Browse Items (57 total)

A broad axe is a wood shaping tool. One would use it to get a log flat or square a log off. One side of the axe head is beveled, and the other side is flat (shown). The wooden handle curves away from the flat side to give the tool user's hands room…

A hand saw is a multi-use wood shaping tool. It was used on smaller logs for making items such as wooden furniture, rather than larger logs (used to make cabins for example). The saw is not missing a piece at the bottom—that is actually a single…

A froe is a wood splitting tool. It is used to make shingles. The tool's user would place the blade into a log and hit the opposite metal end with a mallet-type item to create a shingle. Because the shingles were made by hand in this way, the size of…

A scorp is a wood shaping tool. It is used to create a curved shape to wood. A smaller scorp, such as the one pictured, would be used on smaller pieces of wood to create items such as bowls. The tool user would hold the wooden handles and draw the…

A brick mold was used to shape natural resources into bricks. The tool's user would gather mud and/or clay, as well as possibly hog or horse hair (which acts as a binding agent), and have placed them into the wooden mold. Then the mold would have…

A drill is used to create a hole in wood. The tool's user would place the screw shaped blade at the spot where they would like to create a hole, and turn the wooden handles, sinking the blade into the wood, until the hole is deep enough. Wooden pegs,…

Nails were used to create smaller joints and were frequently reused. This nail was not round like most nails we see today, rather it has four sides which were created by hammering the iron into shape. This is a brad nail which would have been used…

This is an example of a style of cabin architecture known as saddlebag. It is characterized by a fireplace in the center of the structure, with rooms on either side of it.

Two men work to reinforce the original fireplace. A hole is visible where the a stove flue was probably inserted at some point. The hole would later be filled back in with new brick. L-R: Gregg Sawyer (contractor of Black Mountain, NC), George…

A worker replaces the first inch of the old mortar mixture, which held the original fireplace together, with a cement mortar. This was believed to strengthen the historic structure.