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Resources for those who love, use, study, care for, or deal in old tools:

Table of Contents:

Note: to be included on this page, there must be a heavy tool orientation. There are other links on the Library page, where the orientation is more general.


All links are to a new page; use your browser's BACK button to return here.

If you want to suggest another link, click here.
I'll evaluate it, and update as soon as possible. I'll provide links and email addresses to organizations as they get on the Web. Just keep me posted. Thank you.


National Organizations:

The names and addresses are the latest contacts for membership, taken principally from the EAIA directory. I will correct any errors or changes as I am notified;  please send me any corrections or changes.  

( EAIA ) Early American Industries Association
PO Box 143
Delmar NY 12054
(518) 439 - 2215
Membership: Ronald W. Pearson
(814) 866 1500, atools@erie.net

(SWEAT) Society of Workers in Early Arts and Trades
Primary contact for Membership: Fred H. Bair
(941) 967 3262
606 Lake Lena Blvd.
Auburndale FL 33823

The Tool Group of Canada
Primary contact for Membership: Peter Wood
(416) 444 4255
7 Tottenham Road
Don Mills Ontario
CANADA L0G 1M0

(TATHS, of Britain) The Tools and Trades Historical Society
Primary contact for Membership: Christine Hudson
01322 662271
60 Swanley Lane
Swanley Kent BR8 7JG
UK

American Regional Organizations

Taken from EAIA directory, or from news letters.

(ATTIC) Antique Tools and Trades in Connecticut
Membership: Robert Dunn
(203) 848 8800
34 Thomas Ave
Uncasville CT 06382

Coastal Carolina Tool Collectors Club
Membership: Howie Jenner
(919) 6325 - 1577
545 Deer Run Road
Newburn NC 28562

(CRAFT) Collectors of Rare and Familiar Tools Society
Membership: John M. Whelan
(908) 464 5424
38 Colony Court
Murray Hill NJ 07974

(ETC) Early Trades and Crafts Society
President: Sue Eckers
(516) 368 0836
11 Blythe Place
East Northport NY 11731-3219

Idaho Historical Society, Tools and Trades History Section
Contact Dan Casey
(208) 368 0907

(LIATCA) Long Island Antique Tool Collectors Association
Membership: Ron Grabowski
(516) 265 1564
110 Burlington Road
Smithtown NY 11787

(OTCA) Ohio Tool Collectors Association
Membership: George Woodard
(740) 852 3180
PO Box 261
London OH 43140

( PNTC ) Pacific Northwest Tool Collectors
Membership and Treasurer: Jean Racine
(503 628 1488
12780 SW 231st Pl..
Hillsboro OR 97123

(PATINA) Potomac Antique Tools and Industries Association, Inc.
Membership: John G. Williams
(301) 439 8812
10412 Sweetbriar Pkwy
Silver Spring MD 20904

( PAST ) Preserving Arts and Skills of the Trades
Membership: Bob Valich
unk phone
unk st
unk city, state, zip

Ken Greenberg, PAST webmaster
667 Brush Creek Rd.,
Santa Rosa, CA 95404
personal website

Visit the oldtools book list

(RMTC) Rocky Mountain Tool Collectors
Membership: Cliff Fales
(303) 987 3849
1435 S. Urban Way
Lakewood CO 80228-3911

(SWTC) South-West Tool Collectors Association
Membership: Margaret Dominy
(512) 573 5543
120 Shiloh
Victoria TX 77904

(TRTC) Three Rivers Tool Collectors Association
Membership: Bob Kaltenhauser
(724) 352 1860
308 Ridge Lane
Saxonburg PA 16056

(WNYATCA) Western New York Antique Tool Collectors Association
Membership: Jim Bovay
(716) 325 3347
10 Selden St, Apt 4
Rochester NY 14605

For Other Tool Collector Associations, I suggest you start at the EAIA

Museums, Historical Societies, etc.

Museums, On Line and Virtual

Museum of Woodworking Tools (online only)
a museum of antique tools (worse than "old"!)
As the knowledge of carpentry, cabinetmaking, joinery, and other various forms of woodworking grows amongst the current generation of practitioners we hear more and more about specific tools that were once made, were once common, and now are referred to only in the misty eyes of craftsman. ... The purpose of this site is to provide what any good museum should provide: A knowledge-base of museum quality tools and a description of tools and techniques that once existed but are now gone.

Virtual Tools Museum (online only)
Welcome to the Alan and Louise Sellars Collection of tools from the 18th to the 19th century. This "Virtual Museum" was conceived and directed by Betty Oliver Seabolt, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Art at Southern Polytechnic State University, Marietta, Georgia - under the auspices of the Governor's Teaching Fellow Program (GTFP).

Sellars Gallery of Historic Hand Tools

at Reinhartd University at Waleska GA.

Museums on the WWW  (varied interests, but lots of technology)

Museums, Brick and Mortar, US

Tool Chests, Used in an exhibit at the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.
The look of tool chests can tell us much about workers and workplaces. While their purpose is to organize, carry, and protect tools, these chests also suggest what workers think of themselves and how society measures the value of their work.

Bahr's Mill, woodworking and gristmill of Jacob Bahr

Mercer Museum, part of The Bucks County Historical Society, in PA.
Towering castle houses dramatic displays of the implements, folk art and furnishings of early America before mechanization. Walk into the Central Court and see a Conestoga wagon, whaling boat, carriages and an antique fire engine suspended overhead. There are 50,000 tools of more than 60 early American crafts and trades displayed. Constructed in 1916, it is a National Historic Landmark.

American Precision Museum , Windsor VT
The Museum preserves the heritage of the mechanical arts, celebrates the ingenuity of our mechanical forebears, and explores the effects of their work on our everyday lives. The American Precision Museum, housed in the original Robbins & Lawrence Armory, now holds the largest collection of historically significant machine tools in the nation

Old Schwamb Mill , Arlington MA

The Davistown Museum is a regional history, tool and art museum in the hill country of central coastal Maine. The missions of the Museum are:

The Museum offers a myriad of actual and virtual opportunities to experience Maine history through its exhibitions and website. It includes an extensive collection of eighteenth and nineteenth century tools, an annual art exhibition featuring contemporary Maine artists, a library and extensive online resources to help visitors learn about tools and regional, state and Native American history. The Museum maintains an outdoor garden of flowers and contemporary Maine sculpture adjacent to its Hulls Cove office.

The Duvall Tool Museum includes farm implements, household items, and trade tools from the 19th century. The museum is named after W. Henry Duvall, who purchased the 19th century farm implements, domestic items, and hand tools which are housed in this extensive collection.

Museums, Brick and Mortar, Europe

The German Tool Museum has existed in Remscheid since 1967. It is unique in Germany and accommodates an extensive collection of tools from the Stone Age to the 21st century, which is remarkable from a technological, sociological and cultural point of view. The importance of this collection, which includes mechanical and electronic tools as well as machinery, reaches far beyond the region as it is of special interest for the further development of craft and industry.

Museum for Old Techniques , Grimbergen, Belgium

Museum of European woodworking tools

The A Blog concerning several museums in Italy including The Joiner's Museum (Almenno S. Bartolomeo Museum) (Italian, English, French). This is the same museum as the "MUSEO DEL FALEGNAME TINO SANA FONDAZIONE", but with more detail and a different name, in Bergamo,Italy.
It contains examples of wooden clamps used locally. The home page has wooden C-clamps, and hand screws. The page of the lute maker's workshop ("LA BOTTEGA DEL LIUTAIO") has more clamps. I have visited, but was not allowed to examine the tools.

A number of reproduced woodworkers' shops (joiner, wheelwright, luthier, cooper) and their associated tools are presented.

The Museo Storico Civico Cuggionese - (Italian and English) - Local museum with a recreated joiner's workshop, in Cuggiono, Italy.

Museums, Brick and Mortar, Japan

Takenaka Carpentry Tool Museum

Other Pages


This major section presents an introduction to the site. The subsections are:


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Copyright © 1996- Wooden Clamp Journal