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pressed on the end of a plank or deal enables it to be lifted 

 up, and when on the edge of the piece to be turned over. 

 See " Hick and Kicking. " Some hand-hooks are entirely 

 of iron, with two hooks, one near the thumb and the other 

 the little finger. 



Hand-masts. Round timber and poles from the Baltic used for 

 masts and other purposes. A technical term applied by 

 the mast maker to a round spar, of at least 24 in., and 

 not exceeding 72 in. in circumference. They are measured 

 by the hand of 4 in. 



Handrail. See " Staircase."- -The master craft work of the 

 staircase-builder, the " geometrical " or " continuous- hand- 

 rail " being the highest of its class ; like its base, it has an 

 interesting nomenclature, starting with a " newel " or 

 "scroll," "twist," "straight-length," "ramp," "swan- 

 neck," " wreath," " turn," and finishing on a landing. See 

 " Scroll," " Handrail-sections," " Staircase," " Balusters," 

 and " Rail and Railing." 



Handrailing. The science or craftmanship of making handrails, 

 which embraces the highest reaches of geometiy, and con- 

 stitutes a special branch to which few workmen attain. It 

 is a department in woodworking that has called for a number 

 of learned English and American works or publications ; 

 but away from the use of newels, features to which the 

 twentieth-century architects and builders incline, it has not, 

 as a high-art, been so much followed as was the case in the 

 preceding century. See " Rail and Railing." 



Handrail Punch. A short steel tool or implement " bull-nosed " 

 at the active end, used for turning the nuts of handrail 

 screws by punching, when the " nuts and washers " are in 

 action, tightening up the handrail-joints in fixing. See 

 " Handrail." 



Handrail Screws. Short iron rods with threads for iron nuts at 

 either end nicked on their outer face or pei'iphery to enable 

 them to be turned with a " handrail punch." Such screws 

 are used in making " headen- " or " butt- " joints, and came 

 into use in the eighteenth century to replace " built-up " or 

 " jointless " handrails. See " Handrail." 



Handrail Sections. Starting from the sixteenth century we find 

 them of ponderous size, as indeed were the newels and 

 balusters elaborately moulded, and mostly with a small bead 

 or roll moulding for " hand-hold " on the top. At the 

 opening of the nineteenth century the cross sections were 

 small plain 2| in. rounds or moulded sides, with little of 

 the Tudor feeling left. They are still usually " ogee," plain 

 or beaded at the sides, round or double-ogee at the top ; a 



