I’ve just returned from a two-week trip to England with my wife Morgan. Bath, London, the Lake District. Almost nothing had to do with my work….except a day in High Wycombe.
I’ve heard about High Wycombe since I started chairmaking. When I was 16, working at Drew Langsner’s shop in Marshall, NC, I first saw the book The History of Chairmaking in High Wycombe, which includes one of the best descriptions of traditional chairmaking I’ve ever read. Then, a year later, I watched Jennie Alexander’s old VHS tape of chair turners at work when I was working with her in Baltimore.
At the turn of the 20th century, chairs were still being made entirely by hand in and around High Wycombe. Pole lathes were still in (spare) use there in mid-century. High Wycombe, in short, is the closest link we have to traditional Windsor chairmaking.
Upon arrival in High Wycombe, we went straight from the train station to the Wycombe Museum:
Where they have an old bodger’s pole lathe:
I’ve been excited to see this lathe for awhile. The two popits (headstocks) look ancient – I wonder if they predate the rest of the lathe. A piece of leather fills the worn screw hole:
The two wedges are the fanciest parts of the lathe:
But the treadle was the most interesting part to me:
The treadle is hinged far behind the bed of the lathe – so far back, in fact, that the turner would have to stand in the gap between the treadle’s two lateral boards as he worked. At 27″ long, the treadle is also far shorter than mine. The tip of barely extends half a foot beyond the lathe bed when the treadle is flat on the floor. My experimenting suggests that this combination would limit the number of revolutions the work makes on each treadle stroke, slowing the work down. But, assuming the treadle was made by a professional (and I think it was, but I’d like to ask someone who knows for sure), it must work well. High Wycombe was a center of chairmaking and anyone using an inefficient late would have gone broke in a hurry. Besides being laughed out of town. I’m itching to try out this treadle arrangement sometime soon.
Next to the lathe was a bodger’s shaving horse:
With the meanest bite I’ve ever seen:
In another room was a chair framer’s bench:
The bench had a post vice mounted on it, with one of what used to be a pair of wooden vice pads in place:
A notch in the pad rests on the vice screw and the pads just kind of sit there. I’ll soon be making some to try them out. I’ve been using pads on my vice that are held in place with magnets, but this is a much simpler solution. Wonderful.
Bill Anderson is one of my longest-held woodworking friends. And one of my closest friends, period. We met dancing squares and contras, and became fast friends. We taught together at the John C. Campbell Folk School for a number of years. We made travishers together. Then, in 2010, Roy Underhill opened his school near us in Pittsboro and Bill became the most prolific teacher there, besides Roy himself.
Now, 15 years later, Roy’s school is closed and Bill has begun teaching one-on-one classes at his shop in Chapel Hill. You’ll never find a teacher who packs more into a class than Bill. Or puts more into helping you learn the material. Hand tool basics, table making, plane-making and restoring, bit-brace making, work-bench fixtures, the list goes on and on. You can find more info here.
Ah, that pole lathe is very useful to see!
I recently tried a similar hinge setup for the treadle. It allowed me to stand with one foot on the fixed hinge board while working the treadle with the other foot. Hence my body weight lent enough stability to keep the lathe from rocking away from me on the downstroke (owing to a short base, front-to-back). The Wycombe lathe seems to have a similarly short base; you said the treadle was about 27 inches, so the lathe’s feet must be around 20 inches long? But the Wycombe’s shortened treadle would place the downstroke force more directly below the bed, decreasing the likelihood of tipping. Of course, this also means the rope will be more likely to rub against the bed, and I see that the back edge of the bed has been shaved down where the rope was likely touching.
I love the use of the sticks and lashings for the treadle frame–such an obvious design makes me kick myself for using 1x2s and wood screws instead of the stout hazel sticks growing in my back yard. Are they nailed into the hinge board?
Is the bottom of that left-right adjustment stick just stuck in an oversized hole, or is there more going on? And are the hooks for the tool rest adjustable (threaded?) with those funny looking fasteners on the back of the poppets?
I think I will build another iteration based on these images, as I agree with you that such a long-lived lathe must have worked well. What’s your current opinion about the height of the centers? Are you going higher like the old bodgers?
Thanks for posting this, and thanks for tolerating my questions!
Sorry for the delay. The best thing to do is to hinge the rear end of the treadle to a large piece of 1/4″ plywood that you can move around to figure out where you like the treadle best. Then you can mount it permanently if you choose.
Most old lathe beds have been worn by the cord running against the bed, so I guess that’s not much of a concern.
Yes, the left-right adjustment stick just stuck in an oversized hole and pegged. Yes, the hooks are threaded.
2″ above elbow height is my preference for center height.
Bill is one of my most appreciated instructors. I have watched the CD about making a wood plane many times and still find something new every time. I also remember him making a turning saw on the woodwright’s shop. My first grade daughter was watching with me and couldn t resist repeating Bill’s
emphatic ‘Absolutely!’. He is a great teacher and a very knowledgeable woodworker.
Absolutely!