Miners Tools.· Page 6 · AditNow Community

Mine exploration, photographs and mining history for mine explorers, industrial archaeologists, researchers and historians

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neutronix
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

5 years ago

#101

By one of those strange coincidences, I was wandering around Minions taking photographs, and in a derelict out building came across a set of rusting tools including a poll pick of the same dimensions as the largest of the three bought at auction.

🔗121068[linkphoto]121068[/linkphoto][/link]

This is the first pick I have seen (almost) in-situ at a mine site although I have seen a Cornish shovel weathering out of spoil on the South Caradon dressing floors (sadly now taken).

“There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact." Mark Twain

D.Send
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

5 years ago

#102

Hi,
Coincidence : Back in the '60s, I found some very old tallow candles in a derelict Minions cottage.... but they disappeared before I had the chance to go back and take photos.

No doubt they would have accompanied a Cornish Pasty underground, had it survived too!

D.Send.

staffordshirechina
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

5 years ago

#103

Did the Cornish miners eat their candles as well as the pasties ?

derrick man
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

5 years ago

#104

Don’t see why not. It’s rendered beef or mutton fat, after all. It's a main ingredient of pemmican, which I will say is just about the most disgusting thing I’ve ever eaten...

royfellows
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

5 years ago

#105

Nowadays candles are paraffin wax, so experimentation in this direction inadvisable

My avatar is a poor likeness.

Roy Morton
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

5 years ago

#106

Try Swedish Surstromming. One whiff is enough to make you lose your lunch.
It’s no wonder that the suicide rate is so high over there.

"You Chinese think of everything!"
"But I''m not Chinese!"
"Then you must have forgotten something!"

Morlock
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie Topic Starter

5 years ago

#107

"royfellows" wrote:
Nowadays candles are paraffin wax, so experimentation in this direction inadvisable

Not really sure what's in a candle these days.

http://www.eca-candles.com/pdf/WorldCandleCongress/Candle%20Standards%20-%20a%20view%20from%20Europe%20-%20Leach.pdf

royfellows
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

5 years ago

#108

Just read through it. With something like this I always wonder how much the person who wrote it gets paid.

My avatar is a poor likeness.

Morlock
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie Topic Starter

5 years ago

#109

Too much probably.

pwhole
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

5 years ago

#110

According to the guides on the Speedwell cavern tour, eating tallow candles gives you stomach cancer. Mind you, they also mention a young lad named 'Little Winster' who was made to work with a bucket of lead ore hanging from his neck and a candle in his mouth - though they did name a vein after him, so it wasn't all bad - I bet he was right chuffed about that bonus. This all gave a life expectancy of about 40 apparently, despite the gravestones in Castleton churchyard showing most made it to their 70s usually, unless they got squashed. Probably from the nutritious tallow-supplemented diet.

speculator
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

5 years ago

#111

Read it and decided............
Soy based candles would cause me kidney stones
Tallow would clog my arteries
Paraffin wax would loosen my bowels ........

Think I'll eat the pastie!

AR
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

5 years ago

#112

There was a case in the Peak of a miner getting stuck underground for several days after a run in (Cromford Moor Mine, I think?) but having tried to eat his candles decided that hunger was the lesser evil!
I recall one of my fellow students at blacksmithing college tried a taste of the tallow flux we were using for soldering tinwork, he pulled some amusing faces...

Follow the horses, Johnny my laddie, follow the horses canny lad-oh!

Boy Engineer
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

5 years ago

#113

"staffordshirechina" wrote:
Did the Cornish miners eat their candles as well as the pasties ?

That would make a ‘light’ lunch, presumably.

royfellows
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Newbie

5 years ago

#114

"Boy Engineer" wrote:

"staffordshirechina" wrote:
Did the Cornish miners eat their candles as well as the pasties ?

That would make a ‘light’ lunch, presumably.

:ban::ban::ban:

My avatar is a poor likeness.

ttxela
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

5 years ago

#115

We used to use beef tallow for lubricating screws when making Ash joinery - we used to use ALOT of American White Ash.

Was never tempted to taste it although it didn't smell too bad.....

Boy Engineer
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

5 years ago

#116

"royfellows" wrote:

"Boy Engineer" wrote:

"staffordshirechina" wrote:
Did the Cornish miners eat their candles as well as the pasties ?

That would make a ‘light’ lunch, presumably.

:ban::ban::ban:

At least I didn’t say it might cause heartburn, or result in folk snuffing it :)
I’m at the end of my wick trying to think of more, so I’ll stop waxing lyrically.

royfellows
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

5 years ago

#117

I'm going

My avatar is a poor likeness.

Boy Engineer
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Newbie

5 years ago

#118

"ttxela" wrote:
We used to use beef tallow for lubricating screws when making Ash joinery - we used to use ALOT of American White Ash.

Was never tempted to taste it although it didn't smell too bad.....

I remember my father having a Sanatogen tin filled with what was always described as “Russian tallow”, which was used for any screws that might need to be removed at some point. I presume it had been liberated by a relative who worked at the Carriage Works in Derby. Reading your mention of it brings the smell to mind immediately.

Peter Burgess
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

5 years ago

#119

For those interested in old iron forgings, here are photos of a quarry bar which dates from ca 1810. The places where it has corroded badly show very clearly the grainy nature of this item. You can possibly work out what the smith was doing in order to create the shape, and to obtain the correct properties for this bar. As a crowbar it is still capable of lifting the side of my garden shed in order to put some levelling bricks etc underneath it. The last photo is the other business end of the tool.

🔗121105[linkphoto]121105[/linkphoto][/link]
🔗121106[linkphoto]121106[/linkphoto][/link]
🔗121107[linkphoto]121107[/linkphoto][/link]
🔗121108[linkphoto]121108[/linkphoto][/link]
🔗121109[linkphoto]121109[/linkphoto][/link]

AR
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

5 years ago

#120

Okay... from what I can see there the smith started out with a square bar of wrought iron, fire-welded a small piece of steel onto one end (to act as a tougher plate on the outer working edge) then worked that to a chisel point. The curve was then put in over the bick of the anvil. The back end was then worked down to a taper and rounded up to make the handle end.

Follow the horses, Johnny my laddie, follow the horses canny lad-oh!