Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
The answer is provided in a description of the practicalities of cutting gauged-
work by Walker (1885, 83-84):
[Figure 129] …shows the kind of box that is used for cutting moulded bricks to
any required section - in this case an ogee. The box is generally made to hold two
headers or one stretcher. The brick or bricks, having been squared and rubbed
down to the required thickness, are placed in this box and with the bow-saw
roughly cut out, and then rubbed down to the section of the box with a rasp, and
sometimes a piece of straight gas-pipe to form the hollow members, the bricks
being very soft. … The cross piece or pieces on the top of the box are omitted for
the sake of clearness.
Figure 129
Drawing of a timber
cutting box for an Ogee
moulding.
Walker's terminology indicates the bow saw, generally then a craftsman-made
tool, was, by then, a familiar tool in the cutting-shed. The 'cross piece', gen-
erally termed the 'bridge', spreads the pressure of the vertical strut clamping
down the rubbers within the box, wedged between it and an overhead beam
above the bench. The bow-saw technique made cutting easier, especially with
the washed rubbers by then readily available, increasing accuracy and facili-
tated precise finishing. It also largely removed the need for reverse templets
to check and finish; except for internal curved mouldings and stopped returns
that cannot be cut in a box, but only by the older techniques of hand-cutting
and abrading.
Hammond, in his above description, simply assumes the reader knows the
wire-bladed bow saw is the tool used for cutting, and indeed later he states
(1889, 21):
It is the practice now to do everything possible in a good red brick cutting with
the bow-saw…
