School: Finiskill (roll number 13075)
- Location:
- Finiskil, Co. Leitrim
- Teacher: Cathal Ó Floinn
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0219, Page 388
Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.
See copyright details.
DownloadOpen data
Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
- XML School: Finiskill
- XML Page 388
- XML “The Local Forge”
Note: We will soon deprecate our XML Application Programming Interface and a new, comprehensive JSON API will be made available. Keep an eye on our website for further details.
On this page
- (continued from previous page)such as harrows, slanes (sleaghan), loy (láidhe), gates and cart shoeings. The Gorvagh smith, Frank Reynolds, excels in the making of slanes and loys, and sells many of these implements in the local market.
To make a harrow of average size a farmer must purchase four five foot pieces of timber, usually oak, but ash may also be used. These timbers are of dimensions 4" x 4" otherwise the harrow will be rather light. In addition to the timber he buys about 30/= worth of "flat" and "round" iron. Flat iron is a term applied locally to iron sold in strips the width of which is greater than the depth. Round iron is applied to all iron sold in bars which are more or less of the nature of a crow-bar.
When the smith had been supplied with the above materials he places the four 5 pieces of timber parallel to each other and about a foot between each two pieces. He then heats the "flat" iron and cuts it into four pieces which are to be fastened transversely to the four pieces of timber so as to keep them together. Next he makes holes in these iron strips at the places where they will cross the timbers and having bored corresponding holes in the timbers he fastens both(continues on next page)
