Selections from the Chronicle: The Fascinating World of Early Tools and Trades

Fifty-five fascinating and informative articles on early tools and trades, selected from several thousand published in the journal of the Early American Industries Association over the past 60 years. Some written by experts, others the first hand accounts of early craftsmen, pioneers, and travelers, they cover a wide variety of subjects including: • lumber rafting down the Delaware in 1896; • how tinsmiths used their tools; • the bygone cobbler and clogmaker; • Blacksmiths' hammer signals; • traditional soapmaking on the frontier; • making horsehair sieves; • household irons, spinning wheels and the hay burner; • nail making in early Virginia; • making barrels by hand...and many more.