Lad carrying American tool unknown in German state (6)
I believe the answer is:
saxony
'german state' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'lad carrying american tool unknown' is the wordplay.
'lad' becomes 'son' (lad can informally mean a young boy).
'carrying' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'american tool' becomes 'ax' (ax is a kind of tool. I am not sure about the 'american' bit.).
'unknown' becomes 'y' (algebra).
'son' going around 'ax' is 'saxon'.
'saxon'+'y'='SAXONY'
'in' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for saxony that I've seen before include "Fine woollen cloth" , "somewhere in Germany" , "German state with Dresden as capital" , "(Historic) state of eastern Germany" , "Old German kingdom" .)