Visit the Earle-Wightman House at 20 Summit St., Oyster Bay and get a glimpse of the seafaring trades that have been typical in a harbor town like Oyster Bay throughout its history.

The exhibit is curated by Elliot Sayward. He has been a tool collector for the past 40 years and was the editor of the Chronicle of Early American Industries Association which currently has 3,500 members. It is one of the two biggest groups of tool collectors in the United States, the other is the Midwest Tool Collector. "We tend to have interlocking memberships," he said. His heart is with the EAIA, he said.

Mr. Sayward is an expert in trades and how they went about their business using their "tools of the trade." When asked how he became a collector, he said he was born that way. "We all collect junk and in no way can measure the value of what we buy." Having a focus for a collection often justifies the involvement, in his case tools.

Mr. Sayward said, "We are very tired of history about Kings and Queens when we are ordinary persons ourselves and we think the average person should be celebrated."

Tom Kuehhas, director of the Oyster Bay Historical Society, headquartered in the Earle-Wightman House said, "When we look at old deeds, they list the jobs of those average persons: hatters, shipwrights, carpenters, farmers, shoemakers, coopers. We take their professions for granted, but what people learned then, was as hard as going to a university for a Ph.D. today."

The exhibit celebrates the work of the common man with pictures from early texts showing them using the same tools that are on display. The illustrations are from as early as the 12th and 13th centuries.

The exhibit starts in the back exhibition room, it contains ship drawings, plans and layouts. It is the modeling loft.

The exhibit continues upstairs with illustrations of how timbers were put together with "trennels" - tree nails. There is an auger on display showing that they used them to make holes in the ship's planks for the trennels.

"There is very little hard and fast information on shipbuilding in Oyster Bay," said Mr. Kuehhas, "until the Jakobson Shipyard, but by oblique references in town records we know there were shipyards. The exhibit is meant to show what would have been in town at that time.

"Across time and space, the procedures were the same. The 12th and 13th century illustrations still have recognizable elements of ship building used through the 19th century."

A model of a ship in dry-dock is from the Merchant Museum in Kings Point. "That is not to say we had a dry dock, but is an illustration of the method," said Mr. Kuehhas.

"We know something about the average tonnage of a ship in Oyster Bay in the 17th century from a 1670 ordinance in the town records. It prohibits the size of ships by tonnage. You couldn't build a ship over three tons without a permit. In other words, in ef fect, you couldn't build any ship without a permit."

There was a concern because people were stripping lumber from the town. They used local oak trees, he said. "Drive through Oyster Bay and you see dozens of oaks, probably descended from those original oaks."

Another exhibit shows a "rope walk." "Thomas Youngs of Oyster Bay was a rope maker by trade, we know because it was listed in a deed. Ropes from the 15th century to the mid-19th century were made on "rope walks." Thin pieces of rope are twisted together to form thick rope bundles.

The third room of the exhibit shows the exterior work done on the ships. There are planks put together waiting for caulking. The ship's caulking was strips of tarred hemp rope. They unraveled the twine down to the original fiber and dipped the strands in tar, kept in a barrel, and called oakum.

Another exhibit shows the planes used to smooth the bottom of the ship, to make it glide in the water. "Ship sides aren't flat, as they are being built of planks, so the ship joiner, a craftsman, made his own planes and smoothed the boards."

There was also an in-board joiner who did interior work like the captain's cabin. "The vessels were furnished up rather nicely," said Mr. Kuehhas.

Other specialists who worked on the ships include a block and pump maker aboard the ship and a ship's smith, who were taken aboard when the boat was in port to make repairs as needed. There were also instrument makers who made the telescopes and sextants, as well as sail makers.

Downstairs, in the living room of the Earle-Wightman House there is a 17th century Dutch galleon ship model, to illustrate the hobby. The room is set up as if the Rev. Marmaduke Earle (who lived in the house and was the Baptist minister of Oyster Bay, famous for the number of couples he married - but that is another story) worked on repairing a ship model.

"What's great about this exhibit is that people tell others about it and come to learn about the tools and the shipbuilding industry, so it's growing exponentially by word of mouth," said Mr. Kuehhas.