Scrape

“ But the Best of all is the Knife of Heat, which is the Scraper; for when he is Hot, Scraping of him gets all the Sweat and Moysture out of him, so that he is Dry presently after, and all that Wett would turn to Dust, so there is so much Labour saved. ”

“ Frequently the large flat spalls knocked from blocks or chunks of flint in shaping them, or in obtaining pieces to work, are of such form that very little additional labor converts them into serviceable scrapers, knives, spears, or arrows. A number of such pieces are found in the collection. These, however, are not considered in the flakes now to be described:
A. Edges bluntly chipped (from the concave side) for use as scrapers. They may or may not have notches for attachment to a handle. ”

“ CI, fig 2.
Scrapers have also been found in both hemispheres and in all ages. There are the same differences in material, form, and appearance as in the polished stone hatchet. There is one difference to be mentioned of this utensil—i. e., in America the scraper has been sometimes made with a stem and with notches near the base, after the manner of arrow- [Pg 979] and spear-heads, evidently intended to aid, as in the arrow- and spear-head, in fastening the tool in its handle. This peculiarity is not found in Europe, or, if found, is extremely rare. ”

“ When the flakes have been chipped into the scraper form at both ends they may be termed double-ended scrapers—to which class circular scrapers also belong; where a sort of handle has been worked they may be termed spoon-shaped, and where the butt has been chipped to a sharp chisel-edge, at right angles to the flat face, they have been called tanged scrapers. ”

“ In time primitive peoples, including the Mound-builders and the Indians, came to make more pretentious knife-blades, like that shown as “D.”
Scrapers of various sorts were made from flint, and served many purposes. The simplest form, a mere flake of flint, is the top specimen in “A,” while an improved type, with notches for securing it to a handle is shown below it. They were used for scraping wood, bone and stone, in making tools and ornaments, and for removing the fat from skins, before tanning. ”

“ These implements hardly could be used without handles. Fig. 5 represents, in natural size, one of my specimens, which was found on the surface near West Belleville, Saint Clair County, Illinois. The material is a yellowish-brown flint. The edge, it will be seen, is perfectly scraper-like. Inserted into a stout handle, this object would make an excellent scraper. The edge of this specimen is not polished, but it seems as if small particles of the edge had been scaled off by the pressure exerted in the use of the implement. ”

“ If the scraper is of wood, the leather will suffer less, but there will be caused grooves in the scraper that must be planed out again, because otherwise each following impression will show a more or less plain streak. If the scraper is of metal, the leather may tear or the stone itself may be injured if the foreign substance in the paper is very hard. Therefore it is well to hold the paper to the light before dampening or printing and to remove any apparent defect of magnitude with a little knife. ”

“ Among some hundreds of scrapers, principally from the Yorkshire Wolds, I have met with between twenty and thirty which show decided marks of being worn away along the circular edge, by friction. In some, the edge is only worn away sufficiently to remove all keenness or asperity, and to make it feel smooth to the touch, and this perhaps along one part only of the arc. In others, the whole edge is completely rounded, and many of the small facets by which it was originally surrounded, entirely effaced. ”

“ It is made of a segment of a flake, one edge and the sides of which have been trimmed to a scraper-like edge, and the other merely made straight. The resemblance between this and some of the ancient "scrapers" is manifest. Another strike-a-light flint, which I bought at a stall in Trier, is about 2 inches long by 13/8 inches broad, and is made from a flat flake, trimmed to a nearly square edge at the butt-end, and to a very flat arc at the point, both the trimmed edges being of precisely the same character as those of scrapers. ”

“ Among modern artificers in wood, bone, ivory, or metal, scraping tools play a far more important part than would at first sight appear probable, looking at the abundance and perfection of our cutting tools and files. The latter, indeed, are merely compound forms of "scrapers."
Fig. 226a.—North of Ireland.
A less symmetrical hollow scraper from the Culbin Sands [78] has been engraved; as has been another which Dr. Joseph Anderson [79] used in the production of an arrow-shaft, and which he found to be a very efficient tool. ”

“ If the scraper is quite straight and sharp, it will with gentle handling bring the surfaces very flat, no movement or wriggling being perceptible when placed together, or there may be in very good work a slight kind of suction by the air being driven out from between them. ”

“ These implements were probably used as knives or scrapers, being set into the end of a piece of antler, which may in turn have been set into a larger handle of wood. That some were knives is shown by the edge which is dulled to a flat polished surface extending from side to side; and that many were scrapers is shown by their celt-scraper shape, a half elliptical section, or by the scraper-form edge, seen in the largest specimen. Some, however, have the edge symmetrical, as in the hatchet-celts. One has incurved sides, and is roughened on the sides and on the faces near the top. ”

“ In smoothing hard wood surfaces, a scraper will be found helpful. If the grain should happen to be crossed or curled, a scraper will become a necessity. The plane-iron may be made ever so sharp and the cap-iron set ever so close to the cutting edge, still the surface of some woods will tear. Sandpaper must not be depended upon to smooth a torn surface. ”

“ Coats were discarded and brooms wielded with such good will that all the floored portion of the lower story was speedily cleared of its heavy deposit of dust and dirt. As fast as this was removed, the steel scrapers were put to work and, by the time the long shadows warned of supper time, a creditable showing had been made. ”

“ If the paper has impurities, it injures the scraper readily. A groove scratched into the scraper will prevent any further good impression if the injury is considerable, because it will leave a streak. The only remedy is to take the scraper off and plane it, fashioning it accurately to the surface of the stone. ”

“ In these districts it is only necessary to go slowly over a ploughed field after a period of heavy rain to be fairly certain to pick up a flint knife, a beautifully chipped arrow-head, or an implement of less obvious purpose, generally described as a scraper. ”

“ The inner face is beautifully smooth and flat. Some of these scraper-like tools are more square at the end, and chipped and worn along both sides, having evidently seen much service. So far as form is concerned, there is little or nothing to distinguish them from the analogous instruments of the Neolithic Period. Such scrapers also occur in most of the caves which have furnished implements in France and Belgium, and usually in much greater proportional abundance than has been the case in Kent's Cavern. ”

“ In observing a number of paleolithic or neolithic scrapers that are made from flakes which are retouched on one side only, one finds that the direction from which the retouching took place is almost always oriented in the same manner with respect to the sides of the flake. If one calls the under or bulb side of the flake the front and the outer side the back, one sees that the blows or the pressure which produced the marginal working was executed almost always from the front toward the back, that the tiny scars left by the chipping begin at the margin and extend over the back. ”

“ Spinden, p. 187, Fig. 32, Plate VII.
Tools Used by Women.
A number of implements were found which may have served for the preparation of skins and for sewing. Among these may be mentioned skin scrapers, awls, a needle, and a mat presser.
Fig. 53 (202-8302) . Scraper chipped from a Flat Circular Pebble. From the surface of the bank of Columbia River near the head of Priest Rapids. 1⁄2 nat. size.
Fig. 54 (202-8307) . Scraper or Knife chipped from a Pebble. From the surface of the bank of Columbia River, near the head of Priest Rapids. 1⁄2 nat. size. ”

“ Besides being used for scraping hides, and preparing leather, it has been suggested, by Canon Greenwell, [53] that they might have served for making pins and other small articles of bone, and also for fabricating arrow-heads and knives of flint. As to this latter use I am doubtful, but before entering into the question of the purposes which implements of the "scraper" form were in ancient times intended to serve, it will be well to examine the evidence of wear afforded by the implements themselves. ”

“ In the meantime a stone should be adjusted upon the bed of the press, rubbed over with pumice powder, and warmed—this may be easily effected by pouring spirits over the stone and igniting it. A suitable scraper—one which, when pressed against the stone, allows no light to pass between, and which should not be wider than the stone—is adjusted in the scraper box. ”

“ Its convex face shows a great many more facets than is usual with the scrapers of the Neolithic Period. A more characteristic scraper is that from High-Lodge Hill, Fig. 426. It is mainly among the implements found in a matrix of clay, or on a "Palæolithic floor," that these more delicate forms occur. They are not only more likely to have been injured by rolling, but when they form constituent parts of beds of gravel are also less liable to attract observation than are the larger implements. ”

“ If the scraper has been made properly, it will adjust itself to the stone, even if the scraper arm is not quite plumb on the stone, a condition that often occurs with small work, such as titles and other things that are at the end of a stone.
(5) For every press a number of scrapers of different dimensions must be in stock. Generally a lever press is so made that the printing-frame can be raised or lowered according to the thickness of the stone. ”

“ When a scraper becomes dull (1) each edge is drawfiled, Fig. 121, so as to make it square and straight, with the corners slightly rounded. Sometimes the edges are rounded slightly from end to end to prevent digging. [73] Frequently the scraper has its edges and surfaces ground square on an oilstone after the drawfiling that the arrises may be formed into smoother burs. (2) After filing, the scraper is laid flat on the bench and the arrises forced over as in Fig. 122. The tool used is called a burnisher; any smooth piece of steel would do. ”

“ A Scraper is about the best appliance that can be had for cleaning snow from the steps, especially when the snow [Pg 171] has turned to slush. For the making of one of these, prepare a seven-eighths inch board sixteen inches long by four inches wide. Bevel the lower edge and nail a two inch strip below the top, as at A in Fig. 180. Bore a hole through both thicknesses of wood at B and fit a broom-handle in it, bracing the handle with a piece of wire run from a small hole bored in the handle at C to the ends of the scraper. ”

“ Scraping with pieces of glass is an antiquated, clumsy method.
When scraping, the press should lie flat on the table edge, the other end being supported by the press-jack. In scraping, the blade is held in both hands, scraping away from the worker, the scraper sloping forwards. The press must be made immovable. Scraping is continued until all places have been gone over and the whole is perfectly smooth [Pg 75] and even. When this is accomplished, the edges are thinly coated with paste, which is well rubbed in along the sheets with a bundle of waste paper until the edges look as if burnished. ”

“ Cabinet scrapers for plane and convex surface work are rectangular pieces of saw steel. Fig. 118 shows a swan-neck scraper suitable for smoothing concave surfaces.
Beginners frequently mistake surfaces which have been planed at a mill for smooth surfaces. They are not; and, unless the “hills and hollows” which extend across the surface of every mill-planed piece of lumber are removed before the finish of stain or filler is applied, the result will be very unsatisfactory. ”

“ The handles vary in size to fit the hands of the owners, but are all too small for an average white man’s hand. All that we collected are for the right hand.
Fig. 297.—Flint blade for skin scraper.
This pattern of skin scraper which appears from the Museum collections to be the prevailing one from Point Barrow to Norton Sound, is evidently the direct descendant of the form used still farther south, which consists of a stone or bone blade of the same shape, mounted on a wooden handle often a foot or 18 inches long, which has the other end bent down into a handle like the butt of a pistol. ”

“ Sir E. Colt Hoare has recorded the discovery of what appear to be two discoidal scrapers, with a flint spear-head or dagger, a small hone or whetstone, and a cone and ring of jet, like a pulley, accompanying an interment, near Durrington Walls. [15] He terms them little buttons of chalk or marl; but from the engraving it would seem that they were scrapers—probably of flint, much weathered, or altered in structure. It seems likely that many more may have escaped his notice, as they are of common occurrence in the tumuli in Wiltshire, as well as in the other parts of Britain. ”