51/171

This bone splitter was used to split straws into splints for making fine straw plait – this was done with a sharp knife until the nineteenth century. The point was thrust down the straw pipe and the cutters separated it into five equal sized splints. It came from Finchingfield in Essex.

MERL 'Catalogue index' card – 'Straw plait was made at first from wholestraws, but when a demand arose for plait of a fine width, the coarse straws or pipes had to be split into splints. This was done with a sharp knife up to the time of the Napoleonic wars, when the first bone straw splitters were made. // These splitters have a bone head about 1” long set at right angles on a wooden handle 41/2” long. The head is brought to a sharp point, behind which a set of cutters are carved in a circle; the point was thrust down the straw pipe, the cutters separating it into equal sized splints. The splitter 51/171M would cut 5 and 51/172M, 9 splints but three of the teeth are broken. // They came from Finchingfield in Essex and were used for splitting wheat straw for making straw-plait. According to Mr. Massingham they are known in Essex as ‘engines’. // T. Hennell in ‘Change in the Farm’ (C.U.P. 1934) says that plait making was particularly common in Essex, Bedfordshire and Herts. where the white straw was particularly suitable. He calls them ‘machines’ and says that the commonest varieties were made by children, the more elaborate by women’.', MERL list / description [Massingham Collection, October 1989] – 'ACC. NO.: 51/171 // NAME: STRAW SPLITTER // NEG NO.: 35/104 // STORAGE: '