Horse Glue

I think I will teach my apprentice how to make a window frame today, I think as I walk to my children’s room.  I have to wake my apprentice.  My name is James Smith and I am an 18 year old master carpenter.  I am English and have two wonderful children.  A seven year old daughter named Nina and a nine year old son named James Jr.,  and a wife named Victoria. We are not rich, but we have more money than most here.  I get to the door and hear the soft snoring of my two children.  I hope that I don’t wake them.  I walk swiftly but softly into the room and to my apprentices bed.  My apprentice’s name is John. He is sleeping face down in the blankets, snoring louder than my children.  It sounds like a pig has gone crazy and is fighting with two other piglets. The pig is my apprentice and the piglets are my children. I rudely shake him back and forth.  He wakes up looking around startled.  I tell him to get ready.  Today I will teach him something new.  At this he jumps up excited and races to put on his clothing.

We walk downstairs and out the front door and take the short walk across the street to the shop.  It is a cold winter morning and snow has just started to fall. My apprentice looks sleepy. Normally he doesn’t have to wake up this early.  I see a new wagon sitting in the front of the Wheelwright’s shop and I think of what my next project will be.  I turn to my apprentice again and find that he is starting to slow down, “What’s wrong?” I ask him.  He doesn’t respond.  When we reach the shop, I tell him what I will teach him today.  He cheers up when I tell him. He appreciates woodworking much more than my old apprentice who ran away, and was never found.  I never got my pay from him and for that I am angry still.  I tell him to start plaining some more wood for we will need a lot today and I start making the glue.  I walk over to the glue pot and put some burning wood underneath.  I carefully make sure the amount of horse hairs that I put in is correct.  The hairs are very expensive so I can not afford to waste any.  This glue is only good hot and can not be left on the fire for too long.  I hear the scraping of my apprentice plaining the wood, “Not too thin!” I shout.  For these windows the wood must be thick enough to fit a mortis and doug.  The mortis and doug fit, also known as an eye fit, is a fit that consists of a circular whole through both pieces of wood being joined, and a peg through that to hold it.  I have never shown my apprentice how to do that.  The room smells like an odd mixture of burning horse hair and pine wood.  I had just bought a new load of timber from the merchant  yesterday and it wasn’t dried yet.  I stir the glue mess with a wooden stick, left over from a plank that snapped yesterday and wait for it to start to stick.  Some Journeymen show up while I am doing this and get to work on cutting the planks for the new house being built on the other side of town. “Come on,” I shout, “Lets get to making those window frames.”

The work that I do at my shop is used all over this town.  I make everything from house frames to luxury furniture.  If I didn’t help all of the house owners build their houses they would not have the beautiful buildings they have today. My craftsmanship can be seen even in the capital building, decorating the tables and chairs.  I am a role model to all of the apprentices and journeymen that choose to be woodworkers.  I improve on old designs and show others how to do them.