Roman Tools for Building Catapults

Watching the crew build the full-sized replica of a Roman catapult (in the video embedded in my last post) I was struck by a number of things the Romans did not have when they created these monstrous machines: they did not have fork lifts, chainsaws, power drills, circular saws, cranes, and other powered machinery. But even in those ancient times they had almost all of the hand-powered hand tools that modern woodworker has, and most of these we would recognize.

According to Roman Woodworking, the book I mentioned in a prior post, a woodworker in those times would have had a full compliment of tools for building in wood. I was surprised to see how many of these tools looked essentially identical to those we use today. Here's a quick list I compiled from the book:

• Workbench
• Adze
• Auger
• Chisel (both paring and mortising)
• Gouge
• Drill
• Knife
• Draw knife
  
• Spokeshave
• Lathe
• Plane
• Saw
• Wedge
• Hammer
• Mallet
• Calipers
• Dividers
• Compass
• Plumb Line
• Level
• Ruler
• Square
• Bench dog
• Clamp

In all, a fairly complete list of hand tools for building in wood. As for moving the massive timbers around and assembling the machine, they would have had to do this all the hard way—with levers, wedges, mallets, hammers, pulleys, and raw muscle. Wow.