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How Craftspeople Built Height-Adjustable Shelves Before the Industrial Revolution

Old-school ingenuity

By Rain Noe - November 26, 2015

Even in the 19th Century, people had a need for adjustable shelving. A retailer might need to change shelf heights to display new wares; and on the domestic front, if you purchased a Sega Genesis and then upgraded to the Dreamcast, the boxes were different sizes.

An unknown craftsperson solved this problem by creating what's colloquially referred to as "sawtooth shelving:"

Image and construction by Colin Spicer

Image and construction by Hummingbird Woodworks

If it's not obvious to you how it works, these shots should make it clear:

Sorry for the grainy resolution, but this rendering is from the 1800s

Image and construction by The Wood Mechanic

By creating a cleat that fits between the "sawteeth," then cutting a shelf with notches in the four corners, one has a handy, pin-free way to quickly change the shelf's height.

Some of you might wonder why they didn't simply use dadoes that shelves could be slid in and out of. The answer appears to be aesthetic: Dadoes would break the lines of the verticals when viewed from the front, and covering them with a face frame would of course make it impossible to slide shelves in and out, thus defeating the purpose.

These days it's tough to imagine going to the trouble of building such a system, when one can simply whip out a drill or router and a shelf-pin jig. But that hasn't stopped entrepreneurs like the ones behind the Sawtooth Shelf System from trying to bring it back:

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Ditto for Lee Valley, which sells kits:

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For those of you looking to make your own, without all of that detailed sawing and chiseling, this woman has constructed what she refers to as a variant used by Victorian-era builders:

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I'm guessing she used a Forstner bit and then ripped the pieces in half, which seems it might be faster than setting up a router and a shelf-pin jig.

o

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How Craftspeople Built Height-Adjustable Shelves Before the Industrial Revolution

Peter Hendry

5 years ago

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1Z

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Cheap as chips at Mr Bricolage and other stores here in France and not only easy to fit but strong.

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Charlie Djinovic

5 years ago

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Z

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Really Nice And Informative Post, Too much appreciated
Loved it ,

Discover more architectural and Exterior design inspirations on http://www.thecheesyanimation.com/Exterior-Design-&-Rendering.html

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Rain Noe

I’m a lapsed industrial designer. I was born in NYC and figured I’d die there, but a few years ago I abandoned New York to live on a farm in the countryside with my wife. We have six dogs.