It is one thing to buy a plan from a trusted source for a gizmo that has been proven to work. It is a whole new ball game to take an idea for a machine and use period building techniques and years of experience to draw-out your own plan. This is what Dick Toone does and then he builds it. I have asked Mr. Toone to keep us abreast on the Spring Pole Lathe Project. Mr. Toone believes it will be ready to use at Ft. Roberdeau. Here is a little teaser on some on the building in process in Mr. Toone’s own words. Thanks Dick for keeping us informed. Best regards, Rick Sheets HCH Webmaster

The approximate 3 X 3 post is being relieved 1/2″ to receive one of the two lathe bed rails after the 14 degree dove tail is cut in to match the already cut dovetail on the rail end.  This joining will be glued and pegged for permanent fastening. Here is a plank cross-section of 3″ rough-sawn white oak used to make upright posts.  White oak is much more dense and heavy than red oak and was selected for equipment framing like a lathe or printing press, and used extensively in ship building and horse drawn equipment. The posts are now all machined and have mortise holes cut to receive cross beams and rails.  The post shown laying over is connected by a “rule joint” that when upright will have a horizontal light weight beam that transfers up and down foot motion from a treadle via rope to the drive mandrel of the lathe, then to one of the light weight beam ends, the other end of which connects to the spring poles at the base of the frame by another piece of rope.  Sounds complicated, but the picture shows the simplicity.  The “rule” joint is an all wooden hinge design with an iron pivot pin.

I will send more photos next week. Dick

To be able to demonstrate the Spring Pole Lathe tools will be needed. In particular the following would be basic: (2) Faceplates 3 or 4 inch diameter internal threaded 3/4-16TPI.  Turning tools about 16 inches long: (1) 1/2 inch skew chisel, 1 inch same, 3/8 inch Spindle gouge, 5/8 inch same. (1) 1/2 inch Spear point, (1) 1/2 inch Round Nose Scraper, (1) 1/4 inch Parting Tool, and (1) 3/8 inch Hollowing Tool. To ensure a better 18th Century presentation, these tools can all be used (not new) and do not have to match.  It would be preferable thay not be shiny chrome for the 18th Century theme. The tools will be stored on a special chest to go with the lathe along with other necessary tools and accessories.  The supply of the tools will be a way for members to participate in the Lathe project. Please bring the tools to the 2011 Annual Meeting now being held at Ft. Roberdeau in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Regards, Dick Toone Project Leader

I asked the project leader, Dick Toone, for an update on the Horn Guild’s spring pole lathe progress. Dick was kind to supply an answer and some musings as well. “Tip In or Tip Out?” Dick takes on this question…. please read on. And by the way, Dick is no stranger to 18th Century practical objects. See his website at www.livinghistoryshop.com Best regards, Rick Sheets

While helping oldest son Rick prepare the Thanksgiving turkey, he now relieving his Mother of this duty, he questioned my progress on the Horn Guild lathe.  I brought forth my explanation of the importance of an off-center lathe for horn production from a horn shop and by way of explaining I twirled an original screw tip that hangs over our kitchen fireplace along with an original Peter Gonter rifle.  I told him that John Getz was producing one of the most important pieces (the mandrel) now and am finishing the drawings of the frame. At some point I brought up the fact that the major percentage of the horns were worn on the right side and were horns from the cow’s right side as is my original.  This “fact” comes from years of observation of originals by Roland Cadle and he gives no reason.  My son, Rick, is a luthier and studying 17-18th Century violin makers’  techniques to advance his acoustic guitar knowledge and voiced his opinion that everything in the “pre-modern fastner/manufacturing period” had a reason for use.  I agreed and we deserted the kitchen for the gun shop, there being horns to play with. When I needed a powder horn to use with the first rifle I made in 1977 I, like my buddies chose from a heap of raw horns ones one that fit the contour of my body on the right hand side with the tip snug to the belly.  This was the popular thought of the embryonic trekking period and well before Roland Cadle’s espoused observed knowledge.  Didn’t want to catch that tip running through the brush!  Reinforcing the idea there must be a reason for the shape selection of the powder horn I noted that the professional horn builder in the 18th century would have received an equal amount of left and right horns to work with yet selected the right side for powder horns.  Right handedness was considered correct for eons and children were taught to write with their right hand even if they were left handed.  My observation in Africa and more recent television exposure of other nations eating procedures of using only fingers of their right hand, enhanced by the knowledge that there is no toilet paper in these areas leads me to believe that there is a deep rooted reason buried back in our physic for aversion to left handedness.  In today’s Western Civilization lefties are OK even desired in baseball pitchers. Rick and I then donned horns with “tip in” and “tip out” and observed each other going through the measuring and loading procedure and compared our thoughts.  Shortly, younger son Rob (age 40) stuck his nose up in the gun shop to see if he was missing out on something important like dividing the family fortune (or lack of fortune) and we immediately recruited him into our experiment with no explanation.  (Both of our sons grew up with muzzleloaders as their earliest gun experience.) All of us confirmed that the flow of powder coming out of a “tip out” right side worn horn was easier to control than ‘tip in” – though slightly.  Independent of collaboration both boys thought falling flat head first on a “tip-in” horn would hurt more and were a “tip-out” horn to ever be inverted over a muzzle directly and a flash back occur the full weight of the powder in the horn would be exposed to possible spark rather than a slim trail in the neck leading to the main body of powder.  We cut off  the experimentation in time to get the turkey out of the oven before the ladies found out what we were doing. Dick Toone

On September 30, 2010 Guildmaster Ed Long and I made a personal inspection and discussion of use of an original mid-eighteenth century spring pole lathe at Old Salem in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  The gunsmith manager, Blake Stevenson, and his crew assisted us with discussion of use of components, photography and measurements of all aspects as well as providing photo copies from a 1756 description of lathes by Johann Martin Teuber that is no longer in print.  The old original is of Germanic design American made and was modified and used for more than 150 years. The purpose of the visitation was to gain knowledge from an original lathe so that a similar design could be produced for use in the Horn Guild house next to Jacobsburg Historical Society’s property in Bolton, Pennsylvania. This lathe will be portable and used to reproduce early powder horns with turned elements.  I will undertake the reproduction project and will be assisted by other guild members.  The target date for lathe’s completion is March, just in time for the HCH Convention in Morristown, NJ. I want to thank Blake Stevenson and the staff of Old Salem Museum and Gardens for their help with this undertaking. Old Salem Museum and Gardens is located in Old Salem, North Carolina. Please visit their website by clicking here, www.oldsalem.org. Regards, Dick Toone