On a bench plane the bottom or sole of the stock was flat, of course, and this was particularly important for a jointer, whose sole had to be perfectly true. But the sole of a molding plane was shaped to fit the curve or angle or combination of surfaces its blade would produce. Since even a simple quarter-round molding might on occasion be needed in several different sizes for different uses, the well-equipped cabinetmaker would need perhaps nine planes right there. George Washington’s well-known order of goods from London for the furnishing of Mount Vernon in 1759 included in a long list of tools not only a considerable number of bench and fitting planes, but about 50 molding planes: “10 pr Hollows & Rounds, 4 two Square Asticles [astragals], 6 Ogees, 1 Snipes Bill, 4 Quarter Rounds, 4 Sash Plains, 3 Bead Ditto, 6 Ovelos.” To these a cabinetmaker would have added ogive, reed, flute, beaded flute, fillet and fascia combinations, and other molding profiles favored on eighteenth-century furniture. Remembering that a number of these shapes too, might have been needed in more than one size, Dickinson’s 81 planes begin to seem hardly enough. [Illustration: _Several shapes of molding planes, with the irons of corresponding profile; also a moving fillister in the lower part of the picture. This illustration and the two that follow it are taken from a three-volume eighteenth-century French manual on woodworking by Andre-Jacob Roubo._] _BIG SAWS AND LITTLE CHISELS_ The familiar carpenter’s handsaw, with a blade wide and stiff enough to cut on the push stroke, was not unknown in colonial times and Dickinson apparently had one. But various kinds of frame and back saws were much more common. Dickinson had one large frame saw—its valuation at £5 indicates it must have been of good quality as well as good-sized—that was probably a pit saw. This was a two-man affair for ripping logs into boards. A whip saw (one of these was also listed) was like a modern two-man crosscut saw. Dickinson also possessed a small frame saw, a bow saw, a “tenant” (tenon) saw, a panel saw, a sash saw, and three dovetail saws. The latter three, called “dovetailed” in the inventory, were back saws with short blades and very fine teeth. The tenon saw might have been either a back or a frame saw, as both varieties were used in cutting the tenons for mortise joints. Vagaries in craft nomenclature leave us in doubt about the precise appearance of many tools, including Dickinson’s panel and sash saws. Except that it was doubtless made of wood rather than steel and had a somewhat different chuck, Dickinson’s bit stock would have resembled the boring brace in any modern tool box. His “20 bitts,” however, probably lacked the spiral shank of their present descendants and thus required considerably more skill on the part of the user to bore a straight hole.