From the Tree to the Resulting work – traditional skills video

[Axel de Pugey]

Few videos illustrating the craft are very popular on French speaking forums.

As a Swiss plane making company was mentioned on the creek and did not receive a bad feedback despite the French language, i submit another video from the neighbouring country.

I believe it was shot at the end of the 90s by Louis Chiorino, a compagnon du devoir from the southern Alps.

The video is a reenactment of how a window was built, from felling the tree to the work in the shop.

It is quite amateur, the form is naive but the substance is definately there, full of nostalgia by the very same guy that learnt the craft this way.

I believe this testimony deserve a place on this forum.

Fortunately images speak for themselves.

…and to be honest with you, while the narrator has got a southern accent, he is understandable for most French speaker….but all the locals interviewed are beyond my understanding most of the time (the 2 lumberjacks being the worst…I have no clue if they are really trying to communicate in fact)

I just watched it with the english automated translation switched on before to post this message…and I guess, between the strong southern Alps accent, the local dialect and the technical jargon aplenty, maybe 20% of the translation is understandable…I am from the north of the Alps by the way.

Again, I believe images are enough to satisfy any hand tool lover.

Of course if you need a proper translation about a specific moment, tool description, feel free to ask (this offer does not include the lumberjack gibberish part, thank you!)

note: The nice shop tools part starts at 29:34

De l'Arbre à l'ouvrage:
(I apologise I don't know how to pre set the english subtitles in the link)

[Jim Koepke]

That was interesting even though I do not understand French. Loved the molding planes.

Thanks for posting this Axel.

jtk

[Paul Bent]

What was he doing with the hot iron on the corner joints after glue up of window frame.

[Bryan Lee]

I love this sort of thing! Thanks for posting.

[Jack Dover]

Warming up joints so that glue sets quicker. It seems they were using some sort of small-batch hand-made animal glue, and they were quite in hurry to apply it. Hard to tell what the conditions were in the shop, probably not too cold judging that the apprentice was wearing just a shirt, so maybe it was just for a demo. English and American craftsmen would rather warm a piece in fire, with a risk of scorching a visible surface.

I really wonder about the conversation in a part where they get a bottle of wine out of a pot.

[Don Orr]

Cool video, thanks. Was that actual sharkskin they used for sanding ?
I also wonder how the older man lost a large part of his left index finger.