WORK No. 150 - Published January 30, 1892

I think versions of this yarn have been going around for some time. I know my dad had one. It's also sounds to me like a very Roy Underhill kind of story. Stop me if you've heard this one:

Get it? Awesome. My dad is an architect; so the version I heard from him went like this:

One day a client walks into the office. Passing the table of the first draughtsman, he pauses. The draughtsman is tapping away on a floor plan with his pencil, making a dark and regular stipple pattern. "What's that?" asks the client.

"That's poché" says the wry little draughtsman.

"I want some of that on my house!" bellows the exuberant client.

FYI: Poché refers to the the filled-in, or otherwise patterned areas of architectural drawings. A classic example would be the heavy blackened part of a floor plan indicating the thickness and composition of the masonry walls. There's a painfully convenient illustration in this week's issue of Work. For a better explanation of its practical use today, Plinth & Chintz have a helpful glossary entry.

In all fairness, I had to look up Beaumontage, as well as Hard Stopping. As it happens, Shellac Filler Sticks are considered hard stopping. That is to say they are made for color-matched filling and repairs in woodwork, but aren't so soft as one would consider putty. Contributor 'Lifeboat' gives a fairly solid set of instructions for their useful application, as well as a recipe to try when storebought beaumontage won't answer, or isn't handy.



At this point, a better blogger would attempt some kind of segue into the following material, but I'm not going to bother. The notorious contributor 'Opifex' has made a carpet page of the cover story, and gives a brief survey of his source material. I can say from some experience that interlacements and similar motifs borrowed from Hibernian ornament make for supremely fun carving. Just keep a careful eye on the incisions around the intersection points, or you'll need a heap of beaumontage to fix your mistakes. -T





Disclaimer: Articles in Work describe materials and methods that would not be considered safe or advisable today. We are not responsible for the content of these magazines, and cannot take any responsibility for anyone attempting projects or procedures described therein.
The first issue of Work was published on March 23rd, 1889. The goal of this project is to release digital copies of the individual issues starting on the same date in 2012, effectively republishing the materials 123 years to the day from their original release.
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