Carpenter/woodworking tools

[jvrjenivs]

I'm still looking around for a picture of a Roman measuring stick. I think I'll just make one, probably a brass strip tacked to a hard wood, and call it right, unless I can find one soon.

There are rulers shown on some carter/mason stele, such as on the tomb of the freedman of the gens Aebutia (Capitoline museum) or a carter stele. (#58, room LII, Museo della Civilta Romana). Both are in the 'Roman building' by Jean-pierre Adam (page 41). If you want I can make a scan of that page for you.

Another good tool to add is a plumb line with a lead bob on the end. Handy, simple, and doesn't take much space. Also, a special cord marked with the famous 3, 4, 5 measurements to mark out a large right triangle. The Egyptians and Greeks used this, so it's reasonable to believe the Romans did, too.

Indeed a plumb line is also good to have and easy to add and the 3, 4, 5 triangle is great in its simpleness, and so should at least be in every agrimensor talk, but for (smaller) woodworking jobs, I think a bronze shouldering square would do a better job.

[Nemonius Agricola]

I have started and almost finished a tool bag. Here is the link.
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[M. Demetrius]

If you want I can make a scan of that page for you.

That would be great! As for the smaller square, I reckon the "Carpenter's Level" would work for that, something like a modern Framing Square.

[jvrjenivs]

If you want I can make a scan of that page for you.

That would be great! As for the smaller square, I reckon the "Carpenter's Level" would work for that, something like a modern Framing Square.

Check your inbox.

[M. Demetrius]

Thanks. I think I can reproduce that. Might have to do it in steel, as I don't have any flat brass stock thick/long enough for a straightedge. I guess most people would forgive me that. I'm thinking maybe a cubit long, not longer.

[Nemonius Agricola]

This is the ruler that I use. Its marked in the lengths of Palmae (7.4cm) and uniciae (2.5cm). The total lenght of the ruler is one Roman foot (29.6cm). Its is made of copper that is .5 cm in thickness. Just thick enough to stand on its side.

The marks with the X line is the palmae and the upright lines is the uniciae.

The relief is depicting a ruler but that one is two feet long. The date of the find is late 1st-early second century perhaps in honor of a faber carpentarius (wagon maker)

Sorry for the poor quailty of picture on the ruler. My camera doesn't take good pictures of metal objects.

[Nemonius Agricola]

What kind of tool box, do you folks think? One of the wooden board ones with a handle across the top? Dividers for keeping tools in order inside? Any pictorial evidence of a workman's toolbox? Once some tools are assembled, that's a pretty good first project, I'd think.

The grave relief of Publius Longidienus from Ravenna shows a boat maker working with an adze on a plank or rib of the ship. Also in this relief you can see a lockable toolbox that Longidienus is using as a footstool.

[M. Demetrius]

Wow. That looks more or less like a toolbox you'd buy at the hardware store today (although it's most likely wood, not polypropylene).

Thanks for that picture.

++

[Gobae]

Large saws for processing timber

How common was this really? I'm asking because any extent saws I've seen haven't had a blade longer than 16". Processing timber by splitting and then finishing with an adze or broad axe is actually a pretty quick process.

I'm also reminded of a Norse quote "Saws are for people unskilled with axes". Wrong time period I know, but it seems that throughout many time periods edged woodworking tools were preferred over toothed ones.

[M. Demetrius]

Well, saws go back at least to Old Testament times, and there's a passage that indicates some people had been executed by being sawn in half. Ick. Anyway, that wouldn't be done with a very small saw, one would think. No matter, it would be pretty messy, and not the best way to go.

Carpenters would use saws (no "dovetail axes", I'd reckon, for fitting small boards into boxes, etc.), lumberjacks would likely favor axes for felling.

[jvrjenivs]

I agree that most probably the axe for timber work, but also saws, as some stele show us (couldn't find pictures of them online)

[Nemonius Agricola]

Here is some possible evidence of axe use with trees. Its from Trajan column of them building a road through woods and moutian terrain. I will look through some books that have woodworking tools and see if I can find more evidence of axe use on trees.

[Nemonius Agricola]

Also too when you use a axe you can work alone and not need a second person. If you have ever sawn a tree that is green the saw-teeth clog up or the the blade becomes pinched and makes the blade useless by the sheer wieght of the tree. Roman workers if using an axe was second to none for rapidly delimbing fallen trees. All of this makes them faster with the axe.

[Nemonius Agricola]

Here are some more pictures of axes being used. The first picture is Dacian's even using axes to fall trees.

[M. Demetrius]

the saw-teeth clog up or the the blade becomes pinched and makes the blade useless by the sheer wieght of the tree

A proper use of wedges in the saw kerf takes the weight of the tree off the blade of the saw. If you want the tree down, given what the Romans had at their disposal, then probably axes would be the choice. But when it came time to fit boards together, saws have their place, too.