Research

After the potatoes, turnips, beets and vegetables, which will be used as animal feed, have been transferred from the kettle in which they were cooked (see potato spoon) to a tub, they are crushed with a potato masher. The potato masher is a wooden or iron stamper in all shapes. It can be a round piece of wood, thinner at the top than at the bottom. It can also be a round grid (approx. Diam. 13-15 cm) that is connected to the stem (approx. 55-80 cm) via a fork-shaped intermediate piece (approx. 20-25 cm). Sometimes the masher is also forged in the shape of an S. See also the potato masher to make puree. [MOT]

The priest is a light (approx. 150 gr) bat-shaped hand tool of about 30 cm long made of wood, copper or plastic and with or without a widened (diam. approx. 3-4 cm) end (length approx. 6-12 cm) which is often weighted with lead. With a priest, the angler gives the caught fish a short, hard blow to the head to switch off the brain. This either to kill the fish immediately or to stun it before killing it with another technique, such as slitting its throat, for example. The handle is also used in the same way on some folding fishing knives. [MOT]

After cutting a groove (see splitting chisel) and forming the nail holes in the horseshoe (see this stamp hammer), the farrier uses a horseshoe pritchel to punch through or enlarge the holes. The horseshoe pritchel is a long (approx. 25-40 cm) iron chisel that ends in a small rectangular (approx. 3 mm by 1.5 mm) point. See also the clinch cutter. [MOT]

(1) Proper name yet unknown.

This text can only be consulted in Dutch <https://www.mot.be/resource/Tool/polishing-iron-bookbinder?lang=nl>

This text can only be consulted in Dutch <https://www.mot.be/resource/Tool/priming-tool?lang=nl>

This text can only be consulted in Dutch <https://www.mot.be/resource/Tool/priem-mandenmaker?lang=nl>

This text can only be consulted in Dutch <https://www.mot.be/resource/Tool/probang-cattle?lang=nl>

This text can only be consulted in Dutch <https://www.mot.be/resource/Tool/poultry-shears?lang=nl>

The pruning shears are used to prune shrubs and vines, to pick flowers, etc. Nowadays they usually replace the pruning knife. It is often used by the basket maker in place of the curved knife to cut the twigs. The hand tool consists of two levers of the first type, which revolve around a spindle placed about one third of their length. The arms of about 15 cm are straight or slightly bent outwards. To keep the tool in place when not in use, a metal hook or leather ring is attached to the end of an arm; on recent models these have sometimes been replaced by a right next to the hub. During work, the scissors pop open thanks to a spring. The two curved blades of about 5 cm lie in the same plane as the arms (cf. thorn-hedge shears). One of these is usually thick and blunt today; the gardener must always ensure that the cutting blade is on the side of the trunk to obtain a smooth cut. On some recent models, a notch in one of the blades allows thin iron wire to be cut. There are also pruning...