History of carpentry tools

Contact Information. Address: Franklin Ave. Garden City, NY Phone: Email: info contractorsinsurance. Insurance by State. Insurance by Trade. Hand-held power sanders are used to strip away uneven material and create a perfectly smooth surface. There are two main types — the palm sander and the orbital sander , both used by hand. The palm sander is square in shape and operates on a belt model. The grit paper is attached to the belt and sands the wood surface with forward motion. Palm sanders are typically used to sand hardwood floors and square areas by applying a back and forth pattern.

Orbital sanders , are very similar but operate based on a spinning disk. Circular sanding is better for round surfaces and round objects in general. Disk sanders are a special kind of orbital sander that is fixed to the workbench vertically. Both types of sanders have their advantages, and you should keep both handy if you work on a variety of different projects.

Remember that 40 to 60 grit paper is for removing significant imperfections and heavy sanding work, while 80 to is for minor imperfections. With constant cutting and sanding in the workshop, a lot of dust and wood shavings are bound to cover the place.

Many power tools and bench tools have special bags or compartments to collect sawdust, though these models tend to be pricier. A more affordable solution is to purchase a sawdust vacuum. Sawdust vacuums have special filters to prevent dust from entering fans and the engine compartment.

A nail gun or nailer is a power tool used to drive nails into wood under pressure force. Nail guns are commonly pneumatic, powered by gas or air pressure, but there are electric variants, some of which come with batteries for portability. There are two distinct types you should know about: the framing nailer , used for heavy-duty work, and the finishing nailer , which is suitable for light projects. Nail guns have rails that are adjustable for use in straight and angled modes.

The framing nailer is commonly seen in construction and maintenance work, such as securing carrying beams or 2X4 boards, which require a greater penetration force and bigger nails.

The finishing nailer is a lighter version better suited for smaller projects like cabinets, shelves, and other simple furniture, as well as finishing touches on bigger projects, as its name implies. Generally, finishing nailers fire headless nails which leave a tiny surface mark, and the lower force dramatically reduces the risk of wood splitting. Staple guns are well suited for attaching fabric to wood, a common practice when building or restoring furniture.

Exact measurements are paramount to proper cuts and correct stencils. Your measuring toolset should be able to adjust to both small and big objects of various shapes.

Also, practical math and geometry skills combined with high-quality measuring equipment are a match made in heaven. The tape measure is a long, retractable aluminum meter. Carpenters use the tape measure in every step of the project, from planning to building.

A special tip to keep in mind when purchasing a tape measure is to get one with a big grapple or tongue at the end of the metal tape. Such tape will save you countless headaches from detaching and ruined measurements. If you require fieldwork , picking up a belt attachable tape measure is a great convenience. The ruler is your reliable straight measuring tool used for stencils, marks, and sketches. Remember that metal rulers are superior to their plastic counterparts, as they will remain straight and durable for a very long time.

It acts in the same way as the cornerstone in construction. It ensures a perfect degree angle on corners. Levels have been around since the dawn of time in one form or another, beginning with ropes, pendulums, water bottles, until it was finally perfected into the levels we know today.

The modern level is a flat metal bar marked with inches and meters, with small capsules of liquid at the edges and the very center. When the surface is ideally level, the air bubble inside the capsules will align with the lines on them. Carpenters typically have two to three levels of different sizes.

Throughout the history of carpentry, man has kept beliefs in gods that explained the events from before time, tribal traditions, and bonds. There are many gods that are related to carpentry.

We hope that you are ready to have a look at some of them. Here we go! The evolution of carpentry goes back to more than 2 million years. Little by little it came to the stage where it exists now through passing various different stages. So, now we are ready to take you through these golden milestones of carpentry. Here we start our journey! Before 2. In order to have a look at the specialization of tools they migrated to Europe and became more refined.

There, little by little Neanderthal man turned into modern Homo Sapiens. In the Neolithic age, men started to settle in villages and started growing crops and temporary stone circles became their homes.

This happened 10, years ago. That marked the beginning of a great civilization of tool improvement at an accelerated rate. In the early stages, development in carpentry was a little bit slower.

But during the Upper Paleolithic, there was a genetic mutation and this caused a triggered change in the way of thinking in Homo Sapiens. With the arrival of carpenters, the development of a number of amazing tools happened.

Those tools were made by using flint and it allowed them to work on wood easily. This led to building homes and farming works. After settling down in villages they improved their math skills to keep track of livestock. Also, they started to write symbols in clay for the purpose of bartering. We all know that wood is one of the oldest building materials that mankind used. The ability to shape wood easily caused a huge improvement in technology from the stone age to the bronze age.

Later the bronze age developed into the iron age too. Water well casings built using split oak timbers with tenon and mortise having notched corners found from eastern Germany is a valuable fact for the oldest archaeological evidence of carpentry. So we can believe that they are nearly 7, years old and belong to the early Neolithic period.

The Egyptian history of carpentry runs back to years. In this era, many methods and tools were found and it led to producing carpenters up to the craftsmen we would recognize today. Before years ago the climatic change in the Egyptian zone turned most into deserts. Only the areas along the Nile river were good for farming and Sumerians continued farming there. They used tools which finished using copper.

But they were as hard as soft modern steel. In order to make quite ornate pieces, carpenters used chisels, mallets, basic hammers, and bow drills widely. During that time carpenters were well recognized and respected in their communities.

They had large projects and specialized workshops and some of the carpenters worked on them. Most of the people had a home at that time, which have now become different in architectural designs and more comfortable. The history of Greek carpentry goes back to more than years.

They mainly focused on the natural balance and symmetry of the human body. Greeks produced an artistic harmony with the beginning of sciences and advances in applied physics and mathematics. Some of the carpenters were recognized as slaves. It comes from a North African tree and was alluded to in Revelation as being among the items which would no longer be purchased when Babylon fell. The medieval period, also known as the Middle Ages, occurred during the one thousand years between the fall of Rome and the Renaissance, from about A.

Since wood was the most common building material in the Middle Ages, carpenters prospered. They also were considered to be among the most skilled craftsmen. Carpenters, however, had to belong to guilds — groups that were designed to protect the interests of people in certain occupations. They also were required to do apprenticeships with established carpenters. Their tools were much simpler than what we use today, but they had to know how to use them as well as know math and woodworking.

This knowledge was necessary in order to create furniture, wagons, and homes for people of that era — even kings and lords. All buildings used wood in some way. Buildings were sometimes constructed almost entirely out of wood, from the framing for their walls and roofs to their siding and shingles.

Even stone buildings required considerable wooden construction. For instance, while being built, wood was needed for scaffolding, ramps and frames to support arches until the mortar hardened.

Later, wood was used for doors, window frames, floors, roof beams, and some interior walls. Although most of the wooden buildings of the Middle Ages have long since vanished, we still have contemporary illustrations of buildings and other wooden structures either completed or under construction.

Woodworkers of the Middle Ages also were skilled in creating wooden figurines and statues, some of which still stand today. These Byzantine or Gothic art pieces showed that woodworkers exhibited extreme patience in their woodworking and their love of this skill. Tools are like windows to the past.

They allow us to view the civilizations that created them. Obviously, the more wooden objects a society produces, the more tools it needs and uses. In some instances, societies advanced slowly or even regressed when it came to the development and use of woodworking tools.

For instance, the Roman joiner had a larger tool chest than his medieval counterpart. Axes and adzes were among the first tools created. Woodworkers used the axe to fell trees, and the adze, whose blade was turned 90 degrees, to dress timber. The Minoan civilization of Crete used a combination axe-adze and invented the double-headed axe.

The ax-adze was popular with Roman carpenters. The handsaw was used in Egypt as far back as B. It had a broad blade, some as long as 20 inches, curved wooden handles, and irregular metal teeth. Since the blades were copper, a soft metal, they had to be pulled, not pushed. Because the carpenter could not bear down on the cutting stroke, sawing wood must have been a slow, tedious process.

The Romans improved the handsaw in two ways. They used iron for the blades, making them stiffer, and they set the teeth of the saw to project alternately right and left. This made the saw cut slightly wider than the blade and allowed a smoother movement. The Romans also invented the frame saw and the stiffened back saw, with s blade that is reinforced at the top to afford straight-through cuts. The frame saw uses a narrow blade held in a wooden frame and is kept taut by tightening a cord.

The principle of the frame saw lives on in the modern hacksaw. Egyptian woodworkers also used wooden pegs instead of nails and made the holes with a bow drill, which they moved back and forth. Since the bow drill is ineffective for heavy drilling and wastes energy, the Romans came up with a better tool: the auger.

The auger has a short wooden cross-handle attached to a steel shaft whose tip is a spoon-shaped bit. It enabled the woodworker to apply great rotational force and heavy downward pressure. It is topped by a broad pad on which the carpenter rested his entire body weight. They also created another dual-purpose tool: the claw hammer.

In addition, the Romans invented the rule, the smooth plane, and several other types of planes. Chisels are more ancient tools. Bronze Age carpenters used them with both integral handles and socketed wooden handles for house and furniture construction.

Eventually, a handle was fitted to a separate head. These made a more durable hammering surface. Discovering preserved ancient wooden artifacts thrills modern archaeologists. It gives them — and us — a special glimpse into the past and provides a tangible link between us and the people of past societies. Unfortunately, countless objects made of wood did not last as long as ones made from clay or metal. Wood is naturally very durable and capable of lasting for thousands of years without significant change if kept in moderate, sheltered environments.

When the wood is exposed to fungi molds and mildews , insects, termites, light, excessive heat, and excessive moisture, however, it is doomed to suffer biological deterioration.

This is what happened to many of the wooden objects created centuries ago. Moisture can be one of the most difficult conditions to control. Wood takes on moisture in high relative humidity conditions and releases it when the humidity is lower. Excessively high moisture conditions can cause wood to swell. This can result in crushed components along with finish and glue failure. Excessively low moisture conditions can damage the wood, too, resulting in splitting, gaps in joints, and lifting veneers and inlays.