REMAKING HISTORY
THE OLIVER: A LEG-POWERED HAMMER
Build the treadle hammer that helped build medieval Europe.
If you examine the nails holding medieval European buildings together, you’ll find they’re different from the nails available today. They’re better. Today, nails are machine-sliced from a strand of hardened wire and the cross section is round; when you pound one into wood, you force it between the individual fibers. Such nails work adequately in softwoods like pine, but often split hardwoods like maple or walnut.
The medieval iron nail is an entirely different animal. Each nail was wrought, that is, ...
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