![]() It has an oblong loop handle, with a drill bit sticking down from it, making a T with a fat-top beam. Instead, they used gimlets (and no, I’m not talking about giblets in gravy).Ī gimlet is a small hand-held and hand-powered drill. But the average person couldn’t afford to have a brace and bit around the homestead. That was a great system, and you would never find a carpenter without one in their kit. When most people think of drilling holes into wood by hand, the first thing they think of is a brace and bit. While not in such common use today, if you’re planning on harvesting your own wood, especially for building, this is a very useful tool to have around. It didn’t matter if they were moving it in the river or just trying to roll it, a log jack made the job a whole lot easier. The log jack was the lumberjack’s way of getting a handle on a log and move it around. Wedges could also be used to split wood for the fire, especially in cases where the chunk of log was too big in diameter to split with a maul. But to make a split-log floor or to create a half log for use as a bench, splitting was the preferred way for most. Wedges were actually much more efficient for this, although the boards wouldn’t be all that smooth. For them, there were two options: use a two-man saw, with one man in a pit to cut the logs into boards, or use wedges to split the log into boards. But most people didn’t own their own sawmill. About the only thing you can’t do with a bucksaw is to cut logs into boards.Ĭutting logs into boards is fine - if you’ve got a sawmill to cut them with. The bow kept the blade under tension, allowing it to cut in both directions. While there are many styles to pick from, the bucksaw was one of the best. That means having some sort of saw to use. You might be able to fell a tree with an axe, but once it’s on the ground, you’ll need to cut it into manageable sections, regardless of whether you’re using it for building or for firewood. At a minimum, you’ll need something that you can use to keep the grass under control, even if you aren’t feeding a milk cow in your backyard. There have been a wide variety of sickle designs through the years, some smaller and some larger - each designed for its own particular use. ![]() For that matter, if you manage to get your hands on any livestock, from goats to elephants, you’d better have a way of cutting hay. ![]() So if you’re going to have a horse, you’d better be ready to start cutting hay for it. Of course, if your body was that big, you’d eat a lot, too. You should also have a horseshoeing rasp for trimming the hooves and a hoof pick for cleaning rocks, mud and anything else out of the horse’s hooves. Even if you can’t shoe the horse (for lack of horseshoes), you’ll need to trim its hooves. More than anything, that means shoeing the horse every four to six weeks. Being wider than a person, buckets can be hung from both ends, allowing the user to carry two buckets and whatever is in them.įor centuries, horses were one of the world’s most common means of motive power, second only to the feet.īut if you’re going to ride a horse, you’re going to have to take care of it. The yoke sits over the shoulders, with a cutout for the neck. It’s also designed for human use, not the use of oxen. The main difference is that a shoulder yoke is for carrying, not pulling. If you think of a yoke for oxen, you’ll be well on your way to understanding a shoulder yoke. Re-Charge Your Laptop And Nearly Everything Else With The New Pocket Power X! It wasn’t uncommon for a homestead to have more than one cart, a wagon and means for carrying things in hand. Pioneers had a variety of ways of carrying things. In fact, you may find that you’ll want to use some of these unique tools right now, even with all the lights still on. Of course, that means that we need to have the necessary tools and equipment on hand - the same ones those pioneers used so many years ago. From carpentry to food preservation, the methods of our ancestors, including the methods of the pioneers, could end up becoming commonplace once again. While those aren’t going to be as efficient as our modern methods, they will allow us to do many things which we wouldn’t be able to do otherwise. The modern homestead is heavily dependent on electricity and gasoline – for everything from lawnmowers to tractors to chainsaws to electric drills.īut during a power outage, particularly a long-term one, we probably won’t have any of those modern conveniences.įortunately for us, we have to look no further than our country’s history to find ways of doing things without electricity. To read the first story in this series, click here.
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