TOOLS. 



edge-tools, and other lefs important articles, are ufually 

 made with the firft-mentioned kind, united to a large pro- 

 portion of bar-iron. Clothiers' {hears, firmer chifels, plane- 

 irons, coopers' adzes, fcythes, reaping-hooks, and large 

 knives^ are commonly made with (liear-fteel : for the method 

 of manufafturing it, fee Steel. The fpur and ftar fteel 

 are ufed only for particular purpofes, according to the fancy 

 of the mafter cutler. Caft-lleel is ufed for the befl pen- 

 knives, fciffars, and razors ; and fine faws, furgical inttru- 

 ments, and all edge-tools which require a fine polifh, and 

 various other fhiplemeuts employed in cutting iron, are all 

 made with caft-ileel. The fuperior beauty of inftruments 

 made with caft-tloel would have occafioned a very great con- 

 fumption of this article, if it had not been for the difficulty 

 of welding, or uniting it properly with iron, and which oc- 

 cafioned its being ufed at firft only for thofe fmaller inftru- 

 ments, fuch as lancets and penknives, which .ire generally 

 made entirely of fteel. But fince the difcovery made by 

 fir Thomas Frankland (for which fee Weljding), caft-fteel 

 has been brought into more extenfive ufe, and the inftru- 

 ments that are thus conftrudted, are much better than thofe 

 which are made entirely of caft-fteel. The circumftance 

 of an inftrument having its back made of iron, renders it 

 not fo apt to fly from the work to which the edge or fteel 

 pait is apphed, and eventually lefs liable to break. 



Many artifts, long after the invention of caft-fteel, ufed 

 to unite it to the iron by means df rivets. Hoes are ftill 

 made by riveting or fcrewing the back, together with the 

 eye, upon a blade made with caft-fteel. We cannot mi- 

 nutely recite the various manipulations that are praftifed in 

 the manufacture of different edge-tools. The reader will 

 find information of a more ample kind in the work of Mr. 

 Parkes, above cited. (See alfo our article Cutlery.) 

 We (liall, however, feledl the following particulars : the 

 cooper's adze and the carpenter's axe are firft formed by 

 the white-fmitli, in iron, together with the eye for the helve. 

 The inftrument is then heated again, and the edge of the cut- 

 ting part is flit down with a chifel, and this flit is filled with a 

 thin piece of fteel, of a correfponding fize and form. The 

 iron, that has been flit upon, is folded down upon the fteel, 

 and the whole again heated to a welding heat, when the 

 fledge -hammer quickly unites the iron and the fteel into one 

 compaft mafs. Scythes and fuch other large inftruments 

 are forged at the mill, by means of a large hammer, moved 

 by water, and the procefs is called " flcelping." Augers, 



fouges, large chifels, table-knives, razors, and other in- 

 ruments of a fimilar bulk, are forged upon a large anvil 

 by the principal workman, aided by an afliftant called the 

 " ftriker," who ftrikes occafionally with a fledge-hammer. 

 Penknives, lancets, gravers, furgical inftruments, and otlier 

 fraall edge-tools, are generally forged on a fmall anvil firmly 

 fixed within a large one, in order to give greater fteadinefs. 

 Thefe are ufually fafliioned out of fteel only, and forged by 

 one workman fingly and alone. Sciflbrs are alfo forged by 

 a fingle hand ; but the anvil on which they are faftiioned is 

 of a peculiar conftruftion, having boffes or dies, and beak 

 irons of various fizes occafionally adapted to it, fo as to 

 fuit the different fliapes and dimenfions of the feparate parts 

 of thefe particular inftruments. 



It ftiould have been noticed, that many other tools be- 

 fides the axe and the adze are originally forged out of a piece 

 of iron, with a little fteel welded to it for the cutting part 

 of the inftrument. 



The real Damafcus fword-blades are faid to be compofed 

 of flips or thin rods of iron and fteel bound together with 

 iron wire, and then firmly cemented together by welding. 



It is well known that it is the circumftance of drawing 



down the flieai--ileel under the tilt-hammer that gives it the fit' 

 periority over common fteel. ( See TiLT-Z/aw/ntr, and Tilt- 

 ing of Steel.) Mr. Bingley therefore fuggetts in his patent, 

 that, if he could roll out his fteel much thinner than 

 it had ever been done before, he fliould much improve its 

 quahty : and accordingly a very thin piece of fteel is let into 

 tlie face of a plane-iron made of caft-iron ; and, as the fteel 

 for this particular purpofe has to go through tlie rollers fe- 

 veral times to make it fufficiently thin, it becomes of a pe- 

 cuhar texture, and the tool miide with it is found to fuit the 

 joiner much better than the plane-irons heretofore in ufe. 



In the manufafture of edge-tools, the procefs which im- 

 mediately fucceeds the forging is that oi hardening. All thefe 

 cutting inftruments are therefore faftiioned when the metal is 

 in its original foft ftate ; and when they have attained the 

 intended forms, they are heated afrefti to a particular tempe- 

 rature fuitable to the article. When they have acquired that 

 degree of heat^ they are inftantly plunged"into cold water, 

 which gives them great hardnefs, and renders them capable 

 of cutting foft iron, or even fteel. See Tempering. 

 - Tools, Draining, in ^-Agriculture, the various kinds of 

 tools which are employed in performing this fort of work, 

 inch as fjl>ndes, Jhovels, /coops, draining angers, boring augers 

 or roils, J'oJ-inives, &c. See thefe heads. 



Tools, J^opping or Pruning, in Rural Economy, the 

 various tools, fuch as hedge-bills, lai'ge knives, axes, faws, 

 ehifels, &c. ufed in taking off the fide-flioots and branches 

 of foreft-trees. And lately an inftrument uniting feve- 

 ral of thefe properties has been invented, wliich is very 

 convenient, and readily difpatches the bufinefs. It is de- 

 fcribed as below in the firft volume of the " Memoirs of the 

 Caledonian Horticultural Society," where a rcprefentation 

 of it is alfo given. It is perfettly fimple in its form, having 

 merely two edged hooks, projefting from a focket-fliank 

 three inches in length, the breadth of which, where the 

 hooks fpring off, is two inches and two-tenths of an inch ; 

 the' hooks themfelves projeft from the fhank three inches ; 

 between them, and on the top or upper fide, is placed a ftrong 

 chifel, four inches in breadth, and one inch in depth ; the 

 whole tool or inftrument being about eight inches in width. 

 The length of the wooden handle mult, of courfe, be in 

 proportion to the lieight and fize of the trees to be lopped or 

 pruned, as in different lengths, from ilx to eighteen feet, 

 which laft is, it is faid, as long as a man can well and pro- 

 perly manage them. Where trees require lopping or pruning 

 to a greater height tlian the above length of fhaft or handle, 

 a ladder is to be made ufe of for the purpofe, and one of the 

 fliort-handled tools or inftruments. 



It is noticed, that the hook part is what is principally 

 made ufe of, which cuts the branch from the upper iide : 

 tlie chifel is only employed when fnags are left, and where 

 branches. are too ftrong for the hooks ; in which cafes, the 

 chifel is firft made to ftrike the branch from below ; but a 

 mallet is never ufed. 



It is obferved that fir-trees will certainly be greatly im- 

 proved by lopping and pruning with this tool, both as to 

 growth and quality of timber ; but that care fliould be had 

 not to over-ci't or prune them. Larches will, it is faid, 

 always (hew when that is the cafe with them, by breaking 

 out into numerous unnatural branches ; but that it may not 

 be fo foon noticed in Scotch, fpruce, and other firs, which, 

 however, have generally a ftunted appearance for fome years 

 afterwards, and that it fometimes occafions their dejith. 

 Four or five tiers of branches fliould always, it is thought, 

 be left, particularly on young trees ; and that on larches 

 there fliould be ftill more. 



TouL«, Scraping, in Jlgriculture and Rural Economy, the 



feveral 



