If it was sharp; if it was a tool for cutting, a CUTLER most likely made it. Steel was used quite early in limited amounts, imported from the old county as early as the 17th century. While cutlery shops in larger communities sold English cutlery, it was not long before enterprising Americans entered the market. The first step was taken in foundaries where piles of wrought-iron bars were heated in charcoal. They were literally cooked for a week or more. The early furnaces were covered with clay or sand to keep the charcoal from burning away; later the wrought-iron was heated in pots which were tightly covered. By absorbing carbon during the cooking, the wrought-iron was toughened. This rough product was often called "blister-steel" because blisters would appear during the cooking process. The cutler manufactured axes, plane blades, knives and other tools. Sheffield-cast steel was used for razors, scapels, swords, penknives, scissors, and blades. Steel known as "Tilted steel" was used for saws and augers. If Grandpa was a cutler, he was very much like a blacksmith who was a little more specialized. He followed a lot of the same techniques using forges, hammers and anvils. He had to grind the edges to make them razor sharp using a sandstone disk. It was an extremely long process. He had to attach the blades to handles. A HORNSMITH is almost a lost artisan. Where now everything is manufactured of plastic or glass - the hornsmith worked with a horn or tortoise shell. Since no two are alike, a great variety of goods would be produced, each slightly different from the other. What did he do and what did he make? Tortoise shell is that part of overlapping plates of the carapace (this is the upper shell) of the tropical hawksbill turtle. The substance of which they consist is less porous and that of horn, harder, more brittle. The colors range from amber to brown whereas the horn is normally yellowish-gray. The shell polished up nicer. Cow horns were used by the settlers, they being a lot less expensive. They were turned into gun powder carriers or powder horns. The horns had to be opened however and flattened out. The ends were sawed off and the horn soaked for many days. Then the horn was roasted or boiled in water until it was quite soft. Oil was used sometimes in the roasting process. The hornsmith tempered the sheets of horn by simply dunking them in cold water. If the horn was placed in a press, the thickness of the horn could be regulated. The hornsmith had another market for his products; he could sell the horn "blanks" to other artisans for use in their trade - silversmith and pewterers used the horn and tortoise shell to create parts of snuffboxes; eye glass sellers sometimes made frames of horn; the buttonmakers punched disks from the material. The hornsmith also produced spoons and combs. The tortoise shell combs were and are very popular, a thing of beauty for the lady. The hornsmith sawed out rectangular blanks (wider than the modern combs) and clamped one edge on his "blank" in a wooden vise. He made a couple of cuts with a saw for each separate tooth. The teeth were then rounded with knife or scraper, buffed with brick dust. Those combs made of horn were often stained to make it look to look like tortoise shell by using a polish made of vinegar and rottenstone. THE TOBACCONIST: With all that's been in the news later about the dangers of tobacco, this is a difficult topic - politically incorrect! But, tobacco has long been the money earner for thousands of Kentucky farmers who have land that will grow very little else. I had no idea of all that was involved in tobacco growing until moving to Kentucky - it is a back-breaking process from start to finish. In the 1700's and 1800's tobacconists most dealers in tobacco worked in small shops or sheds, and sold their products right from the house. The tobacconist either grew his own tobacco or bought it from dealers by the "hogshead". Whether done by the farmer or the tobacconist, the steps were always the same. The tobacco, normally 500 pounds to a hogshead, was tied in bundles and left to cure. These were (and still are) suspended from the roof of an old barn or tied in a fan shape. The tobacco leaves are moistened and stacked in heaps and left to ferment; a processing taking about 2 weeks. If he wished to flavor the tobacco, this was the next step. This tobacco would be used in pipes and chewing tobacco and the pipe smoker normally enjoyed different flavor. When the leaves were almost dry, the tobacconist or one of his apprentices would thread it on a tobacco wheel - a simple drum with a crank. The threaded tobacco was about as thick as a man's finger. He could cut the threads into particular lengths in "penny" and "two-penny" lengths or sell it in other amounts such as by the yard. Plug tobacco was mixed with honey or molasses which helped it hold its shape and gave it flavor. The name came from the tobacco being driven into a hole which was drilled out in the end of a log and then hammered in. The tobacco was literally plugged in and the log was split to retrieve it. A tobacco "chawer" sliced off a piece from the plug. If he smoked it, he cut off a piece and crumpled it into smaller pieces and put it in a pipe. No picture or cartoon of the early Kentuckian was complete without the picture of the man and woman with their corn cob pipes. This appears to have been originated with the Indians. It is made by hollowing out the center of a corn cob. Many Indians used clay pipes or even those made of smooth stone. To light the tobacco, flint and steel were used. Snuff was also used in the earlier days, even by the ladies - however discretely! It was stored in bottles, ram's horns and little boxes carried in the pocket. To have an ornate snuff box was rather a status symbol. Boxes could be made of many materials including gold, silver, pewter, brass, shell and wood. The use of snuff in its peak kept many tobacconists in business. A new field of enterprise was soon developed in the building of snuff mills. It was ground much like the regular water grist mill. © Copyright 28 July 1998, Sandra K. Gorin, All Rights Reserved, sgorin@glasgow-ky.com Sandi Gorin - A Proud Kentucky Colonel PUBLISHING: http://members.tripod.com/~GorinS/index.html BARREN CO WEBSITE: http://ww4.choice.net/~jimphp/barrenco/ ARCHIVES for ROOTSWEB: http://searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl PRAYER&PRAISE: http://www.listbot.com/subscribe/prayerandpraise