The Ancient Bronze Implements, Weapons, and Ornaments, of Great Britain and Ireland.Evans, John
History
The Ancient Bronze Implements, Weapons, and Ornaments, of Great Britain and Ireland.
Evans, John
Bronze age -- Great Britain; Bronze age -- Ireland; Great Britain -- Antiquities
A smaller chisel, conical at the butt end and possibly intended for
insertion into a handle, is shown in Fig. 191. The original is in the
collection of Canon Greenwell, F.R.S., and was found with numerous
other bronze antiquities in the Heathery Burn Cave, Durham, already
so often mentioned. One rather larger, about 3 inches long and 1/5 inch
broad, probably found in one of the barrows at Lake[570] or Durnford,
is in the collection of the Rev. E. Duke, of Lake House, near
Salisbury. It may possibly have been a large awl.
An Aztec[571] chisel of nearly the same form as Fig. 191, and about 4½
inches long, contains 97·87 copper and 2·13 of tin. Another from Lima
contains 94 copper and 6 of tin.
The small bronze chisel from Scotland, shown in Fig. 192, exhibits
a somewhat different type; the blade tapering evenly away from the
edge. The point which was intended to go into the handle appears to
have been “drawn down” a little by hammering, which has produced
slight flanges at the sides. The edge has also been hammered. The
original was kindly lent me by the Rev. George Wilson, of Glenluce,
Wigtonshire, and was found, with a conical button and a flat plate
of cannel-coal or jet, on the Sandhills of Low Torrs, near Glenluce.
Numerous arrow-heads and flakes of flint have also been found among
the sands at the same place.
A flat chisel (4½ inches) like Fig. 192, but rather broader at the
edge, which is somewhat oblique, was found with two flat sickles on
Sparkford Hill,[572] Somersetshire.
There were some small chisels of this class in the Larnaud hoard[573]
(Jura).
Others have been found in the Swiss Lake-dwellings.[574]
Two shorter edged tools, found at Ebnall,[575] Salop, which have been
described as chisels or hammers, seem rather to have been punches, and
will be mentioned subsequently.
As chisels were probably used in ancient times, as at present, not only
in conjunction with a mallet, but also in the hand alone with pressure
as paring-tools, it would have been found convenient to attach them to
wooden or horn handles. Accordingly we find them both provided with a
tang or shank for driving into a wooden handle, like the majority of
modern chisels, and also, though more rarely, with a socket for the
reception of a handle, like the heavy mortising chisels of the present
day. Chisels of the tanged variety vary considerably in size and
strength, and in the relative width of the blade to the length.
[Illustration: Fig. 192*. Carlton Rode. ½]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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