while in service to hard wear and,
in some cases, ultimate destruction; second, a tool's usefulness is apt
to continue through many years and through the hands of several
generations of craftsmen, with the result that its origins become lost;
third, the achievement of an implement of demonstrated proficiency
dictated against radical, and therefore easily datable, changes in shape
or style; and fourth, dated survivals needed to establish a range of
firm control specimens for the better identification of unknowns,
particularly the wooden elements of tools--handles, moldings, and plane
bodies--are frustratingly few in non-arid archaeological sites. When
tracing the provenance of American tools there is the additional problem
of heterogeneous origins and shapes--that is, what was the appearance
of a given tool prior to its standardization in England and the United
States? The answer requires a brief summary of the origin of selected
tool shapes, particularly those whose form was common to both the
British Isles and the Continent in the 17th century. Beyond this, when
did the shape of English tools begin to differ from the shape of tools
of the Continent? Finally, what tool forms predominated in American
usage and when, if in fact ever, did any of these tools achieve a
distinctly American character? In the process of framing answers to
these questions, one is confronted by a constantly diminishing
literature, coupled with a steadily increasing number of tool types.[1]

[Illustration: Figure 1.--1685: THE PRINCIPAL TOOLS that the carpenter
needed to frame a house, as listed by JOHANN AMOS COMENIUS in his _Orbis
Sensualium Pictus_ were the felling axe (4), wedge and beetle (7 and 8),
chip axe (10), saw (12), trestle (14), and pulley (15). (Charles Hoole
transl., London, 1685. _Courtesy of the Folger Shakespeare Library_.)]

[Illustration: Figure 2.--1685: THE BOXMAKER AND TURNER as pictured by
Comenius required planes (3 and 5), workbench (4), auger (6), knife (7),
and lathe (14). (From Johann Amos Comenius, _Orbis Sensualium Pictus.
Courtesy of the Folger Shakespeare Library_.)]

The literature of the subject, both new and old, is sparse, with
interest always centering upon the object shaped by the craftsman's tool
rather than upon the tool itself. Henry Mercer's _Ancient Carpenters'
Tools_, first published in 1929, is an exception. It remains a rich
source of information based primarily on the marvelous collections
preser