Hoping this ain't a hoe

[Mike H]

Purchased this at a garage sale this morning (Sun. 2-9-14)
Bought with 4 other pieces:
Starrett Flat dividers, 7/16" drill bit, inclinometer & homemade molding plane

The item in pictures was made by the BURYS&Co firm out of Sheffield, England
They apparently made a lot of stuff including "edge tools". This thing has a little bit of an edge
to it and the rectangular bar to attach to a handle one presumes, is straight. If this was a
garden hoe you'd think that would be curved.
Anyhow, anybody got any use theories?

[scottg]

It looks like a clapboard slick to me. The handle on the end should be a D or a T handle. For quick rough fitting of siding boards going onto your house or barn.
   yours Scott

[wvtools]

Scott,

I cannot remember where I saw it, but the clapboard slick is for breaking off the clapboards after a log is cut lengthwise and radially to make the boards.  They do not cut all the way through, so that the core holds the boards.  This tool is jammed in and used to break off the boards in succession as you roll the log around on the saw bucks.  I will look around and see if I can find the reference.

JMH

[Mike H]

Scott: On your suggestion, I Googled Clapboard Slick and came up with
picture  that looks pretty similar. 21" length w/ T handle. Made by D.R. Barton.
For the record- the rectangular bar on right side of photo of the overall head of my tool
has no holes for mounting a handle.
Thanks for information

[rusty]

Did not find a catalog, but did find a neat illustration of the factory...(1879)

Perhaps it was made here....

[mikeswrenches]

John, you are correct.  I've seen a similar picture.

Mike

[Billman49]

Hi

It's a blade from a strirrup adze - common in Spain, but not in the UK. However, many UK makers made blades for export to Spain  & Portugal and their colonies. They are also found in southern France. Salaman calls them a Slot Adze or Brazilian Adze (p29, 2nd edition). Handles were not usually supplied (only the strirrup), it being up to the user to make their own - hence a wide variety of handle shapes, some simple, some fancifully carved.....

The blade may well have been mis-used as a clapboard chisel or slick, but it was not made for this purpose. Most are flat with a curved cutting edge (with a single bevel), and the tang or spur offset with a pronounced heel where it meets the blade. The underside of the blade is flat. Rarer, some blades are slightly convex...

[mikeswrenches]

Mike H, How long is the handle on your tool?  A question we should have asked earlier.

Mike

[Billman49]

More info on Bury & Co can be found at http://www.hillsboroughowlertonlocalhistory.co.uk/downloads/middlewood.pdf

The goods manufactured by Messrs.Burys& Co., Limited, consist chiefly of the following:-
crucible cast steel, double and single shear steel, blister steel, spring steel, Bessemer
steel in bars and sheets, rolled, tilted, and forged in special and suitable tempers for all
purposes. Also crucible steel castings, files and rasps of all kinds cut entirely by hand; light
and heavy edge tools for carpenters, coopers, ,joiners, millwrights, &c., carving tools,
sheep shears scythes, machine knives for paper and tobacco manufacturers ; improved
goucher pattern rolled-steel beater plates, rake-teeth steel, plough plates, chaff knives,
reaper sections, &c. for agricultural purposes; engineers' hand tools hammers of every
description, saws, patent picks for road making and railway works, forged circular pieces
for milling cutters, forged steel spanners, Ripley & Wormald's tube wrench and universal
spanner, patent steel card-room cans.

[Billman49]

This one for sale on eBay UK, as Jaguar (make) Portugal stirrup adze.. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Jaguar-Portugal-411-50-Stirrup-Type-Hand-Adze-3-3-4-Width-As-Photo-/160987265869

[Mike H]

I am posting one of same pics as before with dimens.
I thank you folks for info. Now looks like I have a stirrup
per Billman49 post/s. One reason for this conclusion
is evident in the additional picture posted of "tang" of tool.
This configuration of the blade's tang would lend itself to
a stirrup adze/hand adze form better than a normal handle.
There was no handle of any kind with the tool
as purchased nor the metal "hoop" to join the blade to handle in a stirrup adze
situation. In any event what Billman49 is saying makes sense for the added reason
that the people at house where the sale was said that the old gentleman/PO
was from Portugal and was a coffin maker. The PDF link (hillsboroughhowlerton) was helpful in because browsing it lead me to an image in one of BURYS & Co advertisements which clears up
what the bottom of the logo is. Thanks again.

[BruceS]

Could it be a Whale blubber knife ?

[scottg]

Wull, show me the whole shank, why don't ya??....... heeheh
  I was thinking 16 or 20 inches of shaft for a clapboard slick! Just figured it ran off the picture. 

But at this size, its a stirrup adze blade like Bob says, for sure.
   yours Scott   

[Billman49]

Just added the image to my last post - the site refused to upload it yesteday - I gave up after the 6th attempt... Ref whale blubber knives (as suggested by Bruce S), these usually have a much larger and more curved blade...

[Billman49]

Bury is a 'new' edge tool maker to me, so I'm trying to find out more...

Edward Bury (22 October 1794 – 25 November 1858) was an English locomotive manufacturer. Edward Bury was born in Salford, Lancashire, the son of a timber merchant, and was educated at Chester.......... In 1852 he went into partnership in a Sheffield steelworks with Charles Cammell, and in 1855 he started another steelworks with his son, William Tarleton Bury, and John Bedford, as Bedford, Burys & Co, Regent Works, Sheffield. Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bury

Bedford remains a well known tool maker, but Bury is almsost unknown,,,

The letters on the name stamp - J O B S are intriguing as they do not match Edward Bury or William Tarleton Bury - possible those of John Bedford & Sons???

Just found these useful links: http://www.backsaw.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=54&Itemid=92
and http://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;y03300&pos=25&action=zoom&id=50188

1900 - 1919 the firm was just known as Burys & Co, but the JOBS may be retained from the partnership with John Bedford c 1850's...