Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
carving gouge, but waiting two weeks to renew an edge implies either a low
tolerance for a dull edge or a miraculously long lasting cutting edge. This is
an area where experimentation with a period appropriate tool might provide
some insight. I imagine that the brick hewers may have done daily, on the job
edge touch up themselves, but when the blades needed extensive regrinding
they may have been packed off to the local smith.
The account of 'Katherine the smith-wife' being paid for 'steeling and bat-
tering' of the masons tools is most intriguing. The bimetallic construction I
suppose for a brick axe means that there is a finite amount of steel available to
sharpen, and with each grinding material is inevitably lost. Eventually new steel
needs to be added.
In blacksmith's accounts of Colonial America this is referred to as 'laying'
or 'steeling'. I have seen 'laying' applied to hoes, 'To laying a broad hoe… so
many pence'. In this case it is probably welding new iron to an all iron farm
tool. Axes, on the other hand, are sometimes laid and sometimes 'steeled' - 'To
steeling an axe…' I am certain that the reference here is to adding a new piece
of steel to a worn out edge and I have seen period tools to which this was clearly
done.
On the other hand, before a tool was so far gone as to need new steel, after
repeated sharpening the shape of the tool might become thick and awkward
to use. The tool might appear in a smith's shop for another operation called
by the smith (both ancient and modern) 'drawing out' or 'drawing down' (cf.
Moxon, 1678, 9). The available steel is heated and hammered longer and thin-
ner thereby re-establishing the working geometry of the edge. Again, colonial
accounts sometimes record this operation on the woodsman's axe. 'Battering'
is, I think, the reference to this process that you have found in the Kirby
Muxloe Castle account of Katherine the smith-wife. This battering might be
done many times before a tool needed to be 'steeled' once more.
Regardless of how they appear in accounts, from the smith's point of view,
these are distinct operations: grinding, drawing out (battering) and steeling.
As the steeling involves the application of new and expensive material and is
technically most demanding, that would be the most expensive operation, and
I imagine grinding the least expensive.
Another point is that steeling inevitably entails all three operations. The
steel is welded in place as a relatively thick piece. Then it is hammered out
longer and thinner to get the proper taper to the blade. The steel would be
heat-treated and the final edge ground on. 'Battering' avoids the addition
of new material but does entail hot shaping of the blade, heat treating and
final grinding. Remember that in heating the blade to thin it, all hardness is
removed and must be re-established by quenching and tempering. Grinding
is done cold. Unless the edge is over heated through careless grinding there is
no need to re-heat treat the edge if it only needs grinding/sharpening.
