A Museum of Early American Tools

by Eric Sloane

This absorbing and profusely illustrated book describes in detail scores of early American tools and the wooden and metal artifacts made with them. Informally and expressively written, the text covers bulding tools and methods; farm and kitchen implements; and the tools of curriers, wheelwrights, coopers, blacksmiths, coachmakers, loggers, tanners, and many other craftsmen of the pre-industrial age. Scores of pen-and-ink sketches by the author accurately depict "special tools for every job," among them a hollowing gouge, hay fork, cornering chisel, apple butter paddle, boring auger, mortising chisel, a holding dog, hauling sledge, winnowing tray, reaping hooks, splitting wedge, felling axe, propping saw horse, and other traditional implements. Sure to be prized by cultural historians, this volume will delight woodcrafters interested in making their own tools and thrill general readers with its store of Americana.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Woodwork, Americana, Art, Reference, Crafts

128 pages, Paperback

Published November 14, 2002

About the author

Eric Sloane (born Everard Jean Hinrichs) was an American landscape painter and author of illustrated works of cultural history and folklore. He is considered a member of the Hudson River School of painting.

Eric Sloane was born in New York City. As a child, he was a neighbor of noted sign painter and type designer Frederick W. Goudy. Sloane studied art and lettering with Goudy. While he attended the Art Students League of New York City, he changed his name because George Luks and John French Sloan suggested that young students should paint under an assumed name so that early inferior works would not be attached to them. He took the name Eric from the middle letters of America and Sloane from his mentor's name.

In the summer of 1925, Sloane ran away from home, working his way across the country as a sign painter, creating advertisements for everything from Red Man Tobacco to Bull Durham. Unique hand calligraphy and lettering became a characteristic of his illustrated books.

Sloane eventually returned to New York and settled in Connecticut, where he began painting rustic landscapes in the tradition of the Hudson River School. In the 1950s, he began spending part of the year in Taos, New Mexico, where he painted western landscapes and particularly luminous depictions of the desert sky. In his career as a painter, he produced over 15,000 works. His fascination with the sky and weather led to commissions to paint works for the U.S. Air Force and the production of a number of illustrated works on meteorology and weather forecasting. Sloane is even credited with creating the first televised weather reporting network, by arranging for local farmers to call in reports to a New England broadcasting station.

Sloane also had a great interest in New England folk culture, Colonial daily life, and Americana. He wrote and illustrated scores of Colonial era books on tools, architecture, farming techniques, folklore, and rural wisdom. Every book included detailed illustrations, hand lettered titles, and his characteristic folksy wit and observations. He developed an impressive collection of historic tools which became the nucleus of the collection in the Sloane-Stanley Tool Museum in Kent, Connecticut.

Sloane died in New York in 1985, while walking down the street to a luncheon held in his honor.

Sloane's best known books are A Reverence for Wood, which examines the history and tools of woodworking, as well as the philosophy of the woodworker; The Cracker Barrel, which is a compendium of folk wit and wisdom; and Diary of an Early American Boy: Noah Blake-1805, based on a diary he discovered at a local library book sale. His most famous painted work is probably the skyscape mural, Earth Flight Environment, which is still on display in the Independence Avenue Lobby in the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum.

Reviews

[carol. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Early American tools were very practical but limited in functionality. They were employed for a specific job, and didn't have many applications beyond that task. They were not "smart tools" with laser lights and computer chips that gave feedback on their use and enabled a more effective process. Rarely were they self-contained, able to carry all multiple pieces needed to adapt and change to the job at hand. A hatchet, for instance, was one-size fits all. Perhaps the job called for a more delicate piece of maneuvering. Unfortunately with the hatchet, whole swathes were removed instead of delicate, precise removal of the canker.

There's also the philosophical concepts behind 'tool;' the ideas of both singular purpose and able to act only through direction of a wielder.

This limited application no doubt accounts for the modern use of the phrase "he's a tool." It implies someone who does a task without thinking, with obedience but minus the critical process. Much like early American tools, it's actually a limited functionality model that does not adapt or plan. While early tools had their place, their inability to innovate or initiate limits their long-term effectiveness.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

My sister Katie had this book on her shelf for some reason and randomly gave it to me to read this past weekend, kind of as a dare. We were pretty surprised to find that it actually existed on Goodreads.

You know, adze I was reading this book, I was wondering how the author came up with the idea. I mean, he didn’t just hatchet out of thin air. I drill-y like to know how his enthusiasm for early American tools started. Yes, it might seem an odd hobby, but hewer we to question what one man is passionate about? Awl I’m trying to say is that boring tools can actually be pretty interesting to some people. Anvil–ifying the modern tool industry is not strictly this guy’s goal. Axe-ually, I think he’s just hoping that wheelwright the wrong that has been done and return to an age of individual craftsmanship over factory produced goods. Mortise not always better! Oh, and one more thing – (don’t worry, chisel only take a second) –Even though Katie gave me this book as a joke, I’m not going to reamer out about it.

Favorite things about this book:
- The trilogy of chapters titled: “To Make a Hole,” “To Make a Hole Bigger,” and “To Make a Bigger Hole.” (All different things! Who knew?)

- The chapter called “It’s All in the Way You Hit It” (Oh yeah it is!)

- The least-used segue in the history of the English language: “While we are on the subject of the handles of old tools . . .”

- The charming illustrations with hand-drawn calligraphy captions, which reminded me so much of a Cracker Barrel menu

- The “Sith Hook.” There are only two in existence at any given time – a master and an apprentice. (Probably only one of you will get that joke.)

- Best tool name: “Boring machine”

All joking aside, there were actually some pretty interesting things in this book. For example, the tiny animal yokes (even one for a goose) which were like wooden collars with spokes sticking out all around to prevent animals from squeezing through a fence. It was crazy to see all the different kinds of cuts you can make with just an axe to build a log cabin, and how incredibly exact you’d have to be with everything if you wanted a good quality house. And I finally learned what an adze is, other than a very handy crossword puzzle word. It made me kind of sad to think how the quality of tools has really suffered as a result of industrialization and factory-produced goods. They have found wooden rakes that are almost two hundred years old and are still in perfect working condition whereas a rake you buy at Home Depot now gets bent into uselessness if you happen to hit a random stick or pinecone. It made me think about how the tools themselves were actually like works of art. People had to make a tool by hand and then use that handmade tool to build a handmade house or a cabinet or a fence.

I think I am probably finished with my journey into the world of early American tools, but this was kind of a fun little adventure.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

17Nov2012 Review: I originally read this in the large format hardback & it's definitely better that way, but the small paperback isn't bad. The pictures, all pen sketches by Sloane, still show up well & his comments are quite legible. It's a quick read, but packed with information & shows us some aspects of the Colonial world that most probably never guessed at.

I did have one quibble this time with his writing; he romanticizes the historic worker & puts down the modern one too much. He continually harps on how the old ways were better, even when they weren't. For instance, one of the last chapters was about hammers & he says we use one type today with handles that don't fit us the way they used to. Wrong.

Every serious carpenter that I've known has at least a general & framing hammer, many have trim hammers as well. Every job site has a few sizes of mauls & each type of pro has a different set of hammers. Our jobs are more specialized.

As a generalist, a remodeler who does/did a bit of everything, I have a dozen or more different kinds of hammers for different uses. Some of the modern handles are so superior to wood that it's incredible. For instance those on my Plumb carpenter hammers. I have a 20oz curved claw, smooth face for most general work, even trim. My 26 oz, rough faced, straight claw is for framing. Its longer handle has a rubber grip & fiberglass/composite that is quite lively & allows me to easily put in a 16d nail with a tap & a hit. It's far stronger & better than the hickory & ash handles that I have. Some are home made & I do know how to make them well. They're split out & shaped for my hand. I still like the Plumb handles better. (No, I don't care for the Eastwing design.)

The above was just one case, but there were others. I'm fairly familiar with a lot of the old tools he writes about & have used them - do use them regularly - but only if they're a better fit for the job. Often they aren't. There's a lot to be said for power tools, too. I find a balance between the two is the best way to live.

Construction is different now. Was it really better in the old days? Yes & no. Sure they used to use a 10 or 12" square beam where we now use an I beam glued up out of wood chips, but whose fault is that? It might have something to do with their wasting all that timber, don't you think? It's also a different age. Our housing needs have changed a lot & continue to change as technology grows. The permanence of old construction techniques isn't wanted or needed in many cases. Have you ever tried to run wires or pipes through an old log cabin or insulate one better? It's a pain, they're not built for such modern necessities. Oh, they can be fitted with them, but it's cumbersome compared to the ease of a frame built house.

Another thing to remember is that Sloane is seeing the very best of the past. If it wasn't, it rusted or rotted away by the time he got to looking. So take his romantic view with a grain of salt. Not all workmen today do a shoddy job or use crappy materials. Be willing to pay for quality, though. Most people aren't, they go with the lowest bidder, & they get what they deserve.

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2007 Review: Like so many of Sloane's books, this is a good, quick overview of the subject. In this case, the tools that the Colonists of the US used, about mid 1700's to early 1800's. His sketches are wonderful (he was a very talented artist) & his understanding of the subject is such that he doesn't overwhelm the novice with too much information, yet has enough that even someone very familiar with the subject will find it a joy to read. He not only explains the tools, but how & why they were used, albeit briefly.

Many a fantasy author who writes about low tech worlds could benefit by reading this book. I use many of these tools as a hobby & one of my pet peeves is an author misunderstanding the use of basic hand tools.

[Sheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very short book that gives the reader a lot to think about. Even when the metal tool heads were purchased, for instance, from the local blacksmith and into the industrial era, people made their own handles, meaning there were not merely regional variations, but variations between families living in the same neighborhood. I was also intrigued at how late some developments came about, and how different some common tools looked -- hammers or axes, for instance -- well into the middle of the nineteenth century.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

My dad's the carpenter, not me, but I still love Sloane's books. They're history, to be sure, but not about the dead celebrities' personalities and peccadillos, but rather about how relatively ordinary people actually lived.

This one kept me bemused, though. How many of these tools did Pa Ingalls really carry around the prairies in the covered wagon? Sloane talks about 'the Early Americans' as if they were all as settled and prosperous as Almanzo Wilder's family, but surely they weren't....

(Before you argue, yes, I know I'm talking about two different eras, separated by at least a century, but I opine that the question is still valid. I just wanted to use specific, widely known examples.)

[Jaymes Dunlap · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is entertaining reading through Eric Sloane's written and artistic survey of these tools in clear, accurate, detail (such as diagrams of use, cutaways, or ghost-outline showing how long handles could range between). Reminds me almost how you might tour a museum based on category. It only takes a few hours reading depending on your pace and how well you muse over drawings. Sloane also notes the quality of tools and how every individual imbued variations in crafting (both in tools and the medium they were used on, such as stone and wood).

I wish he included references for work (at least in my 1964 edition) when he cites other facts or makes mention of how others interpret uses. This is my biggest complaint. Sloane does, however, include an index for easy reference.

Perfect for anyone interested in American history, tool-based Americana, craftsmanship, methods for colonial and early US architecture, perhaps artists, and technically-oriented people. Also makes a great gift.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can recall thumbing through this book several times in life. It wasn't until I opened a bookshop in a rather rural area and I was unable to keep copies of this book in stock, that I took a real read. This book is a treasure chest of knowledge and superb illustration. Now, as our roots are often bulldozed by homogenization, this type of book is so important. My customers love finding things in their barns and sheds and referring to this to see what it might have done for their farms at one point. I love Sloane's storytelling and obvious fascination with any subject matter he investigates.

[Will · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a really solid primer on really old tools. It mostly covers antiques from up to 1800 and precursors of 20th century hand tools, whereas I was hoping for a little more information on 20th century hand tools. I think everything in this book is now replaced by power tools. I like the idea though, that all the same stuff was done for hundreds of years with tools made by the user - I'm inspired to dig out some of the hand-me-down hand tools I've had lying around and put them to use.

[Alger Smythe-Hopkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

For what it is, it is very good (a little less than 5 stars, more than 4).

Sloane was a remarkably able and detail-oriented illustrator whose passion was colonial America, who lived in an era of rising American expectations, when the origin myth of America stepped in legion with a growing sense of American exceptionalism, when the United States was almost synonymous with technical innovation and genius, when America's past was seen as the reason for its moral and cultural superiority.

Sloane was a firm believer in all of this, and his background allowed him to make the case for American genius better than anyone. As an itinerant sign painter Sloane traveled the country and watched the countryside change from the traditions of centuries into a landscape of machines and economies of scale. His reaction was a fetishistic relationship to the tools of the past. He viewed them as artifacts of an age of giants, because these tools allowed those pioneers to build a life of radical freedom, to be entirely self-sufficient. This is why this volume is loaded with references to men making the handles to their own tools, to being masters of hauling and lifting, to having a healthier and deeper relationship to the land and the land's abundance. Most of what is presented in these pages remains fine and interesting knowledge, a guide to the forgotten lore of making a living as told through tools. Some of what is presented is, however, total bushwa and bluster. There is nothing that Sloane loves so much as an opportunity to correct the record, to name some tool that other 'experts' (you can hear him scoff when describing their opinions), got wrong, and to wax poetic about the mystic relation of workman to his tools. The opportunity to prove how much smarter he is than the others sometimes overcomes his sense of duty to the reader.

There is a disingenuousness to how Sloane describes the lasting qualities of antique tools and their products. To say -- Wow it sure is weird that this saw has lasted unrusted for so long, is one thing. To offer it as an example of superior colonial craftsmanship is another. To claim that one craftsman built home is a masterpiece of careful construction is one thing. To pretend that home is a standard example against which we can compare modern homes is another. Yes, of the pre-industrial brace buttons that survived into the 1960s we can see that they were very well constructed. This does not indicate that all brace buttons of that age were equally well built.

What Sloane is soft pedaling here is that history has whittled away the sloppily cared for tools, the badly made, those with material flaws and structural imperfections, and then he has further winnowed these high quality survivors to form his collections. What Sloane has on hand then is a collection of what is already a doubly filtered body, and then, from that, he pulls yet another sampling; the tools that tell the story that he wants to tell about native skill and ingenuity found in colonial America. This is a story that demands only the most unusually well made examples of craftsmanship. Even accounting for that, however, Sloane remains unreliable on other counts. This is a museum of the tools of colonial New England. We don't see the tools that built the slave empire of the American South, or the mercantile empire of the mid-Atlantic. Neither do we see the tools of everyday domestic life wielded by women, so this is a gendered story as well.

This is a fine book. It simply isn't even close to being a representative guide to the past.

[Kirk · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been getting into history more since sorting through five generations of material in my parents’ attic.

I’m hoping to check the barn out next, and I believe there are some older tools out there.

I bought this book a few years ago for my dad, and forgot to give it to him.

I decided to read it today, and it promptly fell apart. I still read it, but almost every page I turned fell out.

So I’m buying my dad another copy on Amazon and one for myself as well.

I have seen most of these tools in local museums, historical sites, etc. but as a kid I never gave a fuck. I half listened most of the time.

But half listening really helped me absorb the material in this book.

The tools I did recognize I now have a deeper knowledge of. I know more obscure tools as well, and can always reference this book if I need to.

I’m looking forward to seeing what kinds of obscure things my parents still have around up there. Should be fun!

[Johnson Hardy · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The craftsman of yesterday might look like a poorly informed man only before we take a longer and better look. His tools might appear pathetically poor, but his ways were honest and lasting and beautiful to an extent that is today deemed over and above requirements. How poor and dishonest and ugly and temporary are the results of so many modern workers whose constant aim is to make the most money from their profession instead of producing the most honest and beautiful and lasting things."

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

This entirely lives up to the title; it's fascinating to see the Iinginuity of early Americans who had to get their work done. The book consists almost entirely of diagrams of the grouped similar tools pointing out the features, uses and purposes thereof. This was hard to put down before it was completely digested.

[Jason Medina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was very educational and helpful to me, especially since I volunteer at an old farmhouse museum built in 1740. I spend a lot of time in the barn, where many of these tools hang partly because I hung them! Thanks for making this book, Eric.

[Peggy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have no woodworking or farming or building experience but I was fascinated by the tools, professions, and history displayed in this small book. The line drawings are amazing and the tools and skills needed to manage one's everyday existence in the 1700-1800's were fascinating.

[Geoff Sebesta · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adored this book. The library might not get their copy back.

The wonder of the illustrations was only matched by the utility of the descriptions. Rarely have I learned so much so quickly.

[Kim Zinkowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

This as a very informative book. Nicely illustrated by the author.

[Dustin A. Vore · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book for anyone with an appreciation for the artistry and functionality of early (and often hand-crafted) tools. Full of detailed illustrations.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite grouping is the sledges. I had no idea that in many ways they were superior to wheeled vehicles in some applications.

[Joe Beeson · Rating 4 out of 5]

wonderful overview with incredible illistrations of early american tools and how they were used.

[Bill T. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great illustrations

[J.E. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every woodworker’s dream book. Shows how tools have evolved over time and how techniques on how they were used.

[Shaun Deane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful

[Carl Tubridy · Rating 3 out of 5]

More interesting than good, but pretty interesting. A glimpse into the lives of our forefathers -their habits, thei

[Alaina · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderful little book. I never thought I'd be interested in the shape of axe heads, much less shavers, but the author's delight in the subject shines through.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

incredible illustrations, text was so so

[Koen Crolla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sloane romanticises the past to such a ridiculous extent that I read most of the opening chapter as sarcastic before realising that didn't make sense. Like every ``tool guy'' who ever lived, he believes that the past (all of it) was a Golden Age for tools, but that recently manufacturers started prioritising profits over quality and craftsmen started caring more about getting the job done quickly than leaving a legacy for future generations and it's become nearly impossible to find tools as good as those that were universal a generation ago. This book was first published in 1964.

The illustrations are good, though, even if the accompanying text often isn't, though you may still be frustrated by how Sloane apparently put them together. It looks very much like he scoured flea markets in the New England area, drew the tools he found there (quite skilfully), and pulled some commentary out of his ass. The problem with this approach is that New England isn't the only, or even the most influential, tool-wise, region where early colonists lived, and especially Louisiana—which, yes, didn't become American until the 19th century—and the frontier regions had very distinctive tool-making traditions.
Even if you're content with just having a Museum of Such Early American Tools as Were Available in New England in the 1960s, there is still the fact that the commentary is limited to things anyone can deduce from looking at the tools themselves,† and which tools are typifying of American tradition and which are just one-off curiosities is often beyond his ability to articulate.

But yes, the illustrations themselves are good, and if you enjoy looking at hand-drawn pictures of tools (and who doesn't), you'll definitely find things to enjoy in this book.

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† Sloane will eagerly tell you that balancing polls on axes are a distinctly North-American feature, for example, but he either does not know or does not care to tell you that they're specifically an Algonquian innovation. (He does make sure you know the tomahawk, which introduced the feature, was modelled after European trade axes, which lacked it, though.)

[William Mego · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could not possibly overstate how important this book is. It's just a wee skinny volume, but inside are lovingly drawn illustrations of tools and their use. It's one of the few places where you can find nearly (or indeed completely) forgotten devices which made the modern world possible, and will once again pull us out of the post-oil time into a new world in the future. Sound over the top? Perhaps. Can you find everything here other places? Perhaps, but not in one place that I've ever seen. A certain type of person will treasure this book as much as a miser his gold. Count me amongst them.

[Cotton Field · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book begins with "Finding a tool in a stone fence or in a dark corner of some decaying barn is receiving a symbol from another world, for it gives you a peculiar and interesting contact with the past." That line sets the tone that Eric Sloane will carry throughout the entire book. He gives far more than the basic meaning of words uses of old tools, but tries to lend a sense of time and practical use of the tools he describes. This is a wonderful little work.

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A quite enjoyable survey, with exquisite hand drawn illustrations, of the various tools commonly in use a couple hundred years ago. This delightful book explores and details the use of a multitude of hand tools. It is definitely worth reading for anyone who has ever come across an old tool while exploring a decrepit barn or workshop and wondered just how and why it was used.

[Inky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful illustrations, with tidbits of interesting information on every page. This book gives you an appreciation for all the jobs that have since vanished and the craftsmen who made an art of their work.