found to contain another saw. Mr. Brookbine took it, and held it up before the pupils.
“You all know that this is a saw, but what is the name of it?” he asked.
“I have always heard it called a fine saw,” answered Jim Alburgh.
“It is often called so, but I have shown you that names don’t always describe the object to which they are applied. Some saws made like the cutting-off saw have finer teeth than this one,—the panel-saw, for instance. There is another and better name, which applies to all saws of this kind; and, if you please, we will call it the back-saw. You see that it has a steel back to prevent it from bending, as all without it will do.—The next article.”
This proved to be another back-saw, but not more than half as long or wide as the first one. It was for finer work, and could very properly be called a fine saw. The carpenter required the next four packages to be opened before he said any thing about their contents.
“These are planes,” said he, when he had placed them on a bench where all the class could see them. “These four are the ones in common use,
but you cannot fully understand them until you have used them a while. We will examine the one that is used first, and here it is;” and Mr. Brookbine took up one of the tools. “What should you call this?”
“A fore-plane,” replied Dick Short.
“That is as good a name for it as any other, but this is a jack-plane. It is used to take off the rough side or edge of the board. It is fifteen inches long. What the manufacturers call a fore-plane is eighteen or twenty inches long. In this country very few carpenters use both: and, whichever one it may be, some call it a jack-plane, and some a fore-plane; the latter being the most common name in this part of the country.
“When I learned my trade, boards were brought into the shop just as they came from the saw-mill. Now they are generally planed by machinery, so that the hardest part of your work will be done before you get the board. Here is a short plane, only eight and a half inches long. What do you call it?”