Woodworking tools in the pre industrial age

The exhibition is about the history of tools in the pre-industrial age. Based on the collection at Voss Folk Museum, it shows tools used for woodworking.

Old farming communities were to a large extent self-reliant. With simple, self-produced implements, they raised cabins, barns, lofts and cottages, and made both everyday objects and finer artefacts. Displayed in the exhibition you will find tools used in daily work – those used in forestry, carpentry and woodcarving.

Many of the tools in our collection are from the 1700s and 1800s. There are also some tools of a type used since the early middle ages. Norway’s richly-decorated stave churches are our most iconic wooden buildings from this era. Highly-skilled builders and carpenters constructed these churches with the aid of just four or five tools. The model shows Borgund stave church (1150-1200) in Lærdal, which is the best preserved of the 28 stave churches remaining in Norway.

The decorative aspect of the stave churches – the ‘dragestil’ (lit. dragon style) became, several hundred years later, an important source of inspiration for woodcarvers in their search for a national aesthetic. One of these woodcarvers was Magnus Dagestad from Voss. This year marks the 70-year anniversary of the opening of the Dagestad Museum, so a selection of his work in dragestil is included in this exhibition.

Thank to Voss Sparebank for financial support, and to the National Museum for providing the display cases. We also thank Maihaugen and the National Library for lending film material, and our colleagues at the Hardanger Maritime Centre for their help in producing the film.

Photos: Sketches by architect Arne Berg. Medieval axes from the collections of the universities of Bergen and Oslo. All from western Norway, except the top left one from Viken.

Photos from exhibitions: Kjell Herheim