tools-bib - 1/29/99

A bibliography of medieval woodworking tools by Thora Sharptooth. 

NOTE: See also the files: tools-msg, wood-msg, woodworking-msg, wood-finishes-msg, wood-bending-msg, plane-art, coopering-msg.

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    Mark S. Harris                  AKA:  THLord Stefan li Rous
                                          Stefan at florilegium.org
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Date: Fri, 15 Jan 1999 14:24:57 -0500
From: capriest at cs.vassar.edu (Carolyn Priest-Dorman)
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: Medieval Tools

Katerina asked:
>I would like to ask if anyone knows where I might find information on medieval
>tools.  Specifically, wood cutting tools.

Plenty of visual depictions of tools exist.  The ones that most immediately
come to my mind are the following.  The Bayeux Tapestry shows men felling
trees and building longships; the tool depictions are fairly explicit.  The
Mendel Housebook has nice depictions of 14th through 16th century workers of
all types, including several types of woodworkers (carpenters/joiners,
turners, and, for lack of a better qualification, makers of textile tools).
Period depictions of Noah building the ark are good sources, as are
depictions of St. Joseph at work.  The Campin altarpiece has a lovely
depiction of St. Joseph's workshop with some really good tools in it
(including a broadax).

Also, here below is a list of some of the sources my husband (Dofinn-Hallr
Morrisson) uses for woodworking.  His focus is 10th century Viking, so
there's a lot of earlier period stuff included.  The annotations are mine
(I'm the one compiling the list--he just reads and applies the stuff).

*************************

Arwidsson, Greta, and Berg, Gesta.  _The Mestermyr Find: A Viking Age Tool
Chest from Gotland_.  Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien.
Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International, 1983.  ISBN #91-7402-129-X.

        A whole chest full of period tools, including both woodworking and
smithing tools.

Hall, Richard A.  1978.  _Viking Age York and the North_.  BAR Research
Report 27.  London:  The Council for British Archaeology.

        Has a chapter on "Industry and Commerce in Anglo-Scandinavian York,"
by Arthur MacGregor, which touches on the lathe-based woodworking industry
evident at Coppergate, York.  ISBN #0-900312-65-3.


McGrail, Sean, ed.  1982.  _Woodworking Techniques before A.D. 1500:  Papers
presented to a Symposium at Greenwich in September, 1980, together with
edited discussion_.  National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, Archaeological
Series 7.  BAR International Series 129.

        Contains 21 articles, most of them on medieval woodworking, including 
"10th century woodworking in Coppergate, York," "Aspects of Anglo-Saxon and
Anglo-Scandinavian lathe-turning," "Toolmarks on surviving works from the
Saxon, Norman and later Medieval period," and "The tools available to the
medieval woodworker."  ISBN # 0-86054-159-2.


Munby, Julian.  1991.  "Wood," pp. 379-405 in _English Medieval Industries:
Craftsmen, Techniques, Products_.  Ed. John Blair and Nigel Ramsay.  London:
The Hambledon Press.

        Readable and very informative.  Contains discussions of woodland
management, tools, trades, a long section on construction and a shorter
section on other woodworking trades.  A few very nice photos.  There is no
bibliography for the chapter; his sources are folded into the overall
bibliography at the end of the book.  He makes some very good suggestions
for further readings, though.  ISBN #0-907628-87-7.


Petersen, Jan.  1951.  _Vikingetidens Redskaper_.  Skrifter utgitt av Det
Norseke Videnskaps-Akademi I.  Oslo: I Kommisjon hos Jacob Dybwad.

        Useful English summary and many plates of Viking tools, both
woodworking and otherwise.  He covers knives, scrapers and scorps, planes, adzes, gouges, drills, chisels, saws, and axes, plus whetstones and grindstones.


Rule, M.H.  1987.  _Carpenters' Tools Recovered from the Mary Rose_.  Mary
Rose Trust Research Report No. 6.  Portsmouth: Mary Rose Trust.

        We haven't seen this one yet, but there's a photo of several of them
in Edward Wilson (see below).


Wilson, David M.  1968. "Anglo-Saxon Carpenters' Tools," pp. 143-150 in
_Studien zur europ=E4ischen Vor- und Fr=FChgeschichte_, ed. Martin Claus,
Werner Haarnagel, and Klaus Raddatz.  Neum=FCnster:  Karl Wachholz Verlag.

        "It is my intention in this paper to list all carpenters' tools
(with the exception of axes) found in datable Anglo-Saxon contexts."  And he 
does, along with useful commentary, often drawing parallels to manuscript
illuminations.


-----, ed.  1976.  _The Archaeology of Anglo-Saxon England_.  Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.

        Great book, fabulous bibliography.  Chapter 6, "Craft and Industry,"
touches on woodworking; Wilson himself has written on early period
Anglo-Saxon woodworking tools.  ISBN #0-521-28390-6.


Wilson, Edward.  1987.  "The Debate of the Carpenter's Tools."  _The Review
of English Studies_, vol. 38, no. 152 (November 1987), pp. 445-470.

        This is a comic late-fifteenth century poem, depicting the "quotidian
concreteness of the carpenter's life."  The tools argue about whether the
carpenter can make enough money to support his drinking habit.  Some of the
period names for the tools are a little obscure.


Woodbury, Robert S.  1963.  "The Origins of the Lathe."  _Scientific
American_, vol. 208, no. 4 (April 1963), pp. 132-143.

        The short version of this man's longer work on the history of the lathe 
in industry.  There is also a brief list of references for this article on page
202.

Carolyn Priest-Dorman                 Thora Sharptooth
capriest at cs.vassar.edu                Frostahlid, Austrriki
         Gules, three square weaver's tablets in bend Or
          http://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/thora.html

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Edited by Mark S. Harris	tools-bib	Page 3 of 3