American Woodworking Tools PDF
Preview American Woodworking Tools
AMERICAN WOODWORKING TOOLS .---------------------. Paul B.Kebabian DudleyWitney 31color, 142 halftones,27 line illustrations America was largely built by the hand tools of the woodworker. Collectors today are responding in creasingly to these old tools- to their fascination as industrial mechanisms and to their beauty as sculpturalobjects- at the same time recognizing the importanceoftheir preservation ascluesto American economicand socialhistory. In American Woodworking Tools, collector Paul Kebabian hasjoined forces with noted photographer Dudley Witney to produce a tool book unique in its combination of richly informative, authoritative text and stunningillustration. In his text, Paul Kebabian traces the development ofindividual toolsfrom their origins in Europe to the early homemade American types and to the sophisti cated versions produced byspecialists; hissources in clude estate inventories of colonial craftsmen, the patents of the increasingly ingenious devices of the nineteenth century, and the catalogs of tool-making firms. Chapters are devoted to the woodworking trades - such as shipbuilding, coopering, cabinet making - that made use of specialized tools. This valuable material creates an unusual informal study of aspects of American industrial history from the firstsettlements to about 1900. DudleyWitneybringsaspeciallove and knowledge ofthe subject to the photographs that illuminate the text. Illustrations also include contemporary engrav ings and line drawings made for this book, for these can sometimes reveal technical details more clearly than a photograph. But it is Dudley Witney's splen did,glowing photographs,reproduced on agenerous scale, that willlingerin themind'seye. New York GraphicSociety 34 BeaconStreet Boston 02106 Paul B. Kebabian, who has assembled a notable col lection of American tools, is past president of the leading organization ofAmerican tool collectors, the Early American Industries Association. He brings to his tool studies the precision of his profession, for after graduation from Yale University he studied library science at Columbia University; he is now Di rectorofLibrariesat the University ofVermont, Bur lington, where he and his wife, Justine, make their home. Notsurprisingly,his listofpublications reflects his dual interests, ranging from "Bibliographical Quiddling" to"Aiken'sPatentSaw Set." DudleyWitney,born in England and trained there as a tool designer before he turned to illustration and photography, is also a toolcollector. While searching through old barns for tools, he became interested in the architecture of these vanishing structures, an in terest that resulted in the publication (with Eric Arthur) of The Bam in 1972. Other notable photo graphic publications include The Lighthouse in 1975 and, most recently(with Brendan Gill),SummerPlaces. Alsofrom NewYorkGraphicSociety: FarmToolsthroughtheAges, by Michael Partridge. 260 band wills. 240 pp. 8Yz x II Paper $8.95 The Mill, by William Fox, Bill Brooks, and Janice Tyrwhitt. 99 color, 178 bandwills. 224 pp. lOx 12 $29.50 The Bam: A Vanishing Landmark in North America, by EricArthurand DudleyWitney. 135 color, 278 band wills. 256 pp. II x 12 $27.50 TheLighthouse, byDudleyWitney. 121color,202 bandwills. 256 pp. 9%x 12Y2 $29.95 Jacketdesign byJanis Capone Jacket illustrations.Front: Plow plane bySanduskyTool Company orOhio.Back: Craftsman-made laminated and inlaid stock litting metalpartsoraStanleyplane. 1870-1885. Printed inU.S.A. AMERICAN WOODWORKING TOOLS Croze-howel. Combination tool, with croze on one side and howel opposite. The arc of the working surfaces can be changed by adjustment of two lignum vitae wheels. Length, 12Ys inches. .--------------------------------. AMERICAN WOODWORKING TOOLS .--------------------------------. TEXT BY PAUI~ B. I{:EBABIAN PI-IOTOGHAPHS BY DUDLEY WITNEY NEW YORK GRAPHIC SOCIETY BOST ON .- - - - - ---------------------------. Text Copyright© 1978 byPaul B. Kebabian Photographs Copyright© 1978 by Dudley Witney All rights reserved. No partofthis book may bere produced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems without permission in writingfrom thepublisher,except by areviewerwho mayquotebrief passages in a review. Firstedition LIBHAHV OF CONGHESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA Kebabian,Paul B American woodworkingtools. Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Woodworking tools. I.Witney,Dudley. II.Title. TT186.K4 621.9'08 i8-7066 ISBN0-8212-0731-8 Linedrawings are by Cathy Baker, Hinesburg,Vermont Designed byJanis Capone New York GraphicSociety Books arepublished by Little, Brown and Company Publishedsimultaneously in Canada by Little, Brown and Company (Canada) Limited Printedin the United States of America FOR JUSTINE AND PAMELA
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