Tools

Henry's Tools

Thoreau only mentions a few tools by name that he used to build his cabin. However, his description of the building process indicates that other tools were used. An excellent article, The Walden Tool Box of Henry David Thoreau by Richard Kappeler is a must read. He created an imaginary tool box based on Thoreau's writings and his knowledge about the tools used in 1845. Quotes from Walden and the tools are listed below. Two other excellent books are A Museum of Amrican Tools by Eric Sloane and Home Building and Wood Working in Colonial America by Keith Wilbur.

Quotes from Walden

AXE
"Near the end of March, 1845, I borrowed an axe and went down to the woods by Walden Pond, nearest to where I intended to build my house, and began to cut down some tall arrowy white pines, still in their youth, for timber."

Hammer and Plasterer's Board
"My house had in the mean while been shingled down to the ground on every side in lathing I was pleased to send each nail home with a single blow of the hammer, and it was my ambition to transfer the plaster from the board to the wall neatly and rapidly."

Plane
"Before winter I built a chimney, and shingled the sides of my house, which were already impervious to rain, with imperfect and sappy shingles made of the first slice of the log, whose edges I was obliged to straighten with a plane."

Trowel
"When I came to build my chimney I studied masonry. My bricks being second-hand ones required to be cleaned with a trowel, so that I learned more than usual of the qualities of bricks and trowels."

Kappeler's Imaginary Walden Tool Box

hammer pry Bar
nail pry or pincers
horse cart
shovel grubhoe or pick
ax
auger
gauge or mortise pattern
chisel
mallet
saw
rule
square
drawknife
plane shingling hatchet
maul
screwdriver
whetstone or grindstone
bucket or pail
mortar box/plaster box
hoe
trowel
brick chisel or brick axe
level and plumb
seive
plasterer's board
ladder
chalk line and awl

Resources

Kappeler, Richard. "The Walden Tool Box of Henry David Thoreau," The Chronicle of the Early American Industries Association, Inc., p. 67-69, 1991.

Sloane, Eric. A Museum of Early American Tools. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1964

Waldon Project
https://www.walden.org/what-we-do/library/thoreau/

Wilbur, C. Keith. Home Building and Wood Working in Colonial America. Guildford, CT.: The Globe Pequot Press, 1992.