October 18, 2006

I was reading R A Salaman's "Dictionary of Woodworking Tools"  and he has a page from the Ward & Payne 1911 catalog. Ward & Payne is most likely an English company, I think,  in part because it calls a Reefing Iron a Jerry Iron and spells "treenail" with one "e." It shows a treenail iron that is basically a heavy spike iron. Salaman writes " Like a Spike Iron but usually with a blunt edge about 1" wide. Used for splitting and spreading the head of a trenail before inserting a wedge or caulking material." My feeling is that it would have been beveled from both sides to start a straight slot for the wedge whereas a chisel bevel tends to run off to one side. But then why would the caulker have the need to drive treenail wedges? Is it possible while caulking the caulker would see need to reset wedges? I can't lay my hands on it right now but I seem to remember something about going over treenails and filling gaps where the wedges didn't sit right.

The catalog lists Sharp Irons and Bent Sharp Irons as what I would take to be thin caulking irons but Salaman (I believe wrongly) writes "Similar to the Set Iron but the edge is sharpened like a Chisel. Used for cutting out defective or unwanted threads of oakum." There is nothing listed in the page from the cataloge as a set iron. The person I learned caulking from said Butt Irons (Sharp Irons) were basically a chisel if the caulker needed to open up a tight butt. Because butts are end grain dumb irons won't open a butt like a regular seam and they need to be cut with a chisel.

As for Boot Irons Salaman has no picture but writes " Boot Iron. Illustrated by C.Drew & Co. (USA c. 1920) This has a foot splayed in a boot-shaped form. It is used to caulk deck seams that run under the sides of deck houses and under the cat-heads." The cataloge page also has a Fantail Reaming Iron that has the profile of a regular caulking iron, a Square Reaming Iron that has hard, square shoulders, and a deck iron that looks similar to Drew's Reaming Iron. I have seen pictures of a row of reaming irons in a seam as the caulker works up to it. For whatever its worth.

Rob Stevens