Vintage Tools Museum List

Mr. Larsen .... I agree... seems the video overlooked the short lived Norse
encampment you cite (with the hearth for melting iron ore). I would like to
give the benefit of the doubt to the lead researcher and think he was just
caught up in the excitement of a significant archaeological find. I personally
would like to think some Basque fisherman left the ax behind when returning
home.... and, it ended up as trade bait among the various Tribal entities. Still,
a great story... and, indicative of the ever changing "dates" on the "first" European
impact on Native culture.

I believe Mr. Ugaldie would enjoy watching the video.

Charles
 
Drum4fun, It may be as you said about his excitement, and he does go on and on about how it may have been left behind, but when the lady researcher visits Spain, her fellow researcher read here a testimony from a Basque who was there talking about trading the locals axes, knives and other small things for different types of furs, and he seems to ignore that too. In any event, still amazing they were able to track down an axe found in a Huron encampment to where it was made. John
 
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I missed this thread the first time around.

A couple places come to mind.

First is in Grand Rapids, MI. I think I was there last around 2000, so things may have changed. But they had one museum set up in an old furniture factory, with lots of tools and such they used for making furniture. I remember some of the things the factory had entered for a public exposition or contest- turned spindles that were like toothpicks with paper thin wafers. They restored the giant steam engine that provided power to the entire factory, and have it "running" so you can see how it worked.

Found a video of the engine:
 
Louisville, Kentucky.
If you're there, check out the Frasier Museum- it's diagonally across the street from the Louisville Slugger ball bat museum. The place is an armory. It's chock full of guns from the old west, Kentucky rifles, fancy engraved target rifles, European swords & armor, modern custom knives, Japanese arms & armor, more knives and guns, more swords, more guns... They even preserved the workshop of a local gun smith who built Long rifles completely by hand. I could have spent a week there. More on topic for this forum, they also have quite a selection of authentic tomahawks, pipe tomahawks, hatchets, and battle axes.
 
Saint Louis, MO
The Saint Louis Art Museum is always a wonderful time for me. It's not necessarily dedicated to old tools and woodwork of course. But, they do have a worthwhile display of arms & armor that include some medieval poll axes, and some super fancy guns. And they also have some really fancy furniture, which shows the end result from the craftsman's skill.
 
I can't believe I forgot The Museum of Appalachia, 20 miles north of Knoxville, Tennessee. http://www.museumofappalachia.org/museum-exhibits/
That one should be right up the alley of most here. I have not been there myself, but a coworker tells me it's a must-see. It's all about the local pioneers who had to eke out a living from the hills. Many of the items were made by Alex Stewart, and his biography is a great read. https://www.amazon.com/Alex-Stewart-John-Rice-Irwin/dp/0887400531 Folks on his mountain didn't have a single pane of glass, and some didn't own a single piece of metal, they were so poor. Everything they needed, they had to make themselves.
 
Carmel, Indiana. A bit northwest of Indianapolis.
Our family visited Connor Prairie a couple years ago, which is a whole village set up as a living history sort of place, with actors dressed up like it's the 1700's. I watched the blacksmith working, and spent some time in their wood shop. I could have spent weeks there. It's not just a display of old tools, and a lecture given by someone behind a rope cordon. You get to walk through and touch things. The dude let me help plane a board he was working on, and gave me some tips on setting the depth of the blade/iron. I sat at the shaving bench, and showed my daughter how to work the treadle powered lathe. They also demonstrated the flintlock musket, and let audience members try it out, and I got to also take a turn at throwing tomahawks. I stuck it in the log each time, but didn't hit the playing card they were using as a bullseye until my 3rd attempt.
 
If any of you happen to be traveling through southern Illinois on I-64, you might wanna see if the Okawville Heritage House is open. This one's not an axe sorta place, but rather leather. Mr. Schlosser had a harness making shop, and when he died they locked it up, and it remained just the way he left it. All the leather, cubby holes full of buckles & rivets, the big sewing machine, leather working vise/bench, is all laid out to inspect & carefully fondle.
http://www.lib.niu.edu/2002/ih020718.html
 
crbnSteeladdict said:
Eric Sloane Museum & Kent Iron Furnace
31 Kent-Cornwall Road (Route 7), P.O. Box 917
Kent, CT 06757
http://www.ericsloane.com/museum.htm
Click to expand...
This one is really cool if you go at the same time the Ct. Antique Machinery Association is having their annual show on the grounds in the fall. Also a restored pig iron furnace and colonial cabin on the grounds. Right beside the Housatonic River if you want to do a little fishing too. Great place for the kids.--KV
 
Troyes, France, has a tools and trade museum which is one of the places worths to visit to learn about woodworking.

http://www.en.charpentiers.culture.fr/tools/collectionsoftools/toolandtrademuseum

France was one of the top places in knowledge and technology about woodworking for centuries. That museum is in the top of my list of places to visit.


Thank you J John A. Larsen and D Drum4fun for the videos and comments. I'm sure the first European artifacts found in America are those found in Scandinavian settlements in the north.

Basques were the first 16th century Europeans visiting and working in Canada. Those places were a secret for a while due to the big profits Basques achieved in them. Human ties were so deep it's funny the conversation they had when the first French explorer reached some tribes in the zone. The native response to the French explorer salute was "apaizak obeto". An old Basque joke more or less consisting in if someone tells you "How do you do?" you answer "Not as well as the priests!"

As they show in the video those sailors shipped metal objects to trade them with natives. It's normal they shipped iron/steel objects, iron production was very big here, it was top quatily for the period too. Take in account Basque lands are more or less half the size of Switzerland, opinion between investigators change but they think between 10 and 25 percent of all European iron output was produced here. That's a huge proportion! Not only iron, here there was a big amount of iron/steel objects production of all the types.

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That said the most probable origin of the iron piece found in the Huron site is Basque, there is little to no discussion there. But I have talk to local historian and investigators who have had that piece in hand and studied it and there is not anything close to consensus. Most of them think the mark is not a maker mark indeed.
 
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Outstanding Mr. Ugaldie... thank you very much for the comments and history shared. To be honest...I
too thought it was a stretch to make the positive identification match of the fuzzy imprint with the foundry
that produced it. It makes connect-the-dots sense that the Huron ax originated with the Basque iron
workers...but, beyond that I remain skeptical. I found the history quite impressive... and, hope the Huron
site reveals more about early European contact. Thanks again.

Charles
 
Local farm here in town, and just down the road from my house...once upon a time it was a larger dairy farm when I was a kid.

Here tucked away in the corner with the Alpacas, sheep and cows as I was with my 1st grader and his class on their farm trip...

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Oh Yea!

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:cool:
 
A little off from the rest of the posts, but I found the New Bedford, MA Whaling Museum interesting. Mainly because they have a half sized model of a whaling Bark, the Lagoda, which is 89 feet long. Built that part of the museum around the "Model". Gives a good idea of what it was like to ship out on a whaling vessel. John
 
It's amazing. We see those today and it looks like they were made just to be fanciful or whimsical. But in the day somebody had a purpose for each of those shapes, a reason why they wanted it made that way. Think of the stories those tools could tell. Think of the sweat left on the wood and iron. Think of what was created with those.
 
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