WOW!!  Everything you ever wanted to know about race knives!

  I am impressed! And this from a lurker! Please let us hear from you=20
more often.

On Saturday, May 24, 2003, at 09:55  PM, birkyjw wrote:

> Race knives & Timber Scribes
> Well GAM AND SCOTT have caused me to leave my cozy library under the=20=

> porch!!!!
> There goes my record for the longest lived dweller below the clattery=20=

> porch
> boards..
>  Because the two tools under discussion are among the favorites in my
> accumulations, I will sally forth on my research on the subject!
>
> Did not find anything in Moxon 1703, so start with what Joseph Smiths
> Explanation or Key 1816 has for us. Only one FOLDING RACE KNIFE /=20
> BLADE.
>
>  R. Timmins & Sons, Birmingham pattern book C.1845 portrays 16 FIXED=20=

> BLADE
> TIMBER SCRIBES!! All with fixed points for making circles. Philip=20
> Walker states
> in The Victorian Catalogue or Tools for Trades & Crafts =93concerning=20=

> the timber
> scribes, also known as race knives, were designed to cut shallow=20
> circular &
> straight grooves into a wooden surface. They were used by coopers &=20
> other
> trades to mark their work with letters and numbers.=94
>
>  My 1896 Hammacher, Schlemmer & Co. catalogue shows picture of FOLDING=20=

> KNIFE as
> a race knife, and a picture of a FIXED BLADE/ POINT as a timber=20
> scribe. I
> PERSONALLY AGREE WITH THIS CALL...
>
>  Chas. A. Strelinger 1897 catalogue Woodworking Tools, shows a FIXED=20=

> POINT &
> GROVER, calling it a race knife or timber scribe! BOO.
>
>  R. A. Salaman Dictionary of Tools C. 1700 -1970 says =93  Timber=20
> Scribes: ( race
> knives; scorer; screives or scrieve hook; scriving knife; skiving=20
> iron; raze
> knife.) The simplest type consists of a steel blade with the end bent=20=

> round to
> form a sharp gouge like cutter; This excavates a groove (or Race) when=20=

> pulled
> toward the user. Others incorporate a central spike and a second=20
> cutter for
> making circular grooves, and an additional DRAG-KNIFE for scribing=20
> numbers and
> letters. They were used by foresters, timber merchants, shipwrights,=20=

> coopers,
> and other tradesmen to inscribe  serial numbers, letters. or code=20
> marks on
> timber and wooden objects. Medieval carpenters used  ascribe (or a v-=20=

> shaped
> chisel) to mark the members of a wood-framed building. This was done=20=

> to ensure
> that when the parts of the frame were transported to the site for=20
> erection each
> tenon would be fitted into the mortice for which it was intended.
>  Special uses. Shipwrights, who commonly call this tool a Scrive Hook,=20=

> use it
> for marking out the plan of the ships frame on the Scrive Board. The=20=

> drawings
> are =91layed off=94 in full size on this board, which occupies the =
greater=20
> part of
> the floor. Since they are frequently walked over, any markings less=20
> pertinent
> than an actual incision on the face of the board might become=20
> obliterated.
> Coopers sometimes use a Timber Scribe for cutting a croze groove in=20
> very small
> casks. A large size of Timber Scribe is used for rubber tapping.
>
>  A. Sellens Dictionary of American Hand Tools states: Timber Scribes:=20=

> ( also
> called  gaugers; marking iron; race knife and timber groover. A tool=20=

> used to
> cut an identification mark in the end of a log or plank.
>
>  William Marples; Sheffield 1909 Catalogue shows both FIXED, FOLDING =20=

> AND
> ADJUSTABLE, under the title  TIMBER SCRIBES showing both fixed and=20
> folding!
>
>  My 1927 Winchester catalogue has one FOLDING race knife 3 5/8=92 =
long.=20
> It is
> called a Lumberman=92s race knife..
>
>  In 1929 Henry Mercer  wrote in Ancient Carpenters=92 Tools, RACE =
KNIFE=20
> =93the
> lumberman=92s  little two- or three- pronged timber scribe or scorer=20=

> used to
> register tallies, numerals, crosses, circles, etc. on log ends, balks=20=

> or boards
> for selling them, or otherwise to mark the parts of worked up material=20=

> in
> assembling it into framework. The fixed point of this tool will form a=20=

> centre
> of a circle inscribed with its hinged scoop point, while the fixed=20
> scoop, also
> used singly, cuts hollow channels. The race knife was used by coopers=20=

> to mark
> barrels or barrel parts, or by lumbermen to scribe or number balk or=20=

> log ends,
> or by carpenters to register junctions for heavy framework. A simpler=20=

> form of
> this tool ( see =93Race Knife,=94  Knight) consists of a single, steel=20=

> scoop-point
> fixed in a wooden handle.
>
> John Horsley in Tools of the Maritime Trade states a RACING KNIFE was=20=

> a small
> knife used for marking lines with a cut- known as racing, whether done=20=

> with a
> knife, point of a compass or any other point. I have know for some=20
> time that
> shipwrights carved a line around the ship and filled it with white=20
> lead to
> denote the full capacity line, if not heeded you were on your own or=20=

> on the
> bottom of the bay!
>
>  So in conclusion me thinks that a RACE KNIFE FOR THE MOST PART IS A=20=

> FOLDER AND
> A FIXED POINT IS A TIMBER SCRIBE! The uses of either were used by=20
> Electricians,
> Coopers, Shipwrights, Carpenters, Barnwrights Bridgebuilders and=20
> Foresters.
>  Then to confuse things even more there is the lowly BARK BLAZER;-)=20
> REGARDS
> ibjb
>
>
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