Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Lloyd (1925, 73) also states:
Recently the hack-saw…. has superseded the tin saw for making incisions, and
has displaced the scutch for some brick-cutting. It is also used for cutting soft
bricks.
Although a hacksaw could substitute a 'grub saw' it is no match for the wire
blade because it keeps its direction better when cutting through the brick than
a blade, which tends to twist during the sawing action and therefore does not
give such a precise cut. A hacksaw blade, if utilised, is limited in use to only
straight cuttings, lacking flexibility to follow intricate mouldings.
It is obvious for all accurate cutting of bricks to shape for enrichments there
was a need for precise measurements for lengths, widths and gauge, hence the
mention of various instruments for measuring in Pasley's above list of tools
and equipment. The cutter would obtain these specific measurements from
the full-size drawing, double check them individually against the overall ele-
ment and from them make accurate, labelled timber 'controlling rods' which
could then be utilised as necessary to set down all of these sizes prior to cut-
ting and abrading. This way there was no need to keep reaching for the ruler.
Mouldings were traced from the full-size drawing onto paper and were then
usually given to a joiner to make the various templets and associated cutting
boxes.
The last quarter of the Victorian period saw all the basic essentials of
improved rubbers, layout of cutting-shed, alternative craft tools and the rub-
bing and cutting techniques, for producing gauged work, firmly established and
lasting up to the present. For these reasons many modern commentators mis-
takenly cite the bow-saw method as the only way to execute gauged work, based
on contemporary craft topics. This includes the description of gauged work by
Richards (1901, 45-6):
GAUGED work consists in rubbing and cutting to any required shape specially
made bricks, or 'rubbers,' as they are technically termed. This class of work is
usually done in what is called a cutting shed, provided with a bench about 2
3
[675 mm] high and 2
6
[750 mm] wide.
The tools and appliances required are a rubbing stone (Park Spring, for prefer-
ence), circular in shape, and 14
[353 mm] diameter; a bow saw fitted with twisted
annealed wire No. 18 gauge, parallel file 16
[454 mm] long, small tin scribing
saw, square, bevel, straight pieces of gas barrel for hollows in mouldings, etc.,
bedding slate to try the work for accuracy, straight-edges, compass, setting trowel,
putty box, boaster, club hammer, and scotch (the three latter for axed work),
reducing boxes for thickness and for length, moulding boxes, boxes with radial
sides for obtaining the wedge-shape voussoir according to the template…
