Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
The brick hammer was certainly well established by the end of the eighteenth
century, while the scotch became particularly popular from the mid-nineteenth
century. Both of these hafted tools replaced the smaller brick axe for fine trim-
ming to shape, as the axe required greater skill and experience to use with
accuracy. The introduction of high-quality mass-produced masonry cutting
tools with steel blades, like the brick hammer and scotch, were not only easier
to use but would not have needed sharpening so often and have been capable
of cutting and shaping some of the harder bricks appearing with mechanised
brickmaking.
The scotch consisted of three distinct parts: stock, blade and wedge and
could be bought already assembled as a mason's cutting tool. Alternatively one
could just buy the handles or replacement blades, which were typically sized at
12
32 mm); though frequently old files were re-worked
into scotch blades because of the suitability of their superior steel. A hardwood
wedge secured these (Fig. 128). The origin of the term 'Scotch' is obscure,
although it is known to be of late medieval origin and means, 'to make an inci-
sion, cut, score or gash'. To 'scutch' is to strike, whip or slash.
The scotch is similar to a 'millers bill' or, more correctly, the 'mill-bill and
thrift'. According to Richard Filmer (2006):
1¼ ins (305 mm
'In the re-issued Elwell catalogue, probably originally produced in about 1870,
shows what we would now call scotch handles, which were then catalogued as mill
bill handles …'
The mill-bill is an edge tool of high-carbon steel, pointed at each end and
wedged into the handle or 'thrift' (being removable like the carpenter's iron
in a plane) and held secure by a leather tongue; rather than the timber wedge
of the scotch. The bille and thrift is used for dressing and cutting the fur-
rows in millstones. Richard Filmer and Kenneth Major of TATHS have stated
(2001):
…the brick scutch was also used by mill-dressers for 'stitching'. This is the proc-
ess of producing grooves - often twelve to sixteen to the inch [25 mm], - rather
like a file, on the 'lands' between furrows. Obviously this was a better tool to use
for this particularly fine work, and was also presumably rather easier to sharpen
than the mill-bill. The metal, of course, was subject to a very severe hardening
process.
Stonemason carver, Piers Conway, who noted the similarity, has also com-
mented on this fact (2002):
I watched a programme on the restoration of a mill in which a chap was re-cutting
the old millstone, (a trade in itself), and he was using a traditional dressing axe
