Grease and grit horns and probably a strickle

[tombear]

Back in the day scythes and sickles were sharpened in the field using a wooden stick that had been greased with tallow and had sand sprinkled on it* . The grease and sand were often carried in cow horns. There were various types/styles, some with suspension devices, some highly finished and decorated, others crude. Some were double ended with more or less ingenious ways of capping the ends so the sand didn't fall out or the grease run out on hot days.

Anyroad to go with the sickle I modded to be like a medieval example i wanted to make a pair of grease and sand horns to use with it. To this end a kind member of this forum was able to supply me with two horns that had conveniently had the cores removed and all the gooey stuff inside polished or eaten away. I strted working on them today.

Masking tape was useful to mark where i wanted to cut the open end and a bone saw made short work of the cuts and a mora soon removed the worst of the lumps and bumps and the worst of the cosmetic blemishes.

I started scraping with the blade then realized I've a perfectly good set of cabinet scrapers that I've just sharpened. I was impressed how much and how quickly they removed the material. Most originals I've found images of seam to be left like that and only a few are polished and generally tarted up.

Anyroad, that's enough for now. Ill post pics when they are done.

ATB

Tom


*There was also a field anvil and hammer but ill cover that at a later date

 

[Tengu]

http://www.modip.ac.uk/exhibitions/natures-plastic/animal-agriculture

http://www.modip.ac.uk/artefact/wchl-193

http://www.modip.ac.uk/artefact/wchl--440

 

[tombear]

Yeah, thats the thing. There's a lot of variations, some of which i fancy copying.

Anyroad, I finished them, the only sand I have is some very fine stuff for fish tanks that i got to sand ink dry. Also i had no suitable iron to make the lid of the grit horn so had to use some thick copper herself had.

the strickle i made from a scrap of oak ( they are always described as made from oak or lime ). I just turned the handle and planed the blade to shape, the blade is smeared with mutton tallow and has sand sprinkled on it.

I'll give it a go now although the sickles still sharp from when I touched it up after the lad harvested the bere etc last year.

ATB

Tom

 

[Tengu]

Thats a good job.

I saw a grease horn in a local antiques shop, -£25...faugh!

 

[mr dazzler]

if you know any one with a tormek grinding wheel, try to get some of the grit slurry out of the water tank, I think it would work really well on this job if you washed it, dired it and use a magnet to get the iron filings out of it. I heard that they used a fine silver sand for the strickles years ago, from wales IIRC. If you think about it its the original version of modern metal polishing compound (tallow fat + abrasive particles)

 

[mrcharly]

How do you use the strickle? Draw away from the edge?

I have a sickle, not tried peening it, just used a bit of wet and dry wrapped round a dowel.

 

[tombear]

Oddly enough I do have a Tormek-7 and once after the wife got me to revamp and sharpen all the abused axes from her scout troops stores I lost about a half inch from the radius of the stone in one session. You can guess how expensive replacement wheels are so I was somewhat narked by this. Anyway it left a vast amount of slurry in the tank and a huge hedgehog of iron filings stuck to the magnet that's in the front of the tank. After drying I ended up with about half a standard pound sized jam jar of powder, that sat on the back of the sheds two ring cooker out of the way for about a year. Someday that will come in useful for grinding or polishing thought I. About six months ago I knocked the lot on the floor and thought s@d it and swept it into the bin! I'll start saving the small amounts I make in a normal session again, it's been going down the sink and wasted.

The aquarium sand I've filled the horn with happens to be Silver Sand ( fine) according to the bag. It left finer scratches than the synthetic cigar stone we used in the past. I used the strickle in just the same way, running it along the blade while drawing it away from the edge. I got 2 or three hard strokes a side before the sand had mainly rubbed off and you rotated the stick to present a new side.

There was a original field anvil on a website specialising in collectable garden tools for £20 but I procrastinated and its gone now. A Italian sounding firm still makes them but of course they are far more expensive over here. I dare say where they are still used they are much cheaper as they look to be working tools for poor farmers rather than for hobbyists who have been on a mowing course. The hammer for preening should be easy enough to find on a boot, I've seen them before not realising what they were for.

We were strimming the back lot yesterday, it had got a foot high, but left what seams to be the Spelt we planted last spring but it only came up about 8 inches high and then died down over winter. It's grown to about knee height so far so we left that standing to see what happens. It must have been winter spelt no spring after all. It's only a patch about 18" by 8 foot but if it devolops heads and the birds don't get them all it will do to flavour some ale or be seed for next year.

atb

Tom

 

[tombear]

Just received a copy of "Life and Tradition in the Yorkshire Dales" by Marie Hartley and Joan Ingilby , for a penny plus £2.80 postage off Amazon and amongst a lot of other fascinating stuff including a chapter on oat/haver cakes there's a piece on mowing which adds a lot to what I knew about Strickles and their use.

its too long a piece for me to tap out with one finger but I'll ask herself to copy it out when she's got the free time.

Marie Hartley was on of those prolific authors and brilliant illustrators who I'm amazed I hadn come across already. I've two more of her books on order that should arrive any day.

The lines of dents I've seen on some ( but not most ) extant Strickles were made by a tool called a Strickle Pricker and she has illustrated one. It's some thing like a leather workers stitch marker, a thin wedge of iron. 5 1/4" long by about 2" wide with a row of teeth on the thin end.

By by the period this book covers ( late 19th, early 20th C.) horns had fallen out of use, sand being carried in a bag like a postmans satchel in some areas or in round corked tins or bottles that were also used to roll the sand into the grease or pitch that was used to stick it to the wood. No doubt it was much easier to recycle mass produced packaging than faff about with horn. A treacle tin with its lid would make a ideal receptacle for tallow or what ever.

ATB

Tom

 

[mrcharly]

Sounds an excellent book - and it is v cheap on ebay, I've ordered a copy.

 

[tombear]

The two I'm waiting on are

"Life in the moorlands of North East Yorkshire"
"Life and Tradition in West Yorkshire". By the same pair of authors but I think I made a mistake with the lormer and it's
"Life and Tradition in the moorlands of North East Yorkshire I actually wanted, which has about a hundred more pages. Oops.

ATB

Tom

 

[tombear]

After buttering up herself with one of my infamous omelettes before she rushed off to scouts the wife ordered me the right book. If the one with the similar name is substantially the same I can always sell it on so we've only lost the price of postage. Serves me right for not doing my research right!

ATB

Tom

 

[Janne]

I remember seeing similar horns in my ancestors farm in southern Bohemia.
Each horn had a round fine sandstone sharpener inside. I was told that they used to pour a little bit of oil into the horn to wet the stone. Used to sharpen hand sicles and those long two hand thingies.
I guess that was a development of this much older tech?

 

[mr dazzler]

Oddly enough I do have a Tormek-7 and once after the wife got me to revamp and sharpen all the abused axes from her scout troops stores I lost about a half inch from the radius of the stone in one session. You can guess how expensive replacement wheels are so I was somewhat narked by this. Anyway it left a vast amount of slurry in the tank and a huge hedgehog of iron filings stuck to the magnet that's in the front of the tank. After drying I ended up with about half a standard pound sized jam jar of powder, that sat on the back of the sheds two ring cooker out of the way for about a year. Someday that will come in useful for grinding or polishing thought I. About six months ago I knocked the lot on the floor and thought s@d it and swept it into the bin! I'll start saving the small amounts I make in a normal session again, it's been going down the sink and wasted.

Know what you mean about tormek wheels, they DO put a nice accurate edge on blades without burning especially on plane irons BUT they are so soft and wear off centre and into uneven grooves in no time no matter how careful you are and despite using the truing tool and surfacer I think actually the tormek is rather too pricy lots of ways to get edges without that much money. I dont use mine very much these days, I think a replacement wheel is around £70? T quite often now do most of reshape work on a record power white wheel then go to the tormek if I'm in a fussy mood for a plane iron or paring chisle DMT diamond files are awesome.

 

[tombear]

Yup Tormeks are incredibly overpriced but I had some silly money from shifting on a deactivated SMG so blew it on that and a Axminster belt and disc Sander. I must admit I've got a lot of use out of both and don't miss the glorified paperweight I lost at all.

The real killer is the cost of the wheels themselves and the various specialist tools that fit on. I still "need" to get or improvise one for doing the edges of scrapers. I can do it on diamond stones and if I could be bothered with it could make a simple jig so they are kept at precisely 90% but I'll end up forking out for glorified flat plate with a hole through it that slips on the support bar no doubt. What I really like the Tormeks for is quickly sharpening the bent gouges I use for carving. I'd use it a lot more if I had a dedicated place for it, same goes for the belt sander and grinding/ polishing wheels but at the moment I have to haul them from where I store them and use them on top of my work bench and if I leave them out they are in the way. I'll have to sort out a dedicated small, heavy table that I could bolt them to.

I'm waiting to hear back from the appropriate authority ( whose name I forget but it's a off shoot of DEFRA ) about being a registered receiver, for want of a better word ,of raw horns straight from the abattoir. I'd been in touch with the Secretary of the White Park cattle association who was very helpful and found out what paperwork I needed to sort so she could arrange for me to receive horns to process to make various reproduction items I fancied doing. White Parks are about as ancient a breed you get in England so ideal for my purposes. The form went off last week. If they turn around and tell me no way I've only list a bit of time.

ATB

Tom

 

[tombear]

Hi Folks
just had a call from a pleasant lady at the Animal and Plant Health Agency asking if I wanted my stamped and signed AB117 sent as hard copy or by email ( I chose the later as it would save me getting it scanned in ) and two minutes later it arrived. So folks I am now registered to receive direct from a abattoir for the purposes of experimental archeology ( I could hardly put " messing about making old stuff " ) bone, bone product, horn, horn products, hoof and hoof products and under a tonne of those at any one time.

i've sent my registration number off to the secretary of the White Park cattle society and now I'll see what she can procure for me.

ATB

Tom

 

[Robson Valley]

Congratulations. Will this permit allow the constructions of replicas which might yield "coin of the realm?"
In an American site, powder horns for BP flintlock shooting were $70.00 - $180.00 USD.

 

[tombear]

I'm digging up this thread as herself has ordered me from some specialist gardening and farming tool antiques place a old field anvil to go with the grease and grit horns I faked up. Its the long spike with 4 curls of iron half way down sort, the curls/rings are to stop it sinking in beyond that point.

I'll put the image up again as the old one was killed by ransomed by Photo@ucket.

I've cleaned up the hammer head my guy at Colne Tools found me and will knock off the modern handle and copy one that's on a original i saw on a museums website. I thin i have a suitable bit of ash.

I'll put up a pic when its done. I'll see if I can score a old blade to practice the technique on as the one above is already razor sharp and I'm loathe to artificially blunt it just to sharpen it again! There's plenty of how to vids on the net as there's a growing interest in hand mowing/scything.

Does anyone know if hammering / preening was used on bill hooks and slashers for hedging or only for grass/cereals? I'm assuming that the edge angles are quite different.

Herself keeps eying scythes in the various tool shops I drag her into and i've already had to talk her out of buying one Tyzak minter she came across. I'm just not built for the whole Poldark thing!*

ATB

Tom

* although bizarely I do have a full set of replica 18th C farmworkers clothes...

 

[mrcharly]

I don't think hammering and peening was done on billhooks and slashers. They normally have a convex edge, no need for it to be so thin, They are more of a chopping tool and need to be able to cope with striking a hard knot without rolling. Sharpen with a file or coarse stone I think.

 

[Janne]

I have two billhooks, an old one and a newer one. Both are not hammered, but ground.

 

[tombear]

I thought I'd never heard of it being done. Since I've never used a bill hook for more than a few minutes at a time I've never actually blunted one in the field . When the team was hedging* i never got the chance to do much of the actual chopping and folding since i was about twice the size of everyone else i was always lumbered with carrying or dragging the cut wood (it was always a rescue job, tarting up hedges neglected for donkeys years so a lot was removed) to the bonfires while little old men did the skilled bit. All they seamed to use was a cheap two sided Carborundum block and spit, and then not very often. Most farms would have had a wheel for sharpening, you used to see them mouldering away or just the stone being used for decoration learnt against a wall in the garden.

From reading and peering at stuff in museums some of the grass hooks and sickles were deliberately sharpened with as coarse a stone as possible to leave whats functionally a serrated edge. I'm wondering if the hammering produced similar serrations that were sharpened with the fine sand in the grit horn...? The kit I've mentioned before were used together it seams.

ATB

Tom


*Newcastle (under Lyme) Countryside Project back in '92-'93