A Museum of Early American ToolsThis absorbing and profusely illustrated book describes in detail scores of early American tools and the wooden and metal artifacts made with them. Informally and expressively written, the text covers bulding tools and methods; farm and kitchen implements; and the tools of curriers, wheelwrights, coopers, blacksmiths, coachmakers, loggers, tanners, and many other craftsmen of the pre-industrial age. Scores of pen-and-ink sketches by the author accurately depict "special tools for every job," among them a hollowing gouge, hay fork, cornering chisel, apple butter paddle, boring auger, mortising chisel, a holding dog, hauling sledge, winnowing tray, reaping hooks, splitting wedge, felling axe, propping saw horse, and other traditional implements. Sure to be prized by cultural historians, this volume will delight woodcrafters interested in making their own tools and thrill general readers with its store of Americana. |
Contents
The Romance of Tools | 2 |
Crude Shops Magnificent Results | 8 |
An Ax Is an Axe | 10 |
A Word of Axes | 12 |
The Broad Axe | 14 |
How the Broad Axe Was Used | 16 |
A Giant and a Midget | 18 |
The Hatchet | 20 |
Planes | 56 |
The Moulding Plane | 58 |
The Rabbet | 60 |
The Plow | 62 |
Early American Saws | 66 |
A Gallery of Frame Saws | 68 |
The Biggest Saws | 70 |
To Make a Hole | 72 |
Hammers | 22 |
The Axe and the Log House | 24 |
The Adze | 26 |
Canoes and Bowls | 28 |
Wedges and Froes | 30 |
The Fine Art of Splitting | 32 |
Tools with Legs | 34 |
The American Horse | 36 |
For Making Snitzels | 38 |
Little Shavers and Big | 40 |
The Days of River Rafting | 42 |
Tools of the River Lumberman | 44 |
Of Cider and Apple Butter | 46 |
To Remove Bark | 48 |
Two Heads are Better Than One | 50 |
The Chisel | 52 |
Chisel and Gouges | 54 |
To Make a Hole Bigger | 74 |
To Make a Bigger Hole | 76 |
The Brace or Bitstock | 78 |
The Things Youll Find in a Barn | 82 |
Some Were Special | 84 |
These Were Tools Too | 86 |
Jacks | 88 |
The Blacksmith | 90 |
Wrought Nailmaking | 92 |
Tanners and Curriers | 94 |
About Wheels | 96 |
Its All in the Way You Hit It | 98 |
Hay Implements | 100 |
Knives and Grass | 102 |
Found in the Barn | 104 |
Index | 106 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Adze ancient tool Anvil Apple Butter apprentice Auger axe head bark barrel Beads beams bench bevel bitstock Blacksmith blade bow saw Brace Broad Axe Burl cant hook carpenter's Carpenters CATALOG chisel Cider Cooper's craftsman Curriers curved cutter DOVER BOOKS drawknife Early American Tools edge Farrier's fastened felling axe Felloe fence flat floor frame saw froe Gouges Groove Hammer hand hole hollow Horse illustrations implements inch 75 iron Jack Jack Plane Knives Lath long jointer lumber Mallet marking axe metal mill mortise Moulding Plane Museum Nailer's notch old barns old tools Peavey piece Pit Saw Plow POLL polless pomace rabbet plane Raft rake reamer reaping hook round Scoop Scorp screw scythes Shakers Shaving Shaving Horse Shovels side Sledge split spokeshave spud square Swage tang Tanner's taper things trunnel twisted Twivel Veneer Saw wagon wedge wheel Wheelwright's WILLIAM BARTRAM wood wooden handle