broom makers tools restored:

[fishfish]

I bought a load of old tools used by one of the last broom maker from the new forest a few weeks back,i believe the tools are all late 19th and early 20th century pieces.

These particular cutting tools are a bit strange,i don't know exactly what they are and what they do other than as mentioned,any thoughts?

when i started cleaning the big one up i noticed it was stamped with the usual makers,model and size and in addition the shop that sold it! it was an old firm from Salisbury called Pinders,they used to be in Winchester street in my old home town,i remember as a small boy going in there for stuff,nails and suchlike were sold by the ounce and the staff wore the traditional brown cotton work jackets of 'fork handles' fame.Sadly Pinders closed in the recession of the 1980's.

heres some pics:


Chopping tools by fishfish_01, on Flickr


Chopping tool makers marks. by fishfish_01, on Flickr


Chopping tool makers marks. by fishfish_01, on Flickr


Chopping tool makers marks. by fishfish_01, on Flickr

any thoughts on what they are?

 

[Stew]

I bet they have some history to them.

Plenty of re-sharpening happened there over the years.

 

[fishfish]

apparently the top one is a 'pimp cleaver' !

 

[swright81076]

apparently the top one is a 'pimp cleaver' !

Did you watch that vid mate? Wouldn't surprise me if that's what it was used for.

touched by nature

 

[fishfish]

its definitely the same tool mate just mines had a lifetime of use! i would think it was used to trim the 'broom' once the handle was fitted,pretty much the same as cutting the stix for a pimp.

 

[swright81076]

its definitely the same tool mate just mines had a lifetime of use! i would think it was used to trim the 'broom' once the handle was fitted,pretty much the same as cutting the stix for a pimp.

Nice bit of history you've got there mate, and it could be a very useful tool. :thumbup:

touched by nature

 

[Niels]

Some nice rustic tools there.

 

[fishfish]

"
by Brian Williamson » on bodgers forum.

Pimps were (are) small bundles of brushwood tightly bound as fire lighters. Rather like miniature faggots or bavins.

As far as I know, it's a regional term from the south east, so it might well have been used as far west as Hampshire.

Both pimps and beesoms would have been cut to length with some form of weighty cleaver/hatchet in a very similar fashion, so it's possible that the same tools was used for both operations, and a broom 'squire' may well have made pimps and vice versa. Small birch would have been the prefered wood for both. The only person I know who makes pimps (Alan Waters in sussex) uses an old meat cleaver

I would doubt that tools were manufactured specifically for these two particular operations. I would think it more likely that the makers utilised something readily available, like a big meat cleaver or a large, kent pattern, hatchet, but who knows now? Production of these items would have been so widespread at one time that there might have been a specialised tool manufactured for them. The Elwell catalogue number might be able to tell us that (BIllman?). The smaller chopper carries the Gilpin crossed axes. The cranked handle is interesting, though. Could easily have been adapted for the job in hand, but might have been made like that.

Interesting, too, that there is an 'owners' name stamped on the tool. Might this have made it the property of a firm rather than an individual? Carpenters tools are very commonly so marked, but they would have been used by men in workshops where there were many men with similar tools at work. broom squires and pimp makers would, I think, hve been more likely to work individually or in small groups where there would have been less need to mark their own tools."

 

[ranger]

If ever you go to the Weald Wood fair at Bentley Wildfowl there is often a chap in the woods making and selling what he refers to as sussex pimps.

 

[Toddy]

Great find

That big one's for trimming the end of the faggot bundle that becomes the besom, and then for trimming it tidy when the whole thing is bound tight and sound.

There's a ropemaker in Aberdeenshire who demonstrates making besoms too, and he uses one that looks just like that, right down to the neb on the end that he used to true things up.

Be interesting to find out if it were a specific tool or just a general heavy duty agricultural one that became the 'tool' for the job.

I really love seeing tools that were well used and valued both restored and brought back into useful life again.

atb,
M