188 STRAW-PLAITING—A LOST ESSEX INDUSTRY.
From Mr. Bidwell's collection also comes the neat, circular-
faced, wooden article, perforated by four holes, containing steel
straw splitters for four, five, six, and seven splints respectively.
This, with its cover, is so neatly turned and finished that
Mr. Bidwell is justified in thinking it intended for use for fancy
straw work in a lady's parlour rather than for the hands of
peasant plaiters. (Fig. 3.)
The bone "engines'' deserve a few words, for certainly if
you examine them you will agree with me that the rustic lads,
FIG. 3.—STRAW-SPLITTERS, FROM MR. E. BIDWELL'S COLLECTION.
or men, who fashioned them had sharp eyes as well as sharp
cutting tools.
Having secured a shank-bone of ox from a butcher, the lad
sawed the hardest portion into cubes or dice, then with a sharp
pen-knife and narrow chisel he fashioned the "engine." In the
centre is a sharply-pointed cone from which, a little below,
radiate the "cogs" or cutting edges.
Having fixed the engine in its homely wooden handle, the
labourer sold it to the straw plaiters at 1d. or more, according to
the number of cutting cogs contained therein.