ID-DOC: general search

This gouge is to be distinguished from the carver's gouge, the carpenter's carving gouge and the clog maker's gouge.

In the past, the pleats in hats, lace, etc. were applied with a heated goffer. The mouth of the tool is wide and wavy on the inside. Goffering irons could also be used, but their mouth is narrower and consists of two long round rods. Larger pieces were passed through a fluted roller. [MOT]

Elongated (approx. 30 cm), monoxile conical stick with a straight handle - distinguishable from the curling iron - which is used to stretch and widen the fingers of gloves, eg after washing. Glove stretchers can also be used for the same purpose. [MOT]

(1) (1) Proper name unknown.

Grindstone dresser. This text can only be consulted in Dutch. [MOT]

The hachoir is a knife with a semicircular blade and a straight handle attached in the top center of the blade. It is used to finely chop small quantities of herbs, which are placed in the corresponding concave wooden bowl. Thus, one can either move the knife back and forth and cut the herbs or chop up and down with the blade perpendicular to the bottom. In the meantime, the bowl should be turned from time to time. [MOT]

After the grain has been threshed with the flail and the grain straw has been removed, grains, chaff, clods, short straw, stones and other impurities remain together. Some of the impurities are removed with the help of the grain sieve. By shaking the sieve back and forth, the grains fall through, leaving chaff and short straw behind. The grain sieve is also used to separate chaff from dust / sand (1). The flax worker also uses a grain sieve to separate the linseed from the chaff after threshing (see bruising mail). The grain sieve is a large (diam. 50-100 cm) round sieve (2) with 2-3 wooden rings (height approx. 10-20 cm) between which a flat perforated bottom of metal (zinc) or leather (3) is clamped. In the latter the small round or elongated holes (diam. 1-2 mm; center distance approx. 4 mm) (4) are punched with a punch. The center of the sieve bottom is often decorated with a figure, a date, initials and / or place name. Sometimes 1, 3 or 4 holes or slots are provided in the edge to hang the screen from ropes...

The grass hook is used by the gardener and do-it-yourselfer to cut some grass and weeds on small areas. It is a small scythe consisting of a slightly curved sharp steel blade (approx. 30-40 cm) with a wide back and ending in a point, which is fixed at right angles to a wooden handle (approx. 10-80 cm). The scythe with short handle is used stooping with one hand; the one with a long, usually straight handle is held with both hands and used while standing. Sometimes the long stem has a slight kink about 12 inches from the tip. See also the grass whip. [MOT]

Steel comb with long (approx. 2.5-5 cm), flat and relatively flexible teeth, which is used by the house painter to imitate wood. Often there is a series of combs, all made of steel and of different widths (approx. 2.5-10 cm), with fine (approx. 1 mm) and coarse (approx. 3 mm) teeth, packed in a tin box. There are also painters' combs whose teeth are much firmer and are set in a wooden handle; these combs are used for marble. [MOT]

Hammer (approx. 150-500 gr) with a narrow (approx. 1-2 cm) head used by the glazier to knock small nails into the window frame. There are different models: with two square faces, two round faces and with one round face and a wedge-shaped pin. Often the handle of the glazier's hammer is finished as a glazing lever. To be distinguished from the upholsterer's hammer. [MOT]

Grapes can be harvested with a grape knife or grape shears. With the latter one obtains a much nicer cut than with a harvesting knife. The shears have two narrow blades (approx. 1 cm) with a straight cut; the arms can be made of metal or consist of a wooden covering around a metal plate. They are held together by a ring that is located on the bottom of one arm and that can be fastened around the other arm. There is a spring between the arms. See also grape scissors. [MOT]

The grain shovel is a wooden shovel (approx. 150 cm long) used to stir the grain and to scoop it into the winnowing machine and bags. See also grain scoop and grain scoop bin. To be distinguished from the mould board shovel. [MOT]

With grape scissors you can easily cut grapes from a bunch at the table. They are scissors with short (approx. 3-5 cm), narrow (approx. 5 mm) blades with a blunt tip and long (approx. 10 cm) arms. The tips are blunt so that the grapes are not damaged when cut. These scissors are often decorated with grape motifs.See also grape shears. [MOT]

A miniature pruning knife (approx. 15 cm) with a short blade (approx. 4-5 cm) with which grapes are harvested. Not infrequently, the end of the suture forms a ring where the little finger can be inserted. The knife is mainly used in the Bordelais area. [MOT]

Kitchen utensil for grating vegetables. It consists of a metal plate with rows of holes 'punched out'. The vegetables are sanded back and forth on this rough surface and finely grated. There are flat, rectangular, pyramid, semicircular, round, etc. graters. The grater can also be mounted on a tray in which the finely grated goods are collected. There may be several grating surfaces with smaller holes each time for finer grating. Often there is also a sharp groove in the grating surface that serves as a slicer. There are also composite kitchen utensils that, in addition to a grater, can also be used as a butter cutter, apple corer and vegetable peeler. To grate nutmeg, special graters are used (see nutmeg grater). In addition to the kitchen grater, vegetables can also be grated using a rotary grater. This allows even the smallest pieces to be rinsed up completely. See also potato grater and soap shaver. [MOT]

English translation in progress. You can find more technical information about the grindstone on this page in dutch. [MOT]

You can roast a slice of bread, a piece of meat or fish over hot coals or a flame on this roasting grid. Such a grill is made of iron (wire), may or may not have legs and can be single or double. The latter can be squeezed shut; the axis is at the head end. [MOT]

Light scissors (approx. 50 g), made entirely of metal - possibly with plastic-covered arms - with triangular narrow (approx. 1 cm) blades, with which the hairdresser cuts hair. The hairs are taken per strip between index and middle fingers and cut to the desired length. The tailor also uses such scissors to cut delicate fabrics such as lingerie. See also thinning scissors. [MOT]

This text can only be consulted in Dutch.See also the spinning hackle. [MOT]

Garden tool consisting of a usually 130-150 cm long (1) wooden handle with three to five - but always in an odd number - curved iron teeth for opening and turning the soil. The working part (approx. 10 to 25 cm wide) can be fixed or exchangeable. In the latter case, you can choose the number of teeth. The tips of the teeth are oval or triangular flattened. In contrast to the garden hoe, with the hand cultivator the solid underlying soil, with the sharp flat points and by its pulling movement, is slightly raised and opened up. The middle tines of a hand cultivator are slightly shorter so that the soil clod can be crumbled. To be distinguished from the grubber, which is narrower and mainly serves to break the ground superficially. See also the manual towed hand cultivator and hand wheel hoe. [MOT]

The halfmoon knife is used by leatherworkers and in particular by the saddler, to cut rigid leather to size. It has a semicircular blade (approx. 20 cm) and a straight handle attached exactly above the center of the blade. With the medieval halfmoon knife, the handle is horizontal to the top of the blade. You can make a long, beautiful cut with this knife, while the hand exerts full pressure force. The angle of the halfmoon knife is placed on the leather and according to the circumference of the knife, the leather is cut through on the marked line. At the end point, the knife is repositioned until the entire cut has been completed. Keeping the knife horizontal, you cut into the thickness of the leather or bevel the edge. [MOT]

The hand harrow is a small harrow that is pulled by one worker to loosen, crumble and flatten the top layer of digged or plowed soil. It is also used to work fertilizers and seeds into the soil. The hand harrow consists of a wooden or iron, usually triangular, frame in which wooden or iron round, square or diamond-shaped teeth (approx. 12-16 cm) protrude at an angle. Sometimes the distance between the teeth is adjustable (1). Depending on the slope and the direction of pull, the tines penetrate 1 to 7 cm deep into the soil. The pull rope is attached to one corner of the frame. It is pulled by means of a cross stick or a shoulder strap (2). See also soil rake, rotary tiller (hand) and hoe with rake. [MOT] (1) Eg. Manufrance: 697. (2) Eg. Manufrance: 697.

Hand tool consisting of a square (approx. 1 cm), curved blade (approx. 6-8 cm long) in cross-section, ending in a pointed tip. It is attached at right angles to a relatively long (approx. 25-35 cm) wooden handle, which widens at the end. It is used for weeding between plants. See also the weeding fork and moss scraper. [MOT]

In crops growing in rows, the roots of weeds are cut with the hand wheel hoe; they are sometimes also used to break the crust so that a better air circulation is created and to counteract the capillary effect - and thus the drying out. The hand wheel hoe usually consists of two metal wheels (diam. Approx. 35 cm), each with a rod on the axle that keeps a metal plate, just behind the wheel, at the correct height. Both trapezoidal plates, connected by a bracket, are provided with 2-3 slots into which the oblique knives or hoes can be screwed to the desired width. The whole is pushed in front of you by means of two wooden arms (approx. 130 cm). There are also hand wheel hoes with one wheel with which you can hoe between two rows of plants, as opposed to the model with two wheels, which works on both sides of one row of plants. Nowadays there is a model with a rubber wheel (approx. Diam. 25-60 cm) where the hoes can be replaced by the blade of a hand ridger or hand cultivator (1). [MOT] (1)...

After the plants and grass from the ditch side have been mowed, the (small) ditches are manually cleared of sludge and dirt that impedes the water flow. The tool also serves to dredge ponds and other water features. The cleaning of the ditches is done at low tide, after a period of drought. One starts at the lowest point and against the current. More technical information on the dutch version of this tool page. See also the drag-net. [MOT]

Cellular, foam or aerated concrete is a concrete product with gas bubbles in it, making the material light, strong and easy to work with with the aerated concrete handsaw and with the stonemason's French drag. The aerated concrete handsaw has a thick (approx. 1.5 mm) tapered blade (approx. 50-70 cm). The large carbide (widia) teeth (30-40) are angled forward, so they saw when pushing the tool. See also the handsaw. [MOT]

This hand ratchet brace works on the same principle as the common brace but has a lever instead of a U-shaped bracket. This lever works according to a ratchet mechanism and can be moved with back and forth strokes. Where there is no room for the normal brace, this type can be used. See also the engineer's ratchet brace for metal. [MOT]

With the ham slicer, pieces of ham are cut into very thin slices. It has a narrow (approx. 1.5-2 cm) and long (approx. 25-30 cm) very flexible blade with a rounded tip that cannot tear the thin slices. The cut can be smooth, wavy or serrated. See also the carving knife. [MOT]