16/17th C door surrounds

[FamilyWiggs]

I've finally found a cutter block for the old spindle moulder I bought (all I need now is the courage to turn it on and a very very long stick to push the material through it :shock: )

Some door frames and doors are going to be the first task. I have some original door frame mouldings to copy - but wondered if anyone could also point me to a reference (on- or offline) for 16/17th C door mouldings. The house is 16th/17th C North Wales farmhouse.

Thanks.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

If you're feeling wealthy, The Royal Commission volume, "Houses of the Welsh Countryside". Or a trip to some neighbouring houses with a notebook and tape measure.

 

[Penners]

I've finally found a cutter block for the old spindle moulder

Reassure me that it's not a Whitehill type without knife-gripping serrations, FW. They're banned now, on very justifiable safety grounds. I'm not usually an elfin safety advocate, but I have personal experience of this particular risk.

Do you know how to make "feathers" to grip the work and press it against the fence? Better still, have you got a power feed?

Apologies if this all sounds rather patronising, but I don't know how much spindle experience you have.

 

[biffvernon]

16-17th century? Not too sure that you've chosen the period-appropriate tool.

 

[Nigel Watts]

I share Biff's ambivalence on this.

Machine-made mouldings have a mechanical quality which can look out of place in an old building. Making mouldings by hand using planes is very hard work but the result, being slightly irregular, is more pleasing.

There is a half-way house, which is to rough out the moulding using machine tools and then finish it by hand. This is what I did when I had to reproduce the top moulding of some early Victorian skirting (the buff coloured piece on the right is the original):

Having made a reverse template (the white card) I then made a series of parallel saw cuts of different depths using a circular saw table. The template was used to set the depth of each cut. The result is the wider pine plank on the left. I then used rounds and hollows and a block plane, finishing off with a home-made shaped cabinet scraper. The finish needed to be quite high here and the match good as it was being joined to original work, but for an earlier more rustic look one could leave it a little less regular.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Gareth - thanks; £95 is a little steep for me! Googling it led me to a very interesting survey of Flintshire properties & monuments from 1912 though; so thankyou!

Penners - thanks; we've discussed those on here before and thanks for your concern/advice. I have some of the very dangerous old French cutters which I won't touch. It has taken me almost a year to track down a modern aluminium head of the right dimensions & bore, that will take modern cutters and limiters. It's coming all the way from Luxembourg and tracking the parcel is becoming very exciting.

Biff - I quite agree. I have been collecting old moulding planes for a while with a view to "roughing up" machine-made mouldings as Nigel describes. I know this is not the most traditional of methods, but I think it is OK to use modern tools on the basis that our forebears would certainly have used them if they'd been available. However, I would like the eventual end result to bear the marks of hand working too. This worked well for the machine cut oak joists we put in the dining room ceiling (to replace the awful 1970's fake varnished beams.) - but the hand planing too literally dozens and dozens of hours.

Nigel - as inspirational and innovative as ever- thanks and well done on the skirting.

This door frame and door has been in the planning for a couple of years now - I'll posts pics as and when it finally moves off the drawing board.

 

[lou]

See my last post, but have you checked out the CADW site and the Royal Commission for Ancient Monuments in Wales?

 

[Penners]

I think it is OK to use modern tools on the basis that our forebears would certainly have used them if they'd been available.

I agree. I think the word often used in this context is "honest". My own preference is for today's work to look like today's work, provided it sits comfortably with the older details of the building.