Peter C. Welsh 



WOODWORKING TOOLS 



1600-1900 



This history of woodworking hiind tools from the lyth to the 20th 

 century is one of a very gradual evolution of tools through gener- 

 ations of craftsmen. As a result, the sources of changes in design 

 are almost impossible to ascertain. Published sources., moreover, 

 have been concerned primarily ivith the object shaped by the tool 

 rather than the tool itself . The resulting scarcity of informa- 

 tion is somewhat compensated for by collections in museuiris and 

 restorations. 



In this paper, the author spans three centuries in discussing 

 the specialization, configuration, and change of woodivorking 

 tools in the United States. 



The Author: Feter C. Welsh is curator, Groivth of the 

 United States, in the Smithsonian Institution s Museuin of 

 History and Technology. 



IN 1918, PROFESSOR \v. 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 char- 

 acteristic of hand tools of the last three centuries. 

 The reasons are many: first, the tool is an object of 

 daily use, subjected while in service to hard wear 

 and, in some cases, ultimate destruction; second, a 

 tool's usefulness is apt to continue through many 



PAPER 51: WOODWORKING TOOLS, 1600-1900 



years and through the hands of several generations of 

 craftsmen, with the result that its origins become lost; 

 third, the achievement of an implement of demon- 

 strated proficiency dictated against radical, and 

 therefore easily datable, changes in shape or style; 

 and fourth, dated survivals needed to establish a 

 range of firm control specimens for the better identifi- 

 cation of unknowns, particularly the wooden elements 

 of tools — handles, moldings, and plane bodies — are 

 frustratingly few in nonarid archeological sites. 

 When tracing the provenance of American tools 

 there is the additional problem of heterogeneous 

 origins and shapes — that is, what was the appearance 



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