Galoots: I read first about the puzzle mallet in the Chronicles of the
Early American Industries Association back in the 1970's, then later
after having some experience looking at x=rays in furniture, I realized
that they had been misread and there were no 'folding wedges' rather two
ramps. So I made a couple to prove the concept and wrote the article for
Woodworker's Journal Magazine. I beat Roy on this one, the article came
out two weeks before he filmed his episode.

I have the honor to remain, moft refpectfully,

Stephen A. Shepherd

-----Original Message----- From: "Tom Holloway" [thholloway@u...] Date:
03/02/2012 12:34 PM To: "Oldtools@R... Law. Cornell. Edu"
<oldtools@r...> Subject: Rising dovetail mallet Receives Roy Recognition

GGs, Recognition of one's achievements and contributions, even if
belated and second-hand, is always welcome. This applies to Roy
Underhill's sidebar note in his article in the latest (April '12) issue
of PopWood magazine, pointing to a piece by Galoot Stephen Shepherd
published in 2001 detailing how to make a mallet with not one but two
'rising dovetail' joints that looks to be impossible in finished form.
Stephen's original article is here:
<http://www.fullchisel.com/woodworker.htm> Both Stephen and Roy suggest
the design is old, and was nearly lost. Roy goes into a little of his
usual banter on the question of the history, referencing that famous
woodworker Abraham Lincoln and an unnamed 'Victorian-era woodworking
magazine,' and let's us know that he saw it 'decades ago' (i.e., pre-
Stephen's 2001 piece linked above) in another unnamed article. There are
some differences in technique and procedure between Stephen and Roy, but
with similar results. Maybe we could get Stephen to enlighten us a
little further on where or how he came up with his version. Tom Holloway

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