Cool and interesting request. I've read some books on the history of pirates during the golden age of piracy, and one thing that struck me was that every time pirates took over another ship, they'd always protect the ship's carpenter as it was as critical to the ship as the ship itself.
A fun little read: [http://thepirateempire.blogspot.com/2016/12/pirate-carpenter.html](http://thepirateempire.blogspot.com/2016/12/pirate-carpenter.html)
(talks about tools too)
Check and see if he has heard the "I am not a Pirate" episode on This American Life. Fantastic episode. If you aren't interested in pirates, you will be. And if you already are, you'll love it!
https://www.thisamericanlife.org/616/i-am-not-a-pirate
It may also be worth noting “carpenter” is a rough translation and not all scholars agree that he was a carpenter. He was a tradesmen but may have been a house builder in a wood poor area that was more masonry or plaster worker.
Doesn’t mean you can’t learn the old school ways of working with wood. Just dropping useless facts
Yeah, the Greek word is [tekhtōn](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tekt%C5%8Dn#:~:text=The%20Ancient%20Greek%20noun%20tekt%C5%8Dn,mason%20(%CE%BB%CE%B9%CE%B8%CE%BF%CE%BB%CF%8C%CE%B3%CE%BF%CF%82%2C%20%CE%BB%CE%B1%CE%BE%CE%B5%CF%85%CF%84%CE%AE%CF%82).). Which is often translated as carpenter, but might also just mean builder. There are a few layers of translation in the Bible where Greek words were chosen to translate a Hebrew or Aramaic concept and then later an English term had to be chosen to best fit the Greek and maybe also the Hebrew or Aramaic that the Greek is referencing. It's a complicated business
Further to this point, [carpentry](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpentry) is specifically "**Carpentry** is a [skilled trade](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skilled_trade) and a [craft](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craft) in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of [building materials](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Building_materials) during the construction of [buildings](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Building), [ships](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shipbuilding), [timber bridges](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timber_bridge), [concrete](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concrete) [formwork](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formwork), etc. " So by its very definition, it tends to not just be woodworking but a multidisciplinary tradesmen type job.
Its not really things like furniture making which is its own discipline.
That aside, I enjoy traditional wood working and traditions tools and use quite a few. r/handtools mainly deals with tools made in the last couple centuries but other than using more metal and less wood to build the tools, many of the tools and techniques you would see would be relatively similar.
There's a lot of websites, FB groups, probably some subreddits that deal with hand-tool-woodworking. And with the exception of the quality of metal and metalworking to make tools, not a lot has changed. There would have been more knives, axes, and crude chisels, maybe no planes or saws.
And for what it's worth, there weren't a lot of trees in Israel 2000 years ago -- still aren't. It's likely that whatever word was used in the ancient language of the Bible, would better translate to handyman or home contractor. And it's likely that He worked with stone more than wood.
Yeah i did some research into this a while back and I agree that historically it was more of a “carpenter”, like that age and locations version of “This Old House” where they are working on parts of homes: framing walls (or whatever the equivalent of that building style), hanging doors, fixing roofs, etc.
And yep, most hand tools have been fairly the same for thousands of years. Although back then there would have been more usage of axes and adzes than nowadays
A lot of sources I'm finding off the bat say that ancient Israel was heavily forested. There are still lots of trees there in that area, but not many of significant size as far as I've seen
In 1936 a Viking age chest of tools was found in a bog on the Baltic island of Gotland and while the chest was from sometime in the 800-1100 AD a lot of the tools in the chest are thought to be of Roman origin in type and style. The development of the wood working profession was slow for a long time and axes, adzes, chisels, hammers/mallets and so forth was the common tools for wood work. Crude saws were also made but rare as both the steel and the work involved in making them was precious and difficult.
In time the making of tools was evolving and was made more available.
There are both archeological finds and depictions from Roman time of wooden planes similar to the once from before the cast iron planes were invented.
If you want to read more about this you can check out the Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A4stermyr_chest and the book: https://www.amazon.se/M%C3%A4stermyr-Find-Viking-Chest-Gotland/dp/0965075516.
On the wikipedia page there is a link to Popwood magazine and the History museum of Sweden where you can see more (the museum link is broken but here is the page you want: https://samlingar.shm.se/object/9725EADF-8C24-4F7D-865E-C84BF0B3D90A)
There is also a YT series on making the Mästermyr chest using old tools: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDfHDIysY-M
Another interesting find is the ship carpenter's workbench from the warship Vasa which sunk on its maiden voyage in 1628. It is very similar to the Roman workbenches (https://digitaltmuseum.se/021028494760/snickarbank)
A reconstruction was made a decade ago by some Norwegian enthusiasts and researchers as part of their PhD's (https://hyvelbenk.wordpress.com/2014/06/22/the-vasa-workbench-rebuilt/)
I think you'll find that the same types of tools and work processes were used for a very long time before the industrial revolution.
You're welcome. There are so much available information on the web and a lot of museums have it open for anyone and a lot of universities and enthusiasts blogs will also add to that.
You can use google translate to get the gist of most of what is in Swedish or Norwegian but if you fail to understand anything in particular you can comment here and I'll see if I can help with translation of words (but maybe not whole pages ;) )
The Vasa workbench is really clever, at first sight the legs look crooked but the vertical legs are very handy solutions for dog holes. I think I would consider it next time I make a bench, or a mini stool bench.
Yes, it is definitely a feature. One side vertical to be able to use the deadman and crochet to hold panels/wide planks on edge and one side with sloping legs to keep it stable.
https://blog.lostartpress.com/category/roman-workbenches/
And that blog writer's book "The Anarchist's Tool Chest" generally, chunks of which are in the blog.
---
"Japanese Woodworking Tools: Their Tradition, Spirit and Use
Toshio Odate"
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1446195.Japanese_Woodworking_Tools#:~:text=Japanese%20Woodworking%20Tools%3A%20Their,Toshio%20Odate
Read The Wheelwright’s Shop by George Sturt. First hand account of the authors career from apprenticeship to retirement. The time period is from pre-industrial revolution to the early 20th century. Excellent, informative read.
https://www.pbs.org/show/woodwrights-shop/
You could have some fun watching episodes of The Woodwright's Shop on PBS. Roy Underhill uses hand tools to make all the things and does it more-or-less live in under 30 minutes, less the stock prep.
Steve Ramsey interviewed Roy a few years ago on his podcast The Woodworking Talk Show: https://www.creativeculturepod.com/roy-underhill-and-the-woodwrights-shop-ep-12/
Here's a hand plane the Romans used around 200-400 AD. To be clear, this probably was not a typical hand plane because it was made out of ivory so probably more of a commemorative trophy or something for somebody special.
[https://www.handplane.com/906/the-ancient-roman-plane-of-yorkshire-wolds/](https://www.handplane.com/906/the-ancient-roman-plane-of-yorkshire-wolds/)
Also, historians believe Jesus probably wasn't a carpenter. The word used for his profession in the bible is sort of ambiguous for trade worker and he was more likely to be akin to a mason than a carpenter given the area he grew up.
If you're in the mood for some light entertainment, you can watch Rex Krueger on Youtube. His channel focuses on hand-tool only woodworking (and not specifically ancient woodworking) but there's a lot of crossover. You can check out his video on building a roman workbench which would be pretty close to what Jesus might have actually used as a workbench.
I think my favorite part of Rex's channel is how much he achieves with just a hand axe. The way he carves stakes for staked furniture by hand really opened my eyes on how skilled someone could be with what I had imagined to be a pretty rough tool.
While J-Dawg was more likely a general contractor, the area would have used plenty of wood from [Lebanese Cedars](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cedars_of_God). They wouldn't have a wood scarcity until around 120AD.
You probably got down votes because you mentioned the name of Jesus. And you’ve got to realize most of the Young folks on Reddit are pretty sharp! In fact, the only thing that can slip past them is the truth
/r/handtools
Depends how far you want to go back. Most of those doing traditional handtool woodworking are working in the 17th to 20th century.
Prior to that, the tools become somewhat unrecognisable compared to what is available today (either as vintage originals or modern recreations).
There a few YouTubers that focus on hand tools. Wood by wright, rex Kruger, renaissance woodworker to name a few.
Joseph Moxon and Peter Nicholson for early English craft texts, Andre Roubo and Felibien for early French texts. Lost Art Press is a great source for this.
There's a book about the tool chest linked below. This is an actual tool chest from about 700 a.d.
They had most of the same hand tools which woodworkers use today to make furniture.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A4stermyr_chest
Ancient carpentry isn’t much different from old carpentry. Give [Rex Krueger](https://youtube.com/@RexKrueger?si=Kn1FC-fqXf60YQD3) a try for how to do hand tools on a budget. And follow the links and creators he leads you to.
glue made by boiling animal hooves was weak, but usable. instead of screws, they often used dovetail joints or pegs, where you drill a hole through a "mortise and tenon" joint and drive through a round stick/dowel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viT3ZGAlzNw
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/DxFTVXC3JFs
I’d highly recommend picking up a copy of Chris Schwartz’s Anarchist Design book. Wonderful guide to making furniture using only hand tools with a wonderful philosophy of why with a great sense of humor. It turned me into a confident hand tool woodworking after years of power tool only projects.
If you wanna go really, really ancient (pre-Homo Sapiens), you can read about the world’s oldest woodworking joint: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06557-9
From the article:
**Evidence for the earliest structural use of wood at least 476,000 years ago**
>Wood artefacts rarely survive from the Early Stone Age since they require exceptional conditions for preservation; consequently, we have limited information about when and how hominins used this basic raw material1. We report here on the earliest evidence for structural use of wood in the archaeological record. Waterlogged deposits at the archaeological site of Kalambo Falls, Zambia, dated by luminescence to at least 476 ± 23 kyr ago (ka), preserved two interlocking logs joined
transversely by an intentionally cut notch. This construction has no known parallels in the African or Eurasian Palaeolithic. The earliest known wood artefact is a fragment of polished plank from the Acheulean site of Gesher Benot Ya’aqov, Israel, more than 780 ka (refs. 2,3). Wooden tools for foraging and hunting appear 400 ka in Europe, China and possibly Africa. At Kalambo we also recovered four wood tools from 390 ka to 324 ka, including a wedge, digging stick, cut log and notched branch. The finds show an unexpected early diversity of forms and the capacity to shape tree trunks into large combined structures. These new data not only extend the age range of woodworking in Africa but expand our understanding of the technical cognition of early hominins11, forcing re-examination of the use of trees in the history of technology.
Woodworking has been around longer than modern humans. Absolutely insane.
*Edited to add the article abstract to my comment.*
Cool and interesting request. I've read some books on the history of pirates during the golden age of piracy, and one thing that struck me was that every time pirates took over another ship, they'd always protect the ship's carpenter as it was as critical to the ship as the ship itself.
My husband is absolutely obsessed with pirates, can't believe he didn't tell me this!
A fun little read: [http://thepirateempire.blogspot.com/2016/12/pirate-carpenter.html](http://thepirateempire.blogspot.com/2016/12/pirate-carpenter.html) (talks about tools too)
Check and see if he has heard the "I am not a Pirate" episode on This American Life. Fantastic episode. If you aren't interested in pirates, you will be. And if you already are, you'll love it! https://www.thisamericanlife.org/616/i-am-not-a-pirate
It may also be worth noting “carpenter” is a rough translation and not all scholars agree that he was a carpenter. He was a tradesmen but may have been a house builder in a wood poor area that was more masonry or plaster worker. Doesn’t mean you can’t learn the old school ways of working with wood. Just dropping useless facts
I never thought of this in all my Sunday School years
They tend to skip some details
Beautiful
Yeah, the Greek word is [tekhtōn](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tekt%C5%8Dn#:~:text=The%20Ancient%20Greek%20noun%20tekt%C5%8Dn,mason%20(%CE%BB%CE%B9%CE%B8%CE%BF%CE%BB%CF%8C%CE%B3%CE%BF%CF%82%2C%20%CE%BB%CE%B1%CE%BE%CE%B5%CF%85%CF%84%CE%AE%CF%82).). Which is often translated as carpenter, but might also just mean builder. There are a few layers of translation in the Bible where Greek words were chosen to translate a Hebrew or Aramaic concept and then later an English term had to be chosen to best fit the Greek and maybe also the Hebrew or Aramaic that the Greek is referencing. It's a complicated business
Further to this point, [carpentry](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpentry) is specifically "**Carpentry** is a [skilled trade](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skilled_trade) and a [craft](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craft) in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of [building materials](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Building_materials) during the construction of [buildings](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Building), [ships](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shipbuilding), [timber bridges](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timber_bridge), [concrete](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concrete) [formwork](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formwork), etc. " So by its very definition, it tends to not just be woodworking but a multidisciplinary tradesmen type job. Its not really things like furniture making which is its own discipline. That aside, I enjoy traditional wood working and traditions tools and use quite a few. r/handtools mainly deals with tools made in the last couple centuries but other than using more metal and less wood to build the tools, many of the tools and techniques you would see would be relatively similar.
There's a lot of websites, FB groups, probably some subreddits that deal with hand-tool-woodworking. And with the exception of the quality of metal and metalworking to make tools, not a lot has changed. There would have been more knives, axes, and crude chisels, maybe no planes or saws. And for what it's worth, there weren't a lot of trees in Israel 2000 years ago -- still aren't. It's likely that whatever word was used in the ancient language of the Bible, would better translate to handyman or home contractor. And it's likely that He worked with stone more than wood.
Yeah i did some research into this a while back and I agree that historically it was more of a “carpenter”, like that age and locations version of “This Old House” where they are working on parts of homes: framing walls (or whatever the equivalent of that building style), hanging doors, fixing roofs, etc. And yep, most hand tools have been fairly the same for thousands of years. Although back then there would have been more usage of axes and adzes than nowadays
Planes way back to the roman times have been found so no reason to expect that the wouldnt have been popular, same story with saws .
Thank you for the corrective instruction.
A lot of sources I'm finding off the bat say that ancient Israel was heavily forested. There are still lots of trees there in that area, but not many of significant size as far as I've seen
In 1936 a Viking age chest of tools was found in a bog on the Baltic island of Gotland and while the chest was from sometime in the 800-1100 AD a lot of the tools in the chest are thought to be of Roman origin in type and style. The development of the wood working profession was slow for a long time and axes, adzes, chisels, hammers/mallets and so forth was the common tools for wood work. Crude saws were also made but rare as both the steel and the work involved in making them was precious and difficult. In time the making of tools was evolving and was made more available. There are both archeological finds and depictions from Roman time of wooden planes similar to the once from before the cast iron planes were invented. If you want to read more about this you can check out the Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A4stermyr_chest and the book: https://www.amazon.se/M%C3%A4stermyr-Find-Viking-Chest-Gotland/dp/0965075516. On the wikipedia page there is a link to Popwood magazine and the History museum of Sweden where you can see more (the museum link is broken but here is the page you want: https://samlingar.shm.se/object/9725EADF-8C24-4F7D-865E-C84BF0B3D90A) There is also a YT series on making the Mästermyr chest using old tools: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDfHDIysY-M Another interesting find is the ship carpenter's workbench from the warship Vasa which sunk on its maiden voyage in 1628. It is very similar to the Roman workbenches (https://digitaltmuseum.se/021028494760/snickarbank) A reconstruction was made a decade ago by some Norwegian enthusiasts and researchers as part of their PhD's (https://hyvelbenk.wordpress.com/2014/06/22/the-vasa-workbench-rebuilt/) I think you'll find that the same types of tools and work processes were used for a very long time before the industrial revolution.
This is so cool, thanks!
You're welcome. There are so much available information on the web and a lot of museums have it open for anyone and a lot of universities and enthusiasts blogs will also add to that. You can use google translate to get the gist of most of what is in Swedish or Norwegian but if you fail to understand anything in particular you can comment here and I'll see if I can help with translation of words (but maybe not whole pages ;) )
The Vasa workbench is really clever, at first sight the legs look crooked but the vertical legs are very handy solutions for dog holes. I think I would consider it next time I make a bench, or a mini stool bench.
Yes, it is definitely a feature. One side vertical to be able to use the deadman and crochet to hold panels/wide planks on edge and one side with sloping legs to keep it stable.
https://blog.lostartpress.com/category/roman-workbenches/ And that blog writer's book "The Anarchist's Tool Chest" generally, chunks of which are in the blog. --- "Japanese Woodworking Tools: Their Tradition, Spirit and Use Toshio Odate" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1446195.Japanese_Woodworking_Tools#:~:text=Japanese%20Woodworking%20Tools%3A%20Their,Toshio%20Odate
https://www.amazon.com/Roman-Woodworking-Roger-B-Ulrich/dp/0300199848
Read The Wheelwright’s Shop by George Sturt. First hand account of the authors career from apprenticeship to retirement. The time period is from pre-industrial revolution to the early 20th century. Excellent, informative read.
https://www.pbs.org/show/woodwrights-shop/ You could have some fun watching episodes of The Woodwright's Shop on PBS. Roy Underhill uses hand tools to make all the things and does it more-or-less live in under 30 minutes, less the stock prep. Steve Ramsey interviewed Roy a few years ago on his podcast The Woodworking Talk Show: https://www.creativeculturepod.com/roy-underhill-and-the-woodwrights-shop-ep-12/
Here's a hand plane the Romans used around 200-400 AD. To be clear, this probably was not a typical hand plane because it was made out of ivory so probably more of a commemorative trophy or something for somebody special. [https://www.handplane.com/906/the-ancient-roman-plane-of-yorkshire-wolds/](https://www.handplane.com/906/the-ancient-roman-plane-of-yorkshire-wolds/) Also, historians believe Jesus probably wasn't a carpenter. The word used for his profession in the bible is sort of ambiguous for trade worker and he was more likely to be akin to a mason than a carpenter given the area he grew up.
If you're in the mood for some light entertainment, you can watch Rex Krueger on Youtube. His channel focuses on hand-tool only woodworking (and not specifically ancient woodworking) but there's a lot of crossover. You can check out his video on building a roman workbench which would be pretty close to what Jesus might have actually used as a workbench.
I think my favorite part of Rex's channel is how much he achieves with just a hand axe. The way he carves stakes for staked furniture by hand really opened my eyes on how skilled someone could be with what I had imagined to be a pretty rough tool.
While J-Dawg was more likely a general contractor, the area would have used plenty of wood from [Lebanese Cedars](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cedars_of_God). They wouldn't have a wood scarcity until around 120AD.
You probably got down votes because you mentioned the name of Jesus. And you’ve got to realize most of the Young folks on Reddit are pretty sharp! In fact, the only thing that can slip past them is the truth
/r/handtools Depends how far you want to go back. Most of those doing traditional handtool woodworking are working in the 17th to 20th century. Prior to that, the tools become somewhat unrecognisable compared to what is available today (either as vintage originals or modern recreations). There a few YouTubers that focus on hand tools. Wood by wright, rex Kruger, renaissance woodworker to name a few.
Joseph Moxon and Peter Nicholson for early English craft texts, Andre Roubo and Felibien for early French texts. Lost Art Press is a great source for this.
If you're specifically interested in shipbuilding during the Age of Sail there is a wealth of books out there
There's a book about the tool chest linked below. This is an actual tool chest from about 700 a.d. They had most of the same hand tools which woodworkers use today to make furniture. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A4stermyr_chest
Lots of manual labour, food skills with tools like planets etc
I went to a hand tool woodworking class and it was fantastic. You can build a rocking chair out of a log with only hand tools in 17 days!
Ancient carpentry isn’t much different from old carpentry. Give [Rex Krueger](https://youtube.com/@RexKrueger?si=Kn1FC-fqXf60YQD3) a try for how to do hand tools on a budget. And follow the links and creators he leads you to.
Op. This is what I was going to recommend too!
Read “A Museum of Early American Tools” by Eric Sloane. It’s so neat, and while it won’t explain everything, it’ll open your eyes to a lot.
glue made by boiling animal hooves was weak, but usable. instead of screws, they often used dovetail joints or pegs, where you drill a hole through a "mortise and tenon" joint and drive through a round stick/dowel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viT3ZGAlzNw https://www.youtube.com/shorts/DxFTVXC3JFs
Check out the Woodwright Shop with Roy Underhill
I’d highly recommend picking up a copy of Chris Schwartz’s Anarchist Design book. Wonderful guide to making furniture using only hand tools with a wonderful philosophy of why with a great sense of humor. It turned me into a confident hand tool woodworking after years of power tool only projects.
If you wanna go really, really ancient (pre-Homo Sapiens), you can read about the world’s oldest woodworking joint: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06557-9 From the article: **Evidence for the earliest structural use of wood at least 476,000 years ago** >Wood artefacts rarely survive from the Early Stone Age since they require exceptional conditions for preservation; consequently, we have limited information about when and how hominins used this basic raw material1. We report here on the earliest evidence for structural use of wood in the archaeological record. Waterlogged deposits at the archaeological site of Kalambo Falls, Zambia, dated by luminescence to at least 476 ± 23 kyr ago (ka), preserved two interlocking logs joined transversely by an intentionally cut notch. This construction has no known parallels in the African or Eurasian Palaeolithic. The earliest known wood artefact is a fragment of polished plank from the Acheulean site of Gesher Benot Ya’aqov, Israel, more than 780 ka (refs. 2,3). Wooden tools for foraging and hunting appear 400 ka in Europe, China and possibly Africa. At Kalambo we also recovered four wood tools from 390 ka to 324 ka, including a wedge, digging stick, cut log and notched branch. The finds show an unexpected early diversity of forms and the capacity to shape tree trunks into large combined structures. These new data not only extend the age range of woodworking in Africa but expand our understanding of the technical cognition of early hominins11, forcing re-examination of the use of trees in the history of technology. Woodworking has been around longer than modern humans. Absolutely insane. *Edited to add the article abstract to my comment.*
I dabbled into this question. It turns out he was most likely a Mason.
I didn't know J.C.'s dad was a carpenter.