Ancient Carpenters' Tools: Illustrated and Explained, Together with the Implements of the Lumberman, Joiner and Cabinet-Maker in Use in the Eighteenth Century Paperback – January 1, 2000

As a tool collector and having an interest in the histroy and evolution of tools this is an important book to have. Mercer was one of the 1st to try and document and analyze the history and evolution of tools. The book has a lot of interesting information and he does look at some of the then known roman tools and compare how modern hand tools have changed or in some cases stayed the same.As a first attempt to look at all the different types of woodworking tools plus the history and evolution of hand tool is it a good book to see what was known at that time. However it is not a perfect book and needless to say R. A. Salaman's book the Dictionarl of Woodworking Tools is more up to date and has better information on a wider diversity of older woodworking hand tools. W.L. Goodman's out of pint book,1978 The History of Woodworking Tools is certainly more up to date than Mercer's book on the evolution of just some woodworking tools. Mercer tries to cover the whole gauntlet of the evolution of all woodworking tools while Goodman's book only looked at only some wood working tool evolution.Despites the newer information that is available on Salamans book on the wide veriety/diversity of kind s of wood working tools and the more up to date evolution of hand tool information in Goodmans book, Mercer made a good 1st attempt at trying to look at and dealing with both types and evolution of tools. Mercer's book is worth having and some information he writes about it none the less interesting and informaative.As a tool collector and having an interest in the evolution of wood working hadn tools Mercer's book is a good one to have.What is needed now is a more up to date book of Goodman's book to fill in the gaps on many of the woodworking handtools he was unable to document in their evolution.

I really like this book. It gives a lot of history about Mercer Museum and the castle.

Good info, but a bit dry. Excellent illustrations and explanations. I use it as a reference, but I've found myself reading on and on because of the interesting material. I finally gave up and just started reading it cover to cover. Excellent resource.

Very informative

My dad loves this book. He’s red it cover to cover!

Best, comprehensive, the language is even good. I'm surprised I never came across it before. I wish it were printed in a larger format. I doubt this was the original size.

Came quickly and as seller represented it. Very good reference for everything about tools of the trade back in the day.

I don't have the background to evaluate its accuracy, but it seems like a very credible resource. Completely fascinating.

Great book!

Bought this book for researching purposes. Brilliant. Highly recommended reading. Worth every penny.No colour photo's. But that is to be very expected given the subject matter and era's covered. Still worth every penny.

poknm0o-,

Better than expected

Not just a list of tools but lots of detail about how they were used by folks that were close to them when they were in use .It links up with research on European names for some tools and how they developed over time.