Log Cabin Tools

This photo was taken inside a tool shed at the home of Thomas Lincoln. Thomas Lincoln was the father of Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the U.S.A. As you can see, a lot of cutting and shaping tools were needed to build a log cabin home, barn and other structures and maintain an 1840s farm. See the big, two-man cross-cut saw with it's massive teeth? This saw was used to quickly tear through large logs. In the corner is a sickle used to cut hay and grain crops like wheat, oats and bran. There are also an assortment of axes and adzes and smaller finishing saws. I don't see any awls, augers, planes or chisels. . . these tools might have been stored elsewhere as they were more refined and required care in maintaining their razor-sharp edges. A carpenter might have dozens of planes, each with a different cutting profile, that could be used to create grooves, rounded edges or smooth the surface of a board.

Native American Home

This dwelling, the Native American tepee, appears to be cool and spacious. It was erected quickly from plentiful natural materials. The frame is long, slender saplings. The skin is large, overlapping pieces of tree bark. The bark is held in place by lashing additional saplings to the framework. The doorway is large. . . allowing good air circulation. The structure is waterproof and most of it is portable.To me, the teepee was a practical, high-tech invention of the seventeenth century. This particular tepee was erected at St Ignace in the upper peninsula of Michigan. In contrast, the early European settlers built small structures constructed of massive amounts of timber-framed logs, stone, mud and brick. Their log cabin homes were built to last for many years rather than a few seasons.