The other day my friend Mary came by and brought me a book she found. Her parents own an antique store and she helps them sell stuff on ebay. Sometimes she finds things she knows I’ll love, so she brings them to me. I have been carrying this book with me ever since she brought it over, spending any spare moments looking at the images and reading it over and over.

It’s not a very long book (110 pages), but there is tons of great information on historical tools, their uses, and their creators. It also talks a lot about the connection between a craftsman and his tools (and more specifically their handles), and how these days most tools and their handles are made from plastic and cheap metals, designed to get jobs done quickly – not well.

It also talks about how timber and log building styles are superior methods to modern stick framing (balloon or platform), not only because of the lasting craftsmanship but also because of the pride and effort that went into them.

Here’s one of my favourite quotes from the text regarding the difference between framing methods:

“A building pinned together with hand whittled wooden pegs? We don’t have to do that sort of thing today! But if we built for lastingness and for handing down to future generations we would do so, for wooden pins work much better than nails: they hold tighter, they don’t rust or rot the beams.”

The book also illustrates some different methods of making log notches, some of which I have never seen but would like to try.

The main focus of the book seems to be attempting to convince craftsmen to revert back to the ways of their forefathers, blaming modern society and mass production (as well as the laziness of man) for shifting the goal of most trades from creating beautiful, long lasting things, to making money as easy as possible.

“How poor and dishonest and ugly and temporary are the results of so many modern workers whose constant aim is more to make the most money from their profession instead of producing the most honest and beautiful and lasting things.”

I couldn’t agree more.

I find it weird that I share a lot of the same opinions at 29 – in 2010, as this 70 year old man had in 1963. I guess no one listened to him, because I feel everything has gotten worse than what he describes in the text, and craftsmen are getting further and further removed from their creations.

I wonder what episodes of Antique Roadshow will be like in the year 3000.

The book is titled A Museum of Early American Tools by Eric Sloane. There is a sample of it here on google books.