BARBER IMPROVED RATCHET BRACES. 



These Braces possess the following points of superiority : The Sweep is made 

 from Steel; the Jaws are forged from Steel; the Wood Handle has hrass rings insert- 

 ed in each end so it cannot split off; the Chuck has a hardened Steel anti-friction 

 washer between the two sockets, thus reducing the wear. The Head has a bearing ot 

 steel balls, running on hardened steel plates, so no wear can take place, as the fric- 

 tion is reduced to the minimum. The Brace is heavily riickel-plated and warranted 

 in every particular. We endeavor to make these goods as nearly perfection as is 

 possible in durability, quality of material and workmanship, and fineness and 

 beauty of finish. 



$,.So 



Figure 66. — igoo: Few tools suggest more cluari.y the influence of modern industrial society upon the design 

 and construction of traditional implements than Barber's ratchet brace. It is not without interest that as 

 the tools of the wood craftsman became crisply efficient, his work declined correspondingly in individuality 

 and character. The brace and the plane, as followed from Moxon through the trade literature of the late 

 igth century, achieved perfection in form and operation at a time when their basic functions had been 

 usurped by machines. (Catalogue of Chandler and Farquhar, Boston, 1900. Smithsonian photo 56626.) 



perfection as is possible in durability, quality of ma- 

 terial and workmanship, and fineness and beauty of 

 finish.-' 



The description of Barber's brace documents a 

 major technical change: wood to steel, leather 

 washers to ball bearings, and natural patina to 

 nickel plate. It is also an explanation for the appear- 

 ance and shape of craftinen's tools, either hand 

 forged or mass produced. In each case, the sought- 

 after result in the form of a finished product has been 

 an implement of "fineness and beauty." This quest 

 motivated three centuries of toolmakers and brought 

 vitality to hand-tool design. Moxon had advised: 



He that will a good Edge win, 

 Must Forge thick and Grind thin.^s 



-~ Tools and Supplies, op. cit. (footnote 22) 

 -* At echanick Exercise . . . , p. 62. 



PAPER 51: WOODWORKING TOOLS, 1600-1900 



If heeded, the result would be an edge tool that as- 

 sured its owner "ease and delight."^' Throughout 

 the period considered here, the most praiseworthy 

 remarks made about edge tools were variations of 

 either "unsurpassed in quality, finish, and beauty of 

 style" or, more simply, commendation for "excellent 

 design and superior workmanship.'"" The hand tool 

 thus provoked the same value words in the 19th as 

 in the 17th century. 



The aesthetics of industrial art, whether propounded 

 by Moxon or by an official at the Philadelphia Cen- 

 tennial, proved the standard measure by which quality 

 could be judged. Today these values are particularly 

 valid when applied to a class of artifacts that changed 

 slowly and have as their prime characteristics anonym- 

 ity of inaker and date. With such objects the origin, 



2" Ibid., p. 95. 



30 Walker, op. cit. (footnote ig), pp. 31-49 



225 



