The lathe is a tool for making tools--it makes manual crafting tasks easier, allowing for increased production and lower costs.

FORBES: Magazine Article

It's so useful that five out of our top twenty tools--the chisel, the lathe, the saw, the scythe and the sword--are themselves forms of the knife, specialized for different circumstances.

FORBES: The 20 Most Important Tools Ever

The lathe, which is essential to make many of the more complex tools on the Forbes list, is a mechanism for rotating work to be shaped with a knife.

FORBES: Magazine Article