- Artisans used the hammer for a variety of carpentry jobs such as wood carving, splitting or trimming wood or stone, beating metals and also for driving spikes, nails or tent pins. Many words translate into hammer, and it is also referred to at times as a mallet.
- The ax is often referred to as the hatchet; the writers mention it in various translations of the Bible. It is also called a pick-ax in certain inscriptions, such as the Siloam Inscription. In the revised British and American Bible we see the word spelled as axe. Different passages in the Bible have accounts of this ancient tool used for splitting both stone and wood.
- The awl is the only tool used for boring holes that is mentioned in the Bible, in Exodus 21:6. But some scholars believe it was used mostly by workers with leather and not necessarily carpentry. Carpenters made holes in wood or stone with a drill used in concert with a drawn bow, by passing the drill through the string.
- Some scholars believe the chisel has been around almost as long as humanity and so it would have been used in Biblical times. Craftsmen used the chisel, also known as the plane, on both wood, metal and stone, as described in Exodus 34:1-4 when God told Moses to "chisel out two stone tablets" and also in Isaiah 44:13.
They also used the concave chisel, sometimes known as the gouge, for specific wood-carving to make the surface of the wood smooth. . - The saw appears in the Bible, specifically in 1 Kings 7:9. Craftsmen used it mainly on wood but and also to cut stone. They also used sand and water in the stone-cutting process. Chisels and hammers helped artisans quarry stone.
- Knives were originally used as an instrument for eating or slaying animals and during offerings as referenced in Genesis 22:6. They were often made of flint, stone bronze and iron. Later they were mentioned as being used in religious ceremonies and during circumcision as described in Joshua 5:2.
Craftsmen later used knives to carve or trim wood and stone.
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