Post by straekat on Sept 26, 2019 8:16:51 GMT -7
Peter Welch's "Woodworking Tools, 1600-1900" in the public domain, from:
Moxon has been mentioned elsewhere on the forum. Although his woodworking methods represent a general English/British approach to the tools and woodworking approach used by English colonists who settled in the Americas, the importance of German and other continental Europeans should not be forgotten. The Germans, Dutch and Swedes who settled in the Americas, in particular were heavily influenced by the French and were an important contribution towards woodworking in the Americas.
During the middle of the 18th century, Andre Roubo wrote a five volume series entitled "L'Art du Menuisier" with numerous illustrations and descriptions on how to make a wide range of items, and various techniques. Although the text is French, and many of the words refer to obsolete tools and methods, the illustrations alone are worth the effort to find using the word string "Roubo L'Art pdf". The internet archive has these and they are in the public domain. You might want to download copies with the highest possible resolution for the illustrations. If you can't find any links, I can post some to a French site that has all five volumes, plus additional works by Roubo.
During the same period, Denis Diderot published a multi-volume series titled "Encyclopedie" ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclop%C3%A9die ) covering a wide range of French technologies and sciences. These are in the public domain and can be downloaded freely. There are sections on period blacksmithing, woodworking, making paints and pigments, and much much more. These are a bit more generalized than Roubo's books.
The drawback to these is they are in 18th century French, and if you are limited to English only, you are missing out on some very good sources of information.
