Oooh - dialect.  

I had to look up piker.  
The tool? or process used to clear out the touch-hole   (scottish usage)  - I
guess that the tool, or process is somewhat like a full size pike, clearing out
someones innards, so to clear your touch-hole, you would ‘pike it’
(english dialect dictionary  https://archive.org/details/englishdialect
di04wriguoft/page/168/mode/2up?q=piker">https://archive.org/details/englishdiale
ctdi04wriguoft/page/168/mode/2up?q=piker )

on page 500 though, we find that it is indeed a tool.  ’The birse for cleaning
out the pan  and the piker for the motion hole’

I was feeling somewhat honoured, in an odd kind of way, when I consulted Heslop,
and found a completely alternative meaning

PIKE, a pointed or peaked pile of hay made up, like a 
temporary stack, in the hay-field till it can be carted to the 
farm-yard. A pike contains about one cart-load of hay. 
Piker, a builder of hay pikes. 

PIKER, the nose. A cant term. " Had up yor piker.” 

So.  Bill is calling me a nose.  I always thought I had a fine nose - for what
it is.  But beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so I’m not upset.

Hod on though.  More contemporary references exist, and they say 

PIKER
1. (Animals) Austral a wild bullock
2. Austral and NZ a useless person; failure
3. US and Austral and NZ a lazy person; shirker
4. a mean person
[C19: perhaps related to pike3]

and also 

PIKER

1. a person who does anything in a contemptibly small or cheap way.
2. a person who gambles or speculates in a cautious way.
[1275–1325; Middle English: petty thief =pik(en) to pick1 + -er -er1; compare
dial. (N England, Scots, Hiberno-E) pike topick1]



So it seems that Bill DOES know me, and my Yorkshire reputation for being a
tightwad.



I have to say though, that I was watching videos, as I usually do with home made
affairs, at one and half times speed.  The commentary is perfectly lucid, as
amateurs usually drone and drivel too much, and you get back a serious amount of
time.  If the action gets to be interesting or detailed, then you can slow down,
otherwise keep charging on.


And to stay on OldTools ground, the initial set up and hand adzing of the keel
and deadwood was very impressive, as is the planking - and the mistakes they
made, which were as interesting as the good bits - like fabricating the bronze
floors.  Good contrast between the design and making decisions of the two sets
of builders.  Leo turns up at one point, and they evidently have a good working
relationship between themselves.


Richard Wilson
A Tyke oop North.