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Pedal Power

We went to the Shelburne Museum this past weekend.  This trip, we visited a number of the collections associated with woodworking, tools, toys and carving.  I took a lot of photographs - a lot a material for future blog postings.

For this entry, I thought I'd show some of the foot-operated tools from the Blacksmith Shop and the collections in the Shaker Shed.

The first piece of equipment had me stumped.  It was obvious it was a foot powered machine which would drive a sharp metal tool down.   But what was it? I consulted a book I have on American hand tools (Alvin Sellens' Dictionary of American Hand Tools - A Pictorial Synopsis).  Aha! It was a mortising machine.  One would have drilled out the hole to be mortised, and then squared-up the hole using the foot-powered chisel. I like the wooden leaf-spring at the top, but it seems that the upper and lower leaf springs are flipped.  I looks like the pedal would not be able to move very far before both springs would come in contact.  I'm just going to go back and ask a few questions.

There was a great foot-powered saw . . . . . . a foot powered lathe . . . . . . and a foot powered jig saw. There was also a slate cutter's bench. It is similar to a shaving bench in operation.  There used to be a lot of slate quarries in the area.  Something else to study! Posted by Uncle Tractor at 9:05 PM
Labels: tools
 
Wow! I don't remember these- but that's probably because the last time I visited the Shelburne Museum, I was more into the candy shop than anything else ;)

I can't wait until the little one is old enough to understand it, I want to take her and Hubs up there.

October 17, 2011 at 11:03 AM