Books and Tools Wanted

The Davistown Museum is a 501 (c) (3) organization and welcomes donations of all kinds to help support our Tools Teach program as well as ongoing Museum projects and obligations. All donors will receive a 501 (c) (3) tax letter for the full retail value of the donation. Donations are divided into the following categories:

• Tools that are important for our permanent collection - especially edge tools and the tools of early American industries such as the cooper, wheelwright, blacksmith, and other trades related to New England's maritime history. We are always seeking patternmakers' tools, which are characteristic of the design and manufacture of the machinery that replaced our wind- and water-power sources after 1840. We are especially interested in obtaining signed specimens of previously unrecorded Maine and New England edge toolmakers as well as unusual tool forms that are anomalous but were still used by New England shipwrights and craftsmen.
• Tools that are appropriate for our Tools Teach program. These would be more common, useable woodworking tools (other trades are welcome too) that could be brought to a classroom as part of a presentation. All tools in our Tools Teach program will eventually be incorporated in our online documentation of the tools of woodworking and other trades.
• Hand tools and other merchandise donations that can be resold are always welcomed. Recently the Robert Sullivan estate of Fort Pierce and Vero Beach, Florida, donated a tool collection to the museum, which might serve as the model for how tool donations are disbursed: a number of important tools went into the permanent collection, about half the collection went to the Tools Teach program, and the remainder are being sold at the Liberty Tool Co. and Hulls Cove Tool Barn of the Jonesport Wood Co. to raise money for the museum. All the proceeds of such "blue tag" tool sales are returned to the Davistown Museum.
• General merchandise donations, such as pottery, books, collectibles, post cards, as well as hardware and tools are also welcomed and are sold as "blue tag" items.
• Consignments: The Liberty Tool Co. eStore also sells more valuable collectibles on consignment with a 50/50 split. The Liberty Tool Co. eStore 50% includes eBay fees, PayPal fees, and seller's commissions with the remainder donated to the museum.
• Donations for eStore sale are always welcomed - after payment of commissions and costs, about 70% of the value of an expensive collectable will go to the museum; the 501 (c) (3) credit would be for the full amount of the eStore sale price.

The Davistown Museum is seeking donations of the following types of tools and hardware

• Signed tools not in the Directory of American Toolmakers or the Registry of Maine Toolmakers.
• Tools representative of any early American trade. Please note that space limitations restrict our ability to display larger items such as blacksmith forges or early industrial equipment.
• Shipsmiths' hardware used in the construction of wooden ships.
• Tools suitable for our Tools Teach school loan program such as drawshaves, adzes, axes, steel planes, measuring tools, and other edge tools.
• Photographs of important artifacts, which are not available for donation, are always welcome.

The Davistown Museum is seeking the following books and publications

The books and catalogs we are seeking fall into two categories, books and publications not yet in the Elliot Sayward Memorial Library and duplicates of those already in our library. We always welcome donations of catalogs not listed in our extensive tool catalog collection as well as other interesting books on maritime and industrial history.

New books and publications

Published by ASM (American Society for Standards & Testing:

• E-7 Standard Terminology Relating to Metallography
• E-45 Standard Practice for Determining the Inclusion Content of Steel
• E-381 Standard Method of Macroetch Testing Steel Bars, Billets, Blooms, and Forgings
• Steel Metallurgy for the Non-Metallurgist by Dr. John Verhoeven.
• Metallographer's Guide: Practices and Procedures for Irons and Steels by Bruce L. Bramfitt and Arlan O. Benscoter.
• Volume 9: Metallography and Microstructures by George Vander Voort
• ASM Specialty Handbook: Cast Irons by J.R. Davis. 1996.
• ASM Specialty Handbook: Carbon and Alloy Steels by J.R. Davis. 1996.
• Carburizing: Microstructures and Properties by Geoffrey Parrish. 1999.

Feeding everyone no matter what by Denkenberger and Pearce. 2014.

Steel: Microstructure and Properties, 3rd Edition by Harry Bhadeshia & Robert Honeycombe. 2006. Butterworth-Heinemann

Functions of the alloying elements in steel. Edgar C. Bain. 1939.

Furnaces and Smelting Technology edited by P. T. Craddock and M. J. Hughes, British Museum Department of Scientific Research

A source book for rule collectors by Philip E. Stanley

American marking gages, patented and manufactured by Milton H. Bacheller, Jr.

Tools and their uses by The Bureau of Naval Personnel

Restoring antique tools by Herbert P. Kean

Woodworker's guide to handplanes by Scott Wynn

Henry Disston & Sons handbook for lumbermen

American milling machine builders 1820-1920 by Kenneth L. Cope

American lathe builders: 1810-1910 by Kenneth L. Cope

American planer, shaper and slotter builders by Kenneth L. Cope

Norris metal planes catalog reprint

A Brown & Sharpe catalogue collection

Buck Bros. 1890 catalog

The Preston 1909 catalog

Millers Falls Co. 1887 catalog

The Russell Jennings MFG. Co. 1899 catalog

Metallurgy in archaeology; a prehistory of metallurgy in the British Isles by Ronald F. Tylecote

A history of metallurgy by Ronald F. Tylecote

The early history of metallurgy in Europe by Ronald F. Tylecote

Any antiquarian or older publication either not listed in our bibliographies or not marked IS ("in stock" meaning already in our library).

Duplicates needed for our Tools Teach program

American Beginnings: Exploration, Culture, and Cartography in the Land of Norumbega by Emerson W. Baker et al.

American Iron by Robert Gordon

Twelve Thousand Years: American Indians in Maine by Bruce Bourque

A History of Metals in Colonial America by James A. Mulholland, The University of Alabama Press
Blacksmiths’ and Farriers’ Tools at Shelburne Museum

The Epic of Steel by Douglas Alan Fisher

Steelmaking Before Bessemer by K. C. Barraclough, The Metals Society, 2 Volumes:Vol. 1, Blister Steel: the Birth of an Industry; Vol. 2: Crucible Steel: the Growth of Technology

Collecting antique tools by Herbert P. Kean and Emil S. Pollak

Tools: A guide for collectors. 2nd Edition by Jane and Mark Rees

The axe and man: The history of man's early technology as exemplified by his axe by Charles A. Heavrin

Dictionary of American hand tools: A pictorial synopsis by Alvin Sellens

The Stanley combination plane by Stanley Tool & Level Co.

Keen Kutter planes by Alvin Sellens

American wrench makers 1830 - 1930 by Kenneth L. Cope

The pattern maker's assistant by Joshua Rose

A guide to the makers of American wooden planes by Emil and Martyl Pollak

A field guide to the makers of American wooden planes by Thomas L. Elliott

Christopher Gabriel and the tool trade in 18th century London by Jane and Mark Rees

American levels and their makers by Don Rosebrook

British planemakers from 1700 by W. L. Goodman

American machinist's tools by Kenneth L. Cope

More makers of American machinist's tools by Kenneth L. Cope

American cooperage machiniery and tools by Kenneth L. Cope