This is the fascinating story of early American woodworking, as told by a master craftsman. Author Alex Bealer enthusiastically describes and clearly illustrates a wide array of implements used by frontiersmen, among them various kinds of axes, saws, planes, hammers, and the adze. Such delicate tools as calipers, bevels, and lathes employed by the cabinetmaker and furnituremaker are characterized and portrayed as well. All are shown as they were actually used in colonial times and as they are still employed by many woodworkers.