Specialist Tools for Sash Window Making

Chronicle of the Early American Industries Association, Inc., The, Mar 2004 by Rees, Jane

From their first appearance towards the end of the seventeenth century right up to the present day, sash windows have been used in every sort of building.' A walk round any Hritish village, town or city makes clear the quantity of sash windows that have been manufactured over the last three centuries. For instance, in Hath alone in the period between 1720 and 1820, a rough calculation suggests that around sixty thousand sashes were made (three for every working day!).

In order for a sash window to work easily and effectively, it is important that both the frame and the sash are made accurately. Eut also, in the days when workmen were paid by piece work, speed was of the essence.

When researching the history of the methods of making sash windows, contemporary written sources such as Nicholson's Practical Builder'1 and Skaife's Key to Civil Architecture3 arc invaluable, but there is another resource that is often overlooked-the tools that were used. Many tools still survive from the eighteenth century and many more changed little in form or use over the next 150 years; the study of these can give a detailed insight into how ,sash windows were made by hand.

Although from the late years of the eighteenth century, there were attempts to develop a variety of woodworking machinery.4 until the early years of the twentieth century, the majority of sash windows were still made by hand. So it is not surprising that specialist tools were developed to assist in the making.

A sasli window consists of two main parts, the cased frame or box and the sash itself. A third clement, window shutters, is sometimes added but not necessarily and is not included in the scope of this article.

Making the Frame or Box

The construction of the sash frame is relatively simple with little in the way of joints, and the majority of the tools used would have been those found in any joiner's kit. Thomas Skaife, writing in 1774, states that "sash frames are a part of the business easily understood, and require hut little merit in the execution,"5 though he does draw attention to the need to position the pulley block within three inches of the top or there will not he sufficient height for the weights.

The most complicated work in making the sash box is cutting out the sash pocket in the pulley stiles through which the weights are reached. It is necessary to make both transverse and longitudinal cuts in a position that cannot be reached with general tools. A special chisel-the sash pocket chisel-was developed for this job, though the exact way it was intended to be used is still a matter of speculation (Figure l). The basic use was to cut the fibres at the end of the pocket that could not be readied by a saw, but it could also have been used for making the longitudinal cut at the side of the pocket. Sash pocket chisels come in two types, with a thick blade or with a thin. As with many tools, by the nineteenth century manufacturers were experimenting with improvements, and the sash pocket chisel was no exception. Ed. Preston & Sons (Birmingham, 1825-1934)" produced an interchangeable blade version, first advertised in his 1,914 catalog as a "new form ... supplied with three different sizes of cutter blades... ."7

Making the Sash Bars

In the earliest windows, up to the 174Os, the bars had sizeable ovolo profiles and were typically l'/a or even 2 inches wide. Making bars of this size presented less of a problem than the later thinner bars, and there is no evidence of specialist tools prior to this date. The rebate would have been cut with a moving or standing fillister and the ovolo cut with a moulding plane that might well have also been used in other more general purpose joinery.

However, the difficulties of making t lie bars became IfEi more acute as fashion dietatecl thinner and thinner bars, which ultimately reached as little as ¾ of an inch by the end of the eighteenth century and even as slender as 5/8 of an inch by the early years of the nineteenth century. The shaping and jointing of pieces of wood which were in general much thinner than those normally worked for such items as doors and panelling required specialist tools that enabled a speedy and accurate result for the joiner.

With the advent of the astragal and hollow mould in the 176Os, sash planes started to appear. It was difficult to cut this mould using the traditional hollows and rounds and the need for specialist planes became paramount.

Sticking Boards

There were three methods of making the bars, but one problem common to all was holding the bar whilst cutting. all evidence suggests that the bars and frames were made in short lengths-bars no longer than three ieet or so were needed to make a sash. And as the different cuts are made, the bar becomes progressively more difficult to hold. The answer to this problem is the sticking board, the name derived from the traditional term for cutting or "sticking" a moulding.

The board would have been made by the craftsman out of whatever wood was to hand and would have been considered expendable; consequently virtually no provenanced sticking boards have been found. The only one that has an eighteenth-century provenance that I am aware of is an American board found in the workshop of Samuel Wing, a cabinetmaker and chairmaker and carpenter of Sandwich, Massachusetts, which dates from around 1795 to 1810 (Figure 2).8