What kind of tool is this?

What do you think it was it used for?

How long have people been using them?

Answers:

What is this?

This is a wood plane, a block of wood with a sharp blade for smoothing over rough wood. Today, easier-to-use and far more powerful mechanical versions of this tool can be found in woodshops around the world.

What was it used for?

For thousands of years, planes like this have been used to smooth and shape rough and uneven wood. Once shaped, the wood could then be used to build furniture, buildings, boats, or it could even be shaped further with other tools for more intricate or decorative uses.

Who would have used it?

Many cultures around the world have developed and used a wide variety of tools for working with wood. The oldest planes known to archaeologists to date were found in Pompeii.

For more information, visit:

• This artifact in the Karshner Digital Collections
• Artifact Worksheets you can use in your classroom or for homeschool
• A Brief History of Woodworking
• A History of Wood as a construction material
• Woodworking [Wiki]

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