Man in history, although much more primitive than those who live today, used his brain and made implements and devices which would help him to survive. He had to have food to live and he had to defend himself from wild animals which roamed the forests. He had his bare hands, but a hand can only do certain number of things; and although it is quite useful for delicate operations like picking out thorns and splinters, it is useless for cutting up meat or skinning animals. Something else had to be found and man invented tools.
The simplest tool which man used was a stone. A stone of the right shape and weight could be used to club animal to death, to hack lumps of flesh from it or to break open nuts and shells. The easiest way of getting such a stone was to look for it. Another way which also improved the shape was to chip or grind the stone with a harder one.
The best stone for making tools was flint. These tools made by primitive man are called hand-axes now. They are thought to have been used in all kinds of way such as for chopping and cutting wood, for digging and even as weapons.
It was a short step from holding the axe in the hand to fitting a handle to it. This gave the blow much more force and so made it easier to cut wood or break open heads. Long flints were fixed to wooden handles. If the handles were long, they had spears, short handles made knives.
Gradually stone way replace by metal. All antique tools are the product of primitive tools. Planes, saws and chisels are all antique tools developed by carpenters over many centuries. Each one got its shape and size by a gradual evolution. What we use is the modern version of these antique tools.
Carpenters have to do other things with the wood apart from cutting it. Drills and awls make a neat hole and the earliest was a twisted round a sharp twig. The string turned the drill first clockwise and then anti-clockwise. This has now been replaced by a rotating handle which drives the borer or hit through gears. Antique tools were very important devices. It was used very accurately and properly to get the work done. The development of primitive tools to antique tools the recent machine tools has taken the evolution from stone hand-axes to power tools one step further.
