This photo was recently sent to me by antique tool dealer Jim Bode. We were having a conversation at a local tool museum last Sunday when he mentioned a photo that was given to him by one of his customers. The image shows seven carpenters posing in a field with their tool chests circa 1910. These were full service country carpenters who could build a house from the foundation to the roof. They have the usual selection of handsaws, planes, bit braces, breast drills, augers, spirit levels, hammers, steel squares, mallets, chisels, etc.
The specialty tools reveal the range of their carpentry activities. The boring machines, framing chisels, lifting jack, and adzes show that they were still building mortise & tenon timber frames during an era when most of the country had long since converted to balloon framing. The expensive miter boxes and combination plane show that they were also doing exterior trim, cornice work, and possibly interior trim & flooring as well. The slate ripper is only used for roofing and siding.
The planes are a mixed group of cast iron and transitional. The wooden soled planes were often preferred by site carpenters because they dramatically reduced the weight of the traveling tool kit. Most of the transitional planes in this image are stock models, but one of them appears to be a user modified plane. It looks like somebody took the hardware off of a Stanley No. 26 Jack Plane and added their own custom four foot sole to make a super jointer.
As for the date, I suggest circa 1910 because the miter boxes in this photo appear to be Stanley models with patents issued in 1904. For that reason the photo can not be earlier than 1905. Several years ago I put together a research paper on miter box patents. If you need help with the identity or age of a miter box, then this document can help.
Miter Box Patents – (2812 pages – 160MB pdf) Right Click – Save As
– Jeff Burks
hi jeff,
i thought the same thing about the super jointer but it’s a wooden level on the ground lined up exactly with the plane. you can see the “Handy” grip in the level.
what’s a verb and how do you sharpen one?
Ah, now you’ve ruined my morning fantasy! And here I was looking for an 8 foot 2×4 with quartered grain to make the ultimate glewing jointer. I see now that the the two tools are perfectly aligned and the exposure of the film has blurred the overlap. Foiled again.
Hi Chris, Hi Jim
This picture is awesome! Is there a possibility a get one with a better resolution?
Many thanks
Aymeric
if you print it you can see a little more detail. can someone explain why the man on the right is holding someone upside down by his feet?
He is showing off his brand new, high-tech, rubber soled work boots (+1 vs cow pies), recently purchased from the big city tool catalog.
This picture is just terrific. To think about the collective and individual skills of these men and what they could do, with nothing more than this chest of tools is inspiring. I found a new desktop picture. Thank you for sharing this Jim and Chris.
Wow! What a pain to have to create a wordpress account just to comment on a blog that I have been commenting on for years!
Anyhow – where do you think this picture was made? The lack of trees (or stumps or much disturbed soil), the split rail fence and the rock fence all put me in mind of parts of Kansas.
Do you suppose these guys were a from the same fairly close locale or are they peripatetic and only came together as a group once in a while?
Seems a large crew to build a house – get in each other’s way. Perhaps tools and talent was put together for a more important project like a church or city hall. A significant effort in 1910 to get all this together and take a picture – now don’t move for 2 minutes – one more try.
What a disappointing lack of facial hair. Maybe it gets too itchy for a carpenter “in the field”.
Even though houses are starting to be balloon framed during this era, they’re still timber framing barns and the such.
I was part of a group wondering out loud about this photo awhile back. It is good to have another sense of when. Who has a suggestion as to where?
Is this possibly the crew that built the church behind them? It would certainly justify the picture.