When you walk through the woodworking shop floor at St. Clair College, you'll find table saws and band saws with blades that spin at roughly 3,000 revolutions per minute.
They're efficient, precise, and powerful.
That's why students found a recent donation of antique wood and metal hand tools so intriguing, because it was a tactile lesson in the evolution of tools.
"It's kind of an art looking at the way they did things back in the day," said Matthew Lauzon, a second-year student in the Woodworking Technician program at the College.
Lauzon and a fellow student got their hands on a two-person bow saw and noted the difficulty they would have using these tools, compared to the existing, more advanced ones in the shop.
"You know and appreciate how difficult it was to do simple processes, things that we've kind of grown a little ignorant to nowadays, things that we take for granted because it's so much simpler for the modern-day woodworker."
The tools - donated by St. Clair College Foundation Board Chair, Egidio Sovran - were recently dropped off in the shop and students had a chance to hold and interact with the tools, which look to be roughly 75 to 100 years old.
St. Clair College instructor Diana Mezei calls it a living history lesson.
"It's a great opportunity for the students to actually see and feel and how things were done in yesteryear," Mezei said. "Every piece comes with a story."
The collection of antique tools includes a dovetail saw, a dado plane, edge plane, bench plane, flattening planer, shaper cutters and bow saws, all made of hardwoods like maple, birch, and oak.
"The more you're exposed, the more you get to understand what you have today," said Mezei. "I like the fact that they brought these tools for students to have and physically touch, so they can feel the heaviness."
"It's more labour-intensive and requires more maintenance on the tools because they're all made of wood, and then there's the sharpening of the blades. Some of these tools that we have in the shop require less maintenance than these ones from 100 years ago," Mezei added.
Second-year student Sara Danelon was amazed at the advancements and evolution of tools over the past century, as hand tools have been used by civilizations for thousands of years.
"I got into this program with the intention of learning how to refinish antique furniture, so seeing the tools like that, and seeing the impact that they've made on the furniture that I've already got my hands on is pretty surreal," she said.
"I really like the energy that comes along with holding an old tool like that."
