Old West Woodwork

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Here is an unusually dumb question-- Was half-watching Eastwood spaghetti westerns today, and the wood in those movies was gorgeous. And pretty good workmanship for frontier work. The wood is beautiful even in shots of little mexican towns. Intended to look kinda "crudely built" but beautiful nontheless.

Ferinstance the saloons and banks look like they were put together by cabinet makers out of fine wood, not slapped together by cowboys.

Old "humble" buildings I've seen in the south, unpainted barns, cabins, shacks, are beautiful in a rustic way but one wouldn't mistake them as built by cabinet makers or see polished rubbed finishes on most interior structural members. Old southern mansions, now that's a different story.

Am guessing the movie makers took liberties with the scenery, but dunno much about it. Reckon there were really any saloons in little old west frontier towns that looked like they were put together by skilled cabinet makers? If so, how would they finish natural wood at that time and place? Probably didn't have sand paper. So they would smooth the wood surface how? Was steel wool common back then? And then what? Oil finish? Lacquer or varnish? Of course there were lacquers and varnishes a long time before the era of the old west, but dunno if such coatings were in common use out on the frontier?

Edited September 3, 2012 by Lester Weevils

[Steelharp]

Considering they aren't Hollywood productions, but done in Italy (hence the "spaghetti Western" moniker), I would imagine the Italian propmasters took great pride in their work.

[jtluttrell]

Yeah, I'm not sure about the historical accuracy of the scenery. I'm sure some of them were nice. I was shown a table once that was actually made by an company that served as undertakers. Consider that they were making coffins also, so some fine woodworking may have been expected. I'm sure not everyone was buried in the rustic boxes you see in the movies.

This was a golden age for fine woodworking. The craftsman and the apprentice. Skills were passed down and people took pride in their work.

I honestly don't know about the prevalence of sandpaper at this time. Smoothing planes were used and they can create a very fine surface. As far as finish goes, shellac would have been the most widely used film finish at the time. It is what you'll see on furniture 90+ years old, before nitrocellulose lacquers were common. Shellac can be polished to a very high sheen, though it's not very resistant to water and alcohol. I recommend researching shellac, it's actually quite fascinating how it's "harvested".

[jtmaze]

I agree hand planes and other woodworking tools could get the same finish as a power sander does today in the hands of a true craftsman.

JTM

Sent from my iPhone

[TrickyNicky]

Planes and scrapers were probably the tools of choice for most smoothing or finishing work.

Shellac and othe varnishes ruled the roost up until nitrocellulose came into popularity.

[Glenn]

Many were really nice. Just google 1880's saloons.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Thanks all for the good ideas. Would be interesting sometime to study the old methods.

[Glenn]

II would guess immigrant furniture makers looking for someone that could afford their work. Fine woodworking had been around for a long time in Europe.

[Gun Smith]

II would guess immigrant furniture makers looking for someone that could afford their work. Fine woodworking had been around for a long time in Europe.

+1

Eggzactly what I was thinking. And, also once some got established, they would ship some things from "back East".

[JAB]

According to the online version of the Encyclopedia Brittanica Academic Edition, the earliest recorded use of a sandpaper-like construct was in 13th Century China. Apparently, the Chinese used bits of gum to affix pieces of seashell to a parchment backing. The article also says that the Swiss began coating a paper backing with crushed glass about two centuries later (so around the 15th century.)

Other information that I can find indicates that, while wet/dry sandpaper wasn't invented until the 1920s, commercial 'glass paper' was being produced in the 1800s. So, yeah, a version of sandpaper would have been available.

Don't forget, too, that one thing many areas of the Old West would have had in abundance would have been sandy soil. Sprinkle copious amounts of sand on some wood then use a flexible piece of hide or heavy cloth to rub the sand over said wood and you basically have a crude version of sandpaper.

There were also probably many different finishes, etc. available to them. I have a Native American style reed flute that was made by a modern Cherokee craftsman named Daniel Bigay. He uses a finish on his instruments that is like something that used to be used on fine violins to both protect the wood and enhance its beauty. If I recall correctly, he actually makes the finishing compound himself because it is not a commercially available product - at least not anymore. I imagine fine craftsmen of a century or two ago probably had their own 'formulas' that were handed down from master to apprentice and that were probably never seen on a shelf in a store.

I once watched a documentary about a guy who makes violins that are intended to be as close to the fine violins of old, like a Stradivarius and so on, as possible (and he is supposedly successful in doing so.) In order to make the wood absolutely smooth and beautiful, he first carves and sands the pieces of the violin. He then soaks them in water to make the grain stand out. He sands the grain smooth and then soaks them and sands them, again. He keeps doing this until the pieces can be soaked in water and remain smooth - until the grain will no longer 'pop' out. Then he finishes them. Even via television I could tell that the final product is literally smooth as glass. In fact, it almost seemed as if the wood were somehow translucent, as if you could look down into the pattern of the wood.

Edited September 5, 2012 by JAB

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Yep it would be fun to research. I remembered reading controversies about "lost secrets" of wood prep and finishes of the stradivarius and other world-class violins from a certain region if Italy, starting in the 15th century. People have been trying to reverse-engineer those instruments ever since. Yesterday googled 'stradivarius violin finish' and lots of links, people who spent years studying the topic, each with different explanations.

Many places in USA back then, they had an advantage of even building shacks and barns out of quality wood modern cabinetmakers would give their eye teeth for. Even a rough piece made of fine wood will knock yer eyes out. Supposedly starting early on in europe the wood supply had tapped out and the governments took the best lumber for ships and craftsmen had to pick thru whatever wasn't good enough to build sailing ships out of. Or ferinstance the cedars of lebanon from biblical times. Apparently eventually cut down and used up.

Was thinking maybe steel wool would be available pretty early on by the 19th century, and is pretty good for wood smoothing. As soon as they had eastern factories with machine lathes, machine lathes make big piles of "steel wool" as unavoidable by-product, but dunno if they sold the swarf as steel wool back then.

For some reason was easy to envision pretty good-finished furniture, and after railroads go in they could ship a lot of furniture from back east.

Just in those spaghetti westerns, entire walls, bars and elaborate built-ins of precisely fitted, beautifully finished wood, looked kinda labor-intensive for that time and place. Not unexpected in a city of the time but was just wondering about frontier towns. There were shots of stairs with lathe-turned "identical looking" balusters. Water or steam powered pattern-template "automated" wood lathes came on scene in more urban areas beginning around the revolutionary war. I think their first use was making rifle stocks. But in a little frontier town, unless they were shipping in balusters from back east, or unless they had pattern-following lathes in places like El Paso and Abilene, would imply some shed in town would have a wood lathe and a fella pretty good at working it to output dozens of "near identical" balusters?

They had drill presses in early factories, but unless the frontier sawmills or shops had drill presses, a big long run of stairs would be some fella expending how many hours drilling holes with a hand drill? Was just wondering, if some of the buildings were so elaborate, how long did it take to build, and how many people? Dang.

[RED333]

I watch this every Saturday or catch it on DVR.

http://www.pbs.org/woodwrightsshop/

[Guest Lester Weevils]

I watch this every Saturday or catch it on DVR.

http://www.pbs.org/woodwrightsshop/

Thanks, that looks like an interesting show!