(Roubo 1769). Admittedly the French inch was then 27 mm—about one-
sixteenth greater than today’s inch—but even so, taking into account the
loss in sawdust, the skill that would have been required is almost beyond
imagination.
With such accurately sawed timber available, artisans could pro-
ceed directly to the next stage in preparing a panel, but cleft or hewn sur-
faces might well require some preliminary trueing and flattening, normally
done with an adze (Fig. 10). Here again, the accuracy achieved by skilledT M P: H R W T T 181Figure 7a, b
Workshops belonging to joiners who appear to have specialized in supply-
ing artists’ needs such as frames, boxes for paints, palettes, easels, and
panels. Note the prominence of ax usage even in such workshops
engaged in light and delicate work. (a) Jan Joris van Vliet (associated with
Rembrandt), 1635, etching; (b) decoration of a delftware plate, 1769.Figure 8, above
Line rendering of painting on an Etruscan
bowl (ca. 500 B.C.E.?), which demonstrates the
antiquity of sawing as a method of converting
timber. Here the two-putto saw is cutting a
thick plank held horizontally on high trestles.
Saws like this, held under tension in wooden
frames, could have long, thin blades and could
be pushed or pulled. Open-bladed saws, which
had been used in Egypt for similar purposes
since at least 2000B.C.E., could not be pushed
without buckling.
Figure 9
Sawyers producing veneers (Roubo 1769:pl. 278).a
b