mornings in those days as part of the normal working week and people from round about the village used to come in to the shop on Saturday mornings to buy DIY materials, clothes props, garden gates, posts, draining boards and gate post caps etc. So a stock was required to be built up.
3. The most important, he would supervise us, make sure our tools were sharp, looked after and set correctly. He would listen for the whistle produced by the plane as it cut through the wood which you only get with a sharp and correctly set plane.
4. We would inspect and comment on the standard of work produced by our fellow apprentices and the older ones helped in teaching the required skills which built up our own confidence.
5. As soon as the new apprentice had settled into the routine of sweeping up, making the tea, running errands and taken the butt of the qualified men’s jokes (being polite hear) because sometimes they were downright cruel, but not in front of the Boss.
The apprentice would have by then acquired the necessary hand tools. No machines were used and it was like a right of passage when the boss announced the new guy was to make his first post cap. We would be looking for crispness, sharp angles, flat surfaces and of course square.
The one I have made here is a cap for a double post, e.g. two posts along side each other
Cutting out the shape
Forming the valley
Paring out the valley
The finished cap
A plane was used but I didn’t take any pictures but you know what a plane is.
At our works the owner always insisted these are to be made by the apprentices for a number of what I thought were good reasons.
1. Time served joiners were too expensive to make these items, they were time consuming and it was difficult to substantiate the cost to customers.
2. We worked Saturday mornings in those days as part of the normal working week and people from round about the village used to come in to the shop on Saturday mornings to buy DIY materials, clothes props, garden gates, posts, draining boards and gate post caps etc. So a stock was required to be built up.
3. The most important, he would supervise us, make sure our tools were sharp, looked after and set correctly. He would listen for the whistle produced by the plane as it cut through the wood which you only get with a sharp and correctly set plane.
4. We would inspect and comment on the standard of work produced by our fellow apprentices and the older ones helped in teaching the required skills which built up our own confidence.
5. As soon as the new apprentice had settled into the routine of sweeping up, making the tea, running errands and taken the butt of the qualified men’s jokes (being polite hear) because sometimes they were downright cruel, but not in front of the Boss.
The apprentice would have by then acquired the necessary hand tools. No machines were used and it was like a right of passage when the boss announced the new guy was to make his first post cap. We would be looking for crispness, sharp angles, flat surfaces and of course square.
The one I have made here is a cap for a double post, e.g. two posts along side each other
Cutting out the shape
Forming the valley
Paring out the valley
The finished cap
A plane was used but I didn’t take any pictures but you know what a plane is.
