Publisher's Synopsis
Fifty-five fascinating and informative articles on early tools and trades, selected from several thousand published in the journal of the Early American Industries Association over the past 60 years. Some written by experts, others the first hand accounts of early craftsmen, pioneers, and travelers, they cover a wide variety of subjects including: Lumber rafting down the Delaware in 1896; How tinsmiths used their tools; Cutting, hewing and squaring a beam; Traditional soapmaking on the frontier; Making horsehair sieves; The many uses of horn education of apprentices in New England; Household irons, spinning wheels and the hay burner; Nail making in early Virginia; Making barrels by hand; Harvesting ice-from nature to the consumer; Old time fences, gathering sawdust, and the charcoal burner; Building a New England home in 1831; Another tool classification, early burglar tools; The wooden leg of Gouverneur Morris...and many more.
