- building
- craftsman
- practical craft
- static
- forms
- methods
- instruments
- documentary manuscript
- printed records
- knowledge
- personal estates
- deceased craftsmen
- orders for tools
- English merchants
- advertisements
- letter
- governor of the colony
- pig–iron
- bar–iron
- saw
- augur
- gimlet
- file
- nails
- steel
- Britain
- archaeological excavations
- artifact tools
- colonial builder’s craft
- woodworkers’ tools
- felling ax
- saw
- Axes
- English felling ax
- blade
- bit
- handle
- helve
- American ax
- square blade
- heavy poll
- Middle Colonies
- old felling axes
- broad ax
- short-handled tool
- dress
- vertical faces of timbers
- rough-squared
- felling ax
- broad ax
- basil
- beveled
- chisel
- carpenter
- felling axes
- carpenter
- contractor
- shillings
- ancient carpenters’ tools
- American wedge axe
- tool catalogue
- pit
- joiner’s tools
- work bench
- planes
- Chisels
- square
- compass saw
- bevel
- gauge
- Piercer
- gimlet
- hand saw
- auger
- hatchet
- pit saw
- whip saw
- frame saw
- bow saw
- whetting block
- saw wrest
- miter square
- axheads
- mortising axes
- archaeological collections
- mortising ax
- short-handled hatchets
- carpenter
- hatchet
- broad hatchet
- shingling hatchet
- hammerlike poll
- driving nails
- notch
- bit
- lathing hatchet
- shingling hatchet
- nailing
- ceiling
- adz
- timber
- boards
- plane
- blade
- kerf
- pitsaw: used to saw timber into boards, so called because the balk to be sawed is laid over a pit or trench in which one of the two sawyers stands. Moxon described the pitsaw as “a great Saw fitted into a square frame.”
- balk
- pit
- trench
- sawyers
- frame saw,
- triangular files
- two-handed saws
- whipsaw
- crosscut saw: was not used for making boards but, as its name implies, for cross cutting the trunks of ax-felled trees, and it was distinguished from other saws in that its teeth were shaped and sharpened so the effort was divided equally between the two sawyers.
- wrest: an instrument for setting the teeth of a saw.
- iron plate cross-cut saw
- hammer-hardened iron
- handsaws
- blade
- plate
- saw
- cutting edge
- slit
- kerf
- wood
- plate
- teeth
- saw–set
- pair of teeth
- carpenters
- joiners tools
- handsaw files
- tenon saw
- metal rib
- upper edge
- tenant saws
- sash saw
- cross cut tenant saw
- tenon saw
- compass saw: a very narrow saw, without a back … used to divide boards into pieces of curved outline.
- keyhole saw
- panel saw
- steel plate
- bow saw: a thin blade that could be turned on its long axis to any angle desired was strained between the lower ends of an H-shaped frame by means of a twisted cord between the upper ends.
- froe: was a splitting tool. It had a narrow, heavy blade about a foot long with a wooden handle at right angles to it. The handle was held in the left hand while the workman, holding a froe club in his right hand, drove the blade into the wood to be split, which was held upright in a froe horse. The froe was used most often for making shingles, and to a lesser extent for splitting boards.
- froe club
- froe horse
- frow
- cabinetmaker
- dressing wood
- ax
- saw
- jack plane
- fore plane
- carpenter’s
- joiner’s
- iron
- cutting bit
- convex curve
- coarse shavings
- jacks
- fore planes
- long plane
- jointer
- joynter
- fore-plane
- thickness
- jack planes
- fore planes
- American tool catalogs
- fore plane
- jack
- English trying plane
- joynters
- long planes
- smoothing plane: Only six or seven inches long, it was used to put the finishing touches on joints.
- smoothing planes
- jack plane
- long plane
- smoothing plane: designed to produce a flat surface and could be moved freely across the wood.
- bench planes
- scored
- fitting planes: to produce rabbets and grooves in the edges of boards to be joined together, and were equipped with a fence
- stock
- fence
- plane
- edge
- plow
- office
- narrow square groove on the edge of a board
- planed plow with set of irons
- fence
- stock
- plow
- moving fillister
- slots
- moving philister maker
- fitting planes
- molding planes
- decorative instruments
- blade contour
- chisel
- colonial builder
- sash plane
- double plane
- molding
- glass-holding rabbet
- window sash
- order for tools
- sash planes
- molding planes
- Cornish planes
- cornice planes
- carpenter
- house joiner
- sur base plains
- chair boards
- surbase planes
- hand rails to staircases
- sash and door planes
- bead plane: a plane in which both the iron and the sole of the stock were concave.
- tooth plane: scored the surface of wood to be veneered in order to give a key for glue.
- tooth planes
- draw knife
- drawing knife: was a shaping tool that was pulled toward the user instead of being pushed away from him as was the plane. Consisting of a narrow blade basiled on its upper side and a wooden handle at right angles at either end, it was used for thinning the tops of shingles and for taking off shavings generally.
- drawing knives
- gouges: chisels with concave blades.
- carpenter
- small tinners
- mallet
- large mortises
- framing chisel
- firmer
- former
- mortise chisel: was employed for smaller mortises such as those in windows and doors.
- paring chisel: a sharper version of the firmer used without a mallet.
- hook
- boring
- T-shaped auger
- blade
- bit
- hollow cylinder
- spiral auger: A miniature one-handed tool for boring.
- gimblets
- box handle
- double bit gimblets
- boring tool
- stock
- bitts
- U-shaped handle
- button
- stock
- brace
- hook pin
- iron pin
- figure four
- framing
- hook-pins
- mortesses
- tenants
- hammer
- hook
- pin it up
- wooden pins
- carpenters hookpins
- hammer
- claw hammers
- drawing nails
- clew hammers
- clouehamer
- carpenter’s
- joiner’s
- bench
- workbench
- vise
- bench vise
- pin vices
- hand and bench vices
- pin vise
- clamp
- Gluejointers
- glue set
- clamp
- cramp
- work shop
- lathe
- house carpenters
- turning banisters
- ten foot measuring rod
- two–foot rule
- pencils
- brass compasses
- compasses
- square
- wooden squares
- iron stone square
- iron square
- chalk line: a chalked string that was stretched tightly against a long plank or board and then twanged so as to leave_a mark for the saw to follow.
- chalk lines
- level
- bob and guard
- drawing
- scratch awl
- scriber
- scribing gouges
- cruciform instruments
- scratching lines parallel to the edge of a plank or board
- wooden squares
- iron squares
- Middle Ages instruments
- gouges and squares
- gauges
- carpenter’s shop
- case drawing Instruments
- drafting room equipment
- bricklayer’s tools
- trowel
- mortar
- chisels for brick work
- brick ax
- quoins
- cut bricks
- rub stone
- leveling device
- string lines
- brushes
- lining mortar joints
- buckets
- hods
- shovels
- painter’s tools
- glazier’s tools
- painter tools
- pallet knife
- paint brushes
- old paint brushes
- painters stone
- stone mill
- wooden mill
- gouges
- drawing instruments
- mills and stones: were for grinding the colors, which were less often bought ready mixed than they are today. Colors were ground on the stone with a muller, a conical stone with a flat base that was designed to be held in the hand.
- glazier’s tools
- principal trade
- glazier’s diamond
- lead work
- glazier’s vises
- lead molds
- sash windows
- leaded casements
- diamond panes
- mold
- vise
- glass
- panes
- vice
- lead cames
- Caumes
- Canes
- grooves
- glass
- pinchers
- pincers
- glazier’s hammer: a light tool with a long, slender head, and a long claw for drawing nails.
- bradding-hammer
- carving
- turning
- Gothick
- Chinese
- colonades
- porticoes
- frontispieces
- pediment
- plain tabernacle chimney
- Chinese
- ramp
- twist
- pedestals
- geometrical staircase
- circular stair case
- common stair case
- superintender
- supervisor
- hands
- public buildings
- private buildings
- master craftsman
- craftsman
- carpenter
- advertisement
- journeymen cabinetmakers
- mahogany planks
- inscribed
- classical orders
- grammar of classical architecture
- descriptive archaeology: illustrating ancient buildings
- builder’s handbook: in which the main emphasis was on technical and practical matters
- book of designs
- plans
- elevations
- ceilings
- staircases
- architectural books
- book on the orders
- proportion
- Roman buildings
- builder’s handbook
- instructions for drawing the orders
- college library
- architectural books
- doorways
- windows
- chimneypieces
- measuring
- pricing
- building staircases
- framing roofs
- Palladio Londinensis
- Harmonick Architecture
- Harmonic Architecture
- cube
- octangular
- museum
- Bodleian Library
- apiary
- gardening
- carpentry
- domes
- trussed roofs
- flooring
- trussing
- Beams
- angle brackets
- cornices
- piers
- gates
- library
- architectural book
- Palladio
- doorways
- plates
- Portland stone
- Westover mantelpieces
- Society of Architectural Historians
- mantelpiece
- marble
- Imported
- Jefferson’s architectural library
- building owner
- library
- contemporary academicism
- classical proprieties
- cabinetmaker
- Gothick
- rocaille motifs
- taste
- Adam
- neoclassicism
- rococo
- Ornaments
- decorations
- gentlemens houses
- chimney pieces
- door and window cornices
- mouldings
- enrichments
- Palmyrian
- books influenced architecture: in two ways individually, by supplying designs for whole buildings or for details that could be taken straight from the printed page; and cumulatively, by establishing standards and trends of taste.
- plan
- elevations
- interior work
- woodwork
- plates
- Palladio Londinensis
- design of moldings
- classical criteria
- “Chinese” stair: in the Coke-Garrett House
- enrichment of the mantelpiece: in the west room of the Semple House-which quite clearly must owe their character to their designers’ having had some acquaintance with books propagating the stylistic trends that they exemplify.
Source Citation
Whiffen, Marcus. “Craftsmen’s Tools and Books” in The Eighteenth-Century Houses of Williamsburg. Williamsburg, Virginia: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. 1960, revised 1984.