The Project Gutenberg EBook of Woodworking Tools 1600-1900, by Peter C. Welsh

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Title: Woodworking Tools 1600-1900

Author: Peter C. Welsh

Release Date: November 12, 2008 [EBook #27238]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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CONTRIBUTIONS FROM
THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY:

PAPER 51

WOODWORKING TOOLS, 1600-1900

_Peter C. Welsh_

SPECIALIZATION 183

CONFIGURATION 194

CHANGE 214

BIBLIOGRAPHY 227

_Peter C Welsh_

WOODWORKING TOOLS

1600-1900

_This history of woodworking hand tools from the 17th to the 20th
century is one of a very gradual evolution of tools through
generations of craftsmen. As a result, the sources of changes in
design are almost impossible to ascertain. Published sources,
moreover, have been concerned primarily with the object shaped by
the tool rather than the tool itself. The resulting scarcity of
information is somewhat compensated for by collections in museums
and restorations._

_In this paper, the author spans three centuries in discussing the
specialization, configuration, and change of woodworking tools in
the United States._

THE AUTHOR: _Peter C. Welsh is curator, Growth of the United
States, in the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of History and
Technology._

In 1918, PROFESSOR W.M.F. PETRIE concluded a brief article on "History
in Tools" with a reminder that the history of this subject "has yet to
be studied," and lamented the survival of so few precisely dated
specimens. What Petrie found so discouraging in studying the implements
of the ancient world has consistently plagued those concerned with tools
of more recent vintage. Anonymity is the chief characteristic of hand
tools of the last three centuries. The reasons are many: first, the tool
is an object of daily use, subjected