The Carpentry Section

The Carpentry Section

The carpentry section of the Torbay Museum is filled with various tools that were used in the trade during 'the old days'. As you can see from the picture the museum is home to various types of saws, augers - used for drilling holes in the ice, and a folding meaursing tape. The museum also has a mallet and some planes that were used for coal moldings.

Many visitors that come to the museum are simply amazed by these artifacts. There are no electric chainsaws or drills - everything was used by hand and without electricity. It's often said how amazing it was that people were able to use such crude tools.

The town of Torbay had many great areas for cutting wood, since wood was a great necessity in those times. The men would go into woods for the day, the weather didn't matter, however the ideal time was when it was cool outside.

Barrels and butter churns were also popular since it was not possible to transport items in glass. Men would go on long trips to St. John's to deliver goods. The roads were not in great shape to travel over so carrying tools and goods had to be carefully made to be able to endure such a task could be completed properly.

Today it is still possible to see Torbay residents go 'in the woods' for the day. Many people still use wood as a source of heet energy. However, today's wood cutters would be likely to carry a chainsaw as their main cutting tool.


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