Patrick Gibbons, Katy, TX
>The Bayeaux Tapestry is not a good piece of evidence in this case. Those were boat builders, not carpenters. Landis' Workbench book has a good section on boat building where work was done in situ and saws and planes were replaced by adzes, hatchets and slicks. I believe the 15th century Book of Hours shows house carpenters using saws that look like the "bread knife" style of saw. Because Joseph was a carpenter there are many medieval representations of carpenters and their tools in iluminated manuscripts. Check the Book of Kells and some other well known ones and I believe you will find saw representations.