Colonial Building Tools

Calipers of all sizes were used to measure between two points.

Colonial builders had a variety of tools, often modified to suit a specific person or purpose. From tree to trim, colonial builders had a tool. The most common colonial tools, according to the Colonial Williamsburg Official History Site, were augers, gimlets, braces, chisels, gouges, planes, saws, hammers, drawknives and spokeshaves. With these tools, colonial America was built.

Augers, Gimlets and Braces

The colonial brace was similar to the modern one pictured.

Augers, gimlets, and braces made holes of all sizes. Burn augers burned holes, nose augers drilled holes, a wood punch started holes and a ream awl enlarged holes, according to Eric Sloan, author of "A Museum of Early American Tools."

Gimlets are small augers, such as the quill gimlet or twisted gimlet, with a T handle for starting holes, according to Sloane.

Braces, also called bitstocks, held permanent metal drill bits for drilling holes and were made to turn in a continuous motion.

Chisels and Gouges

Chisels and gouges shaped the wood and made specialty holes.

Chisels and gouges were used for shaping wood and making holes where other tools could not, according to Colonial Williamsburg. Corner chisels cut corners with a V-shaped blade for large mortises, and a mortise chisel cut slots for small mortise and tendon joints.

Gouges sharpened on the outside of the blade made scooped cuts; gouges sharpened on the inside of the blade made cuts the same shape as the blade, according to Colonial Williamsburg.

Planes

Planes, from very small to very big, smoothed the way.

Planes smoothed wood and came in all sizes, from the modelling plane at 1 to 5 inches long and 1/4-inch wide, to the cooper's long jointer that was 60 to 72 inches long and 5 to 5 1/2 inches wide, according to Sloan.

Drawknives and Spokeshaves

Drawknives cleaned bark from trees or shaped and smoothed boards.

Drawknives and spokeshaves, designed with a metal blade that is drawn toward you, scraped away wood. Some blades were straight across and some had curves, but all were used, according to Sloan, to prepare boards for planning.

A spokeshave, a smaller version of the drawknife, shaped final touches on such things as wooden chair seats, barrel staves or the insides of wooden bowls, according to Colonial Williamsburg.

Hammers and Saws

Frame saws, according to Sloan, were "an extension of the craftman's hands."

Hammers and saws were also specialized. According to Colonial Williamsburg, claw hammers were used for general nailing, upholsterer's hammers with long heads and claws would drive and pull tacks, lathing hammers with a blade on one end split the wood for lathe strips and a hammer head on the other end was used for nailing. Sloane adds a bricklayer's hammer for brick work, turn-shoe hammers for shaping shoe leather and zaxes, shaped like a meat cleaver, for cutting roof slate.

Colonial builders had ripsaws, hand saws, compass saws, framed saws, cross cut saws, back saws and felloe saws, according to Colonial Williamsburg. The largest saws, according to Sloan, were the open pit saw and the frame pit saw, used to cut planks from wooden beams. Sloan said that felloe saws, with a thin blade in the middle of a frame for finer cutting, were used by carpenters.

Squares, Bevels, Calipers and Compasses

Compasses, along with squares, bevels and calipers, made measuring easier.

Squares, bevels, calipers and compasses were all used to measure. Squares, usually handmade, measured for right angles. Bevels were used to make angles or find an angle. Calipers defined outside measurements, while compasses measured distances between points, much like the modern tape measure.

References

• "A museum of Early American Tools"; Eric Sloan; 1973
• Colonial Williamsburg; That The Future May Learn from the Past; History; Experience the Life; Tools: Tools Used in Colonial Williamsburg