Sashmaker. Maker of window sash and paneled doors. Not
a very common as a seperate trade except in
some of the more populated areas, however it does have it's place.
The sash maker used molding planes to shape the
rails. In England, they used seperate planes
to make the exterior shape (ovolo, ogee, gothic. etc) and to cut the glass rabbet. One finds
occasionally a sash molder to cut both of the exterior sides at the same time. They then used
a fillester to make the glass rabbet. A sash fillester is an armed, rabbet with a cutting spur and a
The Americans came up with the idea of a plane to cut
both the exterior shape as well as the
rabbet on the same pass. These were first made with a single iron, later they evolved into the adjustable
sash, which has a seperate rabbet and shape plane, joined by screws so as to allow the width of the
sash bar to be increased. Some were made with screw arm adjustments, and occasionally you find an earlier
one with a wedged arm adjusment, although these are not nearly as common.
Another specialized tool was the sash saw. Take several
large straight saw blades and gang them together in a frame,
then power the whole mess by water power. This is one of those nightmare operations,
that took more than it's share of blood and bone.