Beehive History, Volume 4, 1978

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SIAIE BISIORICAD SQCIEDG CAKE CITY, UTAH

T3EEHIYE f I if HISTORY ^i % 10

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Traditional Skills

Melvin T. Smith Director Stanford J. Layton Coordinator of Publications Miriam B. Murphy Beehive History Editor Janet G. Butler Assistant Editor Thomas J. Zeidler Assistant Editor Š Copyright 1978 Utah State Historical Society 307 West Second South Salt Lake City, Utah 84101

Cover art by Travis Winn shows staff member Philip F. Notarianni with his nephews Ronald S. Johnson and Michael S. Johnson carrying on the Italian tradition of sausage making.

Photographs are from the Utah State Historical Society collections unless credited otherwise.

T3EEHIVE #1 HISTORY^ Contents Utah's Vanishing Log Cabins Larry Jones Italian Sausage Making Is a Family Affair Philip F. Notarianni The Hammer Clanged and Sparks Flew F.J. Westergard Making Your Own Soap Miriam B. Murphy An Inside Look at Auctioneering Janet G. Butler Tombstones: Works of Art and Historic Records... Miriam B. Murphy Rifles for the Modern Mountain Man John M. Bourne The Utah Potter — Ancient and Modern Janet G. Butler Knives Are the Versatile Tools Thomas J. Zeidler

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THE TIDWELL CABIN IN SUNNYSIDF. UTAH SHOWS MANY TYPICAL FEATURES OF LOG CONSTRUCTION. NOTE DIRT ROOF AND HEAVY CHINKING NEEDED WHEN ROUND LOGS ARE USED. PHOTOGRAPH BY GEORGE EDWARD ANDERSON, COURTESY BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY.

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Utah's Vanishing Log Cabins WITH A BROADAXE AND A FEW OTHER TOOLS, THE SETTLER COULD QUICKLY MAKE A HOME

BY LARRY JONES

The ol' log cabin lef alone deserted now an' still Nobody 'pears to care fur it an' reckon never will An' so I keep it fur myse'f, same way it wuz when we Moved over in to our brand new house, like fine sassiety.

When families came into an area to settle, they arrived homeless, with only a few provisions and tools with which to gain a foothold in a hostile environment. Swiss, English, Danish, or eastern American — they knew that the first task at hand was to erect a shelter.

Since settlers did not bring building materials with them, they had to use whatever a given site had to offer.

Often settlers located near sources of water, such as streams or rivers, and in so doing were able to use deciduous trees such as cottonwood, bigtooth maple, and aspen. These trees, although close by and easy to fell with an axe, were often misshapen and twisted, making them difficult to use in buildings.

Pine and fir offered the early settler a much more suitable building material. However, these coniferous trees are common only at higher elevations, thus requiring transportation over considerable distances.

Where enough suitable wood could be cut, a log cabin could be erected in several weeks by a single competent woodsman using only an axe or adze. Since the logs were notched to form an interlocking structure, nails and pegs were seldom required. So, a person with

few tools, little experience, and a strong back could quickly build a reasonably weatherproof home.

Historians generally believe that knowledge of how to make the various notching styles was carried to Utah by settlers well-versed in construction techniques common to the eastern United States. The influence Scandinavian and other immigrants may have had on building styles and techniques is unclear, due in part to the melting pot nature of most early Mormon settlements. We do know that many foreign immigrants, coming from settled urban areas, knew little or nothing about log construction.

In Utah, log cabins and their two-level counterpart, the log house, were usually considered neither permanent nor attractive. They were simply cheap, utilitarian shelters that could be lived in until something more substantial could be built. As with most frontier communities across the United States, Mormon villages moved quickly to replace log construction, especially in public buildings, with more sophisticated structures that were similar to eastern building types. By making a town more attractive and settled looking, the community might encourage more newcomers to live there.

Since log cabins were usually quite stable and sturdy, they were seldom completely abandoned when a new dwelling was built. Often the original old cabin served as the nucleus for the new dwelling. If the exterior log walls were fairly smooth and square, they could be covered with wood siding. Or willow branches could be nailed to the walls to form a lath on which to apply a stucco coating. The untrained eye finds it difficult to tell if a log structure lies beneath such a wood or stucco covering. Some Utahns today may live in renovated log structures without even being aware of it.

If a log cabin outlived its usefulness or desirability as a dwelling, it usually served some other function for the owner. Many times cabins were converted to store grain. Since log structures are stable, they can be moved rather easily. Today we can see where small cabins were moved out of the way to make room for newer buildings. Many early cabins can be spotted resting and rotting away behind more modern houses. Sometimes the old cabins serve as storage sheds or playhouses until they reach such a point of disrepair that they are finally torn down and dragged away. Sometimes old log cabins that have historical importance are repaired and put on display in public parks.

Such old cabins often have an isolated and bewildered look about them, somewhat like a ship out of water.

CONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUES By understanding the various methods of construction and types of tools that early settlers used, we are better able to appreciate the craftsmanship that went into log cabins.

The foremost tool to early settlers was the axe. Its importance dates back to the Stone Age! Carpenters' axes were in common use in seventeenth-century Europe. Such light axes failed to meet the needs of the American frontier, however, and the "American axe" was developed. This axe was heavier, weighing seven or more pounds, and was specifically designed for felling trees and cabin-building.

With his axe honed sharp and with sufficient talent, a settler could build a cabin using this one tool.

Locating the proper site on which to erect a cabin was very important. Inexperienced cabin builders sometimes found to their chagrin that they had built their cabins in the wrong place after the cabin was buried under snowdrifts or flooded by a raging river during the spring runoff. However, most cabins were carefully located. Often settlements were erected as a group effort, which helped to eliminate many problems faced by the individual builder.

WILLOW BRANCHES NAILED TO LOGS HOLD MUD STUCCO FOR A "MODERNIZING" FACELIFT. DESERET NEWS PHOTOGRAPH BY W. CLAUDELL JOHNSON.

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Generally speaking, early cabins and those built by less-skilled woodsmen were made of round logs. Round or twisted and bent logs required a good deal of chinking to keep out wind, snow, and rain. Chinking is the material placed in the open spaces between the logs.

Even those cabins having carefully hewn logs often required much chinking to fill the holes.

Chinking material included small wedges of wood or bark, small rocks, mud, clay, adobe, moss, and sometimes even wadded-up newspaper.

To achieve a tighter fit, the tops and bottoms of logs could be flattened with the axe. If a woodsman had special tools such as an adze or broadaxe, he could hew the logs on the front and back as well as the top and bottom to form squared logs (actually somewhat rectangular in cross section). Logs were usually hewn before being notched.

The more skill and special tools the settlers had at their disposal, the more sophisticated the cabins they could build. By using hewn logs it was possible to stack up a wall that was fairly flat on the interior and exterior. If a handsaw was available, the ends of the logs, projecting past the notches, could be cut off square, mak-

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t/A/V/ar£ J4%£ When logs were hauled to the building site, the first order of business after deciding on the proper length was to notch the ends of the logs.

The entire structural system of the log cabin is based on notching, since the notches hold the logs in place as they are stacked on top of each other. The outer bark was usually removed to get rid of ants, termites, and other insects.

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ing flush corners. Cabins constructed in this manner could be, and often were, later covered with siding to modernize their appearance.

Hewn logs enabled more intricate and sophisticated types of notching to be used, thus creating sturdier walls that could rise higher and support greater loads.

To secure more uniform wall surfaces, wellequipped settlers set up pit saws. The pit saw replaced the adze for putting flat sides on logs and for making planks. The pit saw in turn was replaced by the sawmill, powered by water or steam.

Cabins were usually situated on flat, hard ground with stones placed beneath foundation logs to keep them from rotting or soaking up ground moisture. Then the walls were made simply by stacking logs on top of each other until the desired height was reached.

Because of the projecting log ends, cabins and outbuildings made with saddle notches were usually not covered with siding. The double and top notch had a tendency to deteriorate faster since water could easily settle in the dished out base of the notch. The saddle notch is the most common one to be found in Utah.

Chinking

NOTCHING STYLES Five basic methods of notching the ends of logs were common in Utah. Several variations of these basic notches were also used.

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The V notch lends itself to being used either on round or hewn logs. The log ends can be cut off, forming a flush wall, or left projecting beyond the walls. A V notch is cut into the bottom of the top log and a V-shaped top is formed on the base log to make the joint. The joints formed by this method are quite tight and tend to shed water rather than hold it. Few examples of this style can be seen in Utah today.

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The saddle notch seems to be the oldest as well as the easiest notch to cut in a log. It was almost always used with round logs and appears to have been the earliest form of notching used in Europe. The notch itself is rounded, requiring very little complex cutting.

Three variations are found: the single notch cut into the top of a log, the single notch cut into the base of the log, and the double notch cut into both the top and bottom of the log. Saddle notching required that the log project beyond the notches for maximum tightness of the joint.

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Square notching competes with the saddle notch for simplicity. It is believed to have evolved from the half dovetail joint. Square notching is common to round, hewn, and millcut logs and can most easily be cut into the log end using a saw, although an axe and floe or just an axe could be used. Right-angle notches are cut out of the top and bottom of a log, leaving a center projection that meshes with the notched logs above and below. The square notch is a weak and inferior joint with no abili-

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ty to resist any outward pressure the walls of a cabin might exert. Unlike other notching techniques, square-notched logs have no way to interlock. An auger was often used to drill holes in square-notched logs. Then, wooden pegs were inserted in the holes to help hold the logs in place. Sometimes these pegs can be spotted between the logs on a cabin where the chinking has fallen out. This style of notching, being simple and quickly done, was used a great deal in Utah.

Full dovetail notching is by far the most advanced and complicated type of corner notching. Dovetailing is an old method of joint construction common to furniture and cabinet craftsmanship. Drawers and box corners fre-

quently display this type of notching. To notch logs this way requires great skill with an axe.

By far the most sturdy log-building method, full dovetail notched logs lock into place in both directions of outward thrust. Because all the sides of the notch slope down, rainwater usually runs off rather than collecting in and rotting the joint. The corners of this type of construction were flush, tight, and square, with hewn logs rather than round being used. To find a full dovetail notch on round logs is

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unusual.

The half dovetail notch is an offshoot of the full dovetail, although it resembles half of a V notch. The half dovetail has many of the same characteristics as the full dovetail except that it is easier to make. Half of the top or head of the notch is sloped downward, but the bottom is left flat. Like the full dovetail, this method of notching was used mostly on hewn log dwellings rather than on outbuildings.

By closely examining those log structures still standing, we can sometimes spot several styles of notching on the same building. Also, lean-to additions made of logs often had notching techniques different from the original structure.

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AFTER THE WALLS WERE UP As log cabin builders erected the walls, they made no provision for windows or doors.

They cut these into the cabin walls when and where desired after the walls were up. Many of the earliest cabins had only one door at first, and windows were added as glass became available.

Most early cabin floors were simply packed earth, flat field stones, or wood planking. Sometimes, in better constructed cabins, the floors were supported by log floor joists on which planking was laid. Floors made of logs split lengthwise and laid side by side were often called puncheon floors or "Missouri puncheons."

Most early Mormon cabins had dirt roofs, a feature that sets them apart from cabins found elsewhere. Cabin roofs are gable type, having a low pitch or slope that runs off from a center ridge line. To support the weight of the sod roof, the builders lashed small wooden poles tightly together. The poles ran from the eaves on the outer wall of the cabin up to and rested on the ridge pole. On top of these poles settlers placed grass and twigs and then covered them with soil to a thickness of six to twelve inches. Grass or weeds often grew from this soil and helped to hold it in place, as did logs or planks attached at the eaves of the roof where gutters are placed on houses today. During wet weather, mud often dripped into the cabin. So, settlers usually wanted to replace a dirt roof with planks or shingles as soon as possible. Some

FULL DOVETAIL NOTCH MARKS THE MOST SOPHISTICATED LOG CONSTRUCTION. DESERET NEWS PHOTOGRAPH BY W. CLAUDELL JOHNSON.

cabin roofs were thatched with tightly woven grass, but this kind of roof cannot be seen today.

When the cabin was near completion, work on the chimney began. Chimneys on most Utah cabins were centered on the outside of one of the gable ends of the cabin and extended up past the high point or ridge line of the roof.

Sometimes chimneys ran up the inside wall of the cabin rather than the outside. Building materials for chimneys often consisted of stones found nearby. Adobe and low-fired brick were also used.

Most Mormon log cabins are nearly square with a low ceiling. They range in size from twelve to twenty feet square with fifteen by sixteen feet being the most common size. The main entrance door was placed on the broadside of the cabin and not in the narrower gable ends. This was typical of most American frontier log cabins.

Mormon log cabins were often either enlarged by the addition of extra rooms or were abandoned when newer and larger, more comfortable quarters could be built.

The log cabins of our Utah forebears are indeed a vanishing species. Each year that passes sees scores of these cabins succumb to the burden of time and neglect. The roofs sag

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and the walls bulge until they can finally support no more and fall decaying to the ground. Whatever story they could have told about our past is lost forever.

Mr. Jones is a preservation architect with the Utah State Historical Society.

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LOG CABIN AT IBAPAH, UTAH, DISPLAYS SEVERAL DIFFERENT NOTCHING STYLES. NOTE ALSO ROWS OF SMALLER LOGS THAT MAKE UP ROOF.

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Italian Sausage Making Is a Family Affair

JACK SMITH, RON JOHNSON, LARRY JONES, LINDA EDEIKEN, AND PHIL NOTARIANNI DISCUSS THE FINE POINTS OF SEASONING SAUSAGE.

AN OLD TRADITION FROM SOUTHERN ITALY LIVES ON IN MAGNA, UTAH

BY PHILIP F. NOTARIANNI

My parents, Filippo and Carmela Angotti Notarianni, were both born in a small Italian mountain village called Pedivigliano. Located in the southern Italian province of Cosenza, Calabria, the little town lies along a high mountain road, nestled among other villages. I visited there in 1972 and felt right at home. The language, smells, and many customs of Pedivigliano were very familiar to me, yet I was far away from my home in Magna, Utah.

At first this feeling of being at home surprised me. Then I stopped to think about why I felt that way. The Italian sausage and cappocollo (a type of Italian salami) hanging from the ceilings in cellars reminded me of home.

My parents had taught me how to make sausage when I was five or six years old, and I have been following this annual tradition for twenty-five years. This kind of folk tradition

THE AUTHOR'S FATHER, FILIPPO NOTARIANNI, ADDS PEPE DOLCE ("SWEET PEPPER") TO SAUSAGE MIXTURE. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF AUTHOR. 10

has given me a link with the Italian culture, even though I was born and raised in Utah.

In Italian homes sausage making is a social event. Family members gather at someone's home, usually on a Saturday evening. Pork casings are cleaned and placed in hot water.

Pork meat is cut and ground and placed in a large tub.

My Dad, Filippo, was the one who always added the various ingredients. That was an art!

No measuring cups were used. He just knew how much to put in. I would mix the salt, fennel, sweet pepper, and hot pepper in with the meat. Then it was break time.

A small amount of the meat mixture is taken to the kitchen to be cooked and sampled to be sure it has just the right taste. Everyone gathers around the table to eat sausage; goat cheese; ricotta; olives prepared with oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, and oregano; homemade bread; and wine. The rich food and lively conversation create a holiday mood.

Then it's back to work. The next step is filling the pork casings with the meat mixture.

The meat is rolled into small balls to fit into the grinder, which has a special large spout at the end. A casing is slipped over the spout. When the grinder is cranked, the casing fills with meat. The final step is tying the sausage into links and carefully punching each section with small air holes. This family project usually takes about four hours and ends with another trip to the kitchen for more food and relaxation.

Early the next morning the sausage is hung in a shed to be smoked and dried for a number of days. Then the dried meat is hung in the basement, ready to be used for many Italian dishes, including spaghetti sauce.

In Pedivigliano the process is much the same. So, through a folk tradition such as making Italian sausage, my cultural heritage remains very much a part of my present life.

Mr. Notarianni is a historian with the Utah State Historical Society.

PHIL NOTARIANNI WASHES SALT FROM PORK CASINGS (TOP). CASINGS ARE KEPT IN HOT WATER UNTIL FILLED SO THEY WILL NOT SPLIT. PORK IS CUT INTO SMALL PIECES (CENTER) BEFORE BEING GROUND BY RONALD S. JOHNSON, THE AUTHOR'S NEPHEW (BOTTOM).

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MICHAEL S. JOHNSON AND RONALD S. JOHNSON (ABOVE) LEARN THE FINE ART OF SAUSAGE SEASONING FROM UNCLE PHIL NOTARIANNI. HAND MIXING (RIGHT) IS THE NEXT STEP. PHIL COOKS SOME OF THE SAUSAGE (BELOW LEFT) FOR TASTE TESTING WHILE RON (BELOW RIGHT) FORMS THE MIXTURE INTO BALLS.

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WHEN CASING IS FILLED, END IS TIED OFF WITH STRING.

MIKE CRANKS WHILE PHIL HOLDS CASING ON SAUSAGE-STUFFING ATTACHMENT.

PHIL USES A TOOL MADE BY HIS FATHER TO PRICK CASINGS SO THEY WILL NOT SPLIT.

FILLED CASING IS TIED OFF INTO INDIVIDUAL SAUSAGES 5 OR 6 INCHES LONG.

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MEN PREPARE TO SHOE HORSES AT THE JOSEPH H. THURBER BLACKSMITH SHOP IN RICHFIELD, UTAH

y The Hammer Clanged and Sparks Flew THE SIGHTS, SOUNDS, AND SMELLS OF A BLACKSMITH SHOP ARE RARE TODAY BYF.J.WESTERGARD

W a n g s g a r d ' s Blacksmith Shop was at Five Points in Ogden and was operated by Joed Wangsgard and his brother. Occasionally, my Dad would go there to have a broken machine part welded, but the more exciting experience was taking our team of horses there to be shod.

The horses' hooves thumping on the heavy plank flooring reverberated like drum beats as the horses were led into the building. The interior was fascinating with its anvils, glowing forge, farm machines awaiting repair, rows of blank horsehoes, vises, and piles of steel. Years of forge fires had blackened the unpainted wood of the interior; and the pungent odors of burning coal, horse manure, red hot steel, and sweating men and horses mingled tantalizingly.

The two brothers had soot-stained faces and

clothes and heavy leather aprons. They were gruff, cigarette-smoking or tobacco-chewing fellows whose short-sleeved, open shirts revealed muscular arms and hairy chests.

Even though our horses were known to be exceptionally gentle, they were approached by Joed or his brother with caution â&#x20AC;&#x201D; with an "easy, boy" and a gentle pat on the rump before grasping the fetlock to raise the horse's hoof and carefully to place it between his legs so that he was facing the rear of the horse with his bent back partly under the curve of the horse's belly.

Occasionally, a horse would object to the operation and attempt to withdraw his foot from the blacksmith's grasp and sometimes it would succeed in wrenching the foot from the viselike pinch of the blacksmith's legs. The 14

attempt would be greeted with a vocal objection from Joed. If the horse were successful, the smith would be staggered momentarily, and he would express his opinion of the horse with picturesque and profane expressions.

However, when the horse recognized the determination of his workman and settled down, the routine proceeded. An accumulation of hardened clay and manure was dug from the interior of the hoof; a sharp knife and a draw blade were used to trim away excess growth of hoof.

Next, Joed selected an appropriate-sized blank horseshoe and with his pinchers held it against the hoof. Now the horse's foot was released and Joed took the shoe to the forge, placed it in the hot coals and cranked the handle of the bellows causing sparks to fly up from the glowing coals and the area of glowing to expand and to intensify.

When the iron shoe was also glowing, Joed picked it up with his tongs, held it on the anvil with his left hand and began shaping it with the hammer in his right hand. Sparks would fly as the hammer struck the red hot metal, and periodically the hammer would just strike the anvil and be allowed to bounce upon it with a ringing metallic staccato of diminishing sharp bongs as the blacksmith contemplated the shoe's shape. The ends were bent to right angles to form the calks.

Also periodically he grasped the hot shoe with the pinchers and placed it against the bottom of the hoof to check its fit. This action

caused a p e c u l i a r acrid smoke from the scorched hoof to rise from it. When Joed was satisfied with its shape, he dropped it into a tub of water for tempering. Perhaps at this point he moved to another leg of the horse. However, when the shoe was cooled, Joed put it in place and began nailing it to the hoof. The sounds of nailing a shoe to a hoof were also distinctive â&#x20AC;&#x201D; not the sounds of driving nails in wood. The comparatively soft hoof evoked a soft sound until the hammer clinked against the metal shoe with the second tap of the tool. The square nails went through the edge of the hoof and the sharp ends were expertly broken off, the stubs were hammered against the hoof and then rasped to eliminate any projecting sharp metal that might scratch the horse's other legs.

The horse would then be permitted to put his foot down on the floor again. Seemingly he did this with caution, perhaps at first just touching the toe of his shoe to the floor, gradually putting weight on it, and then alternately raising it from and placing it flat on the floor, obviously getting accustomed to the feel of it.

When all eight hooves of the two horses were completed, Dad paid for the job, reharnessed the horses, hooked them again to the white top, and we would be off on our way home with the new shoes occasionally clinking against stones and causing sparks to fly.

Mr. Westergard's article received an honorable mention prize in the Ogden Area History Contest cosponsored by the Utah State Historical Society and the Ogden Standard Examiner in 1978.

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MAN AT LEFT IS MAKING OR REPAIRING A WAGON WHEEL IN THE BLACKSMITH SHOP OFR. R.MARRIOTT, I BINGHAM, UTAH,

i 1913.

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Making Your Own Soap FOLLOWING A CENTURIES-OLD TRADITION, SOME PEOPLE PREFER THE HOMEMADE PRODUCT TO FANCY SUPERMARKET BRANDS

BY MIRIAM B. MURPHY

People have been making soap for centuries. The Roman writer Pliny "the Elder" (A.D. 23-79) described making soap by boiling goat's tallow with wood ashes.

The home soapmaking tradition in America was widespread until after 1800 when industry began to produce soap products on a large scale. These commercially made soaps were available in the West, but they were expensive.

So, many of Utah's earliest settlers made their own soap and also experimented with making various kinds of soaps for the local market.

SF\IT LAK^ ( J J V (JTAH MRS. L. I. BRADLEY MADE FANCY SOAPS FOR THE UTAH MARKET IN THE 1890S.

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KAREN SHORES ADDS COMMERCIAL LYE TO WATER TO DISSOLVE IT — THE FIRST STEP IN SOAPMAKING AT HOME.

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THELMA MCBRIDE, FOREGROUND, LEARNED TO MAKE SOAP A S A G I R L I N IDAHO. HERE,SHEAND HER NEIGHBOR KAREN SHORES STRAIN MELTED GREASE INTO DISSOLVED LYE MIXTURE. PROCESS IS BEST DONE OUTDOORS BECAUSE OF FUMES AND DANGER OF SPILLS.

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David Fackrell supervised the soapmaking for the United Order of Orderville. First, the men cut down several cottonwood trees and on a cleared patch of ground burned the wood until nothing but ashes remained. The cooled ashes were placed in wooden leaching troughs and water p o u r e d over them. The w a t e r leached out the alkali in the ashes and dripped into a barrel. This liquid was combined with grease saved from cooking or rendered from animal fat. When these two key ingredients were boiled together for a short time the end product was a strong lye soap that was used to wash everything in a pioneer home, including the pioneer. Some people say that these crude lye soaps would almost take a man's hide off.

Although many pioneer households continued to make their own soap, enterprising individuals began to set up commercial soap factories. Jacob Ornstein and Charles Popper opened the Great Western Soap and Lye Factory in Salt Lake City in the late 1860s. The two men were butchers, and soap made from animal fat was a natural by-product of their business.

Ornstein and Popper claimed that their factory could turn out 30,000 pounds of soap a week. They invited customers to compare their prices with the price of soaps imported from the East. The Deseret News praised Great Western's soaps for their quality and variety.

Some of the soaps contained ingredients such

LYE AND GREASE MIXTURE IS STIRRED BY MRS. MCBRIDE UNTIL IT BEGINS TO "SET UP." BRIGHTENERS SUCH AS BORAX ARE OFTEN ADDED TO HOMEMADE SOAP.

as palm oil or coconut oil and were kinder to the human skin than the strong, homemade lye soaps.

Although hundreds of different soaps and detergents can be p u r c h a s e d today, some Utahns still like to make their own laundry soap by a process that has changed little since Pliny's time.

Ms. Murphy is editor of Beehive History and associate editor of Utah Historical Quarterly.

MRS. MCBRIDE DISPLAYS FINISHED PRODUCT. SHE LETS SOAP AGE FOR ABOUT A YEAR. THE HARDENED SOAP IS GRATED WHEN USED IN WASHING MACHINE. 17

y An Inside Look at Auctioneering LOTS OF ACTION AND COLOR SPICE THIS AGE-OLD WAY OF BUYING AND SELLING

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J. K.TRUMBO'S AUCTION HOUSE IN SALT LAKE CITY, 1869.

BY JANET G. BUTLER

Going, going, gone! Sold to the gentleman on the aisle for $500! The hammer hits the table and the goods are "knocked down" to the successful bidder. And so an item is sold today on the auction block in much the same way it has been done in recorded history for 2,500 years.

Auctioneering gets its name from the Latin audio, or "increase," and the usual type of auction in the United States is the process of selling by successive offers of increasing sums of money, or bids, from potential buyers. The competition of rival buyers is supposed to force prices to maximum levels. But there is the idea on the buyer's part, illusion or not, that bargains are being offered. In either event, the auction is the perfect way of matching supply with demand to determine prices. When the California forty-niners went through Salt Lake City, for example, they sold many goods at auction. According to a local news story:

Common domestic sheeting sold from five to ten cents per yard by the bolt. The best of spades and shovels for fifty cents each. Vests that cost in St. Louis one dollar and fifty cents each, were sold at Salt Lake for thirtyseven and one half cents. Full chests of joiner's tools that would cost one hundred and fifty dollars in the East, were sold in Salt Lake City for twenty-five dollars. Indeed, almost every article, except sugar and coffee, were selling on an average fifty cents below wholesale in the eastern States.

One of the earliest established commercial families in Salt Lake City â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the Walkers â&#x20AC;&#x201D; got its start through an auction. Among their many business ventures the Walker brothers set up a general store at Camp Floyd in 1859. And Camp Floyd became an early site of auctions.

At these sales the Walkers came out way ahead. Bacon, which originally cost $5.00 per hundred weight, the Walkers bought for $1.34; 18

and flour, costing $28.00 per hundred, went at the same low price.

Today, from the customer's point of view, auction buying may still produce bargains.

Everyone has an equal chance to buy. And the festive atmosphere of an auction lends a gamelike quality to the sale. This is produced in large part by the chant of the auctioneer, the jokes, and the gestures. Some spectators or participants even bet on the outcome. The folklore that surrounds auction sales adds to the color and excitement. Many of us have heard that if you scratch your nose or ear or move your hand, you may accidentally buy something.

This is not quite true, but there is a reason for the belief, which we shall mention later.

Although buyers or sellers, or both, may benefit from an auction sale, it is usually the auctioneer, acting for the seller, and paid by commission, who controls the sale and therefore the pricing. Alan Muir, auctioneer at a recent bull auction held at Teichert Ranch, Benjamin, Utah, explains auctioneering as a psychological process where he tries to motivate people to buy.

At a purebred bull sale he does not take bids out of the audience but rather calls for the money he wants and so controls the price he will accept. He tries to bring the value of the cattle higher than what people might normally want to pay. "An auctioneer becomes valuable by his ability to get all of the money off the seats. If he leaves money all over the seats he's not an auctioneer worth anything," according

to Mr. Muir.

In a purebred bull sale "fitters" such as Lew and Diane Morgan get the cattle ready for the sale by shining them up, brushing the hair on the belly of the animal. Ringmen, or "spotters," like Mike Montgomery and Jerry York, are each in charge of a section of the audience, and they spot bids in the crowd.

The fervor is built by the auctioneer and the audience. "People is excitement," according to auctioneer Frank Trunzo. The momentum is kept up by the auctioneer's chant; he uses fillers, or throw words, such as "Hit 'em again," or "a bit of momma;" he also uses jingles, such as "Save a lot of conversation, Bid without a hesitation." He finds that speed is vital in getting the highest prices. "Runners" keep the auctioneer supplied with merchandise to prevent lulls and keep the interest pyramiding.

The auctioneer must keep two bidders happy and the rest of the crowd entertained at the same time. He can get caught up in the momentum, too. One auctioneer who practices his chant in his car says he would be driving on the desert, and chanting, and pretty soon he would look d o w n at the speedometer to discover he was going about 90 mph. The faster he chanted, the faster he drove.

L. A. "Speed" Riggs, the famous Lucky Strike tobacco auctioneer, holds the world record in his field with a chant at the rate of 784 words per minute for forty-two seconds.

His normal chanting speed is 460 words per

POTENTIAL BUYERS INSPECT PUREBRED BULLS ATTHE TEICHERT RANCH PRIOR TO THEIR SALE AT AUCTION.

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said "If I get one (bull) that won't go very well I'm going to ask for another one to bring in to give them a choice." At the sale he did that, and both bulls sold.

Another technique used by Mr. Muir was to suddenly stop his chant to talk to the audience.

That first bull was bid up to $2,000 when he suddenly broke the rhythm and said, "And don't you like the bull?" He then proceeded to talk about the bull's merits and gradually worked back into the chant. Finally, with an accompanying, "starting him out the gate," the bull sold for $2,100.

But bidders have a few tricks of their own.

Why did signals, instead of yelling out bids, become p o p u l a r at auctions? Mr. Muir explains it this way: "Suppose you have three good ranchers and they know what individuals are going to be wanting the same bulls. All right? Joe Blow stands up and does that (bids obviously) then the other guys know that he's wanting that bull so they're going to run the daylights out of him (force the bidding up) to run him out of money so he won't be contending on those other bulls that they want."

Some signals used are quietly raising a hand, or finger, or even just catching the auctioneer's eye. When there are ringmen they must communicate the sign to the auctioneer. To be certain his bid is considered, a bidder using signals should tell the auctioneer or ringman what they mean before the sale.

minute, that of the average tobacco auctioneer 340. People in ordinary conversation speak 70 to 90 words per minute.

There are tricks of the auction trade, some the auctioneer will reveal, others he keeps secret. Alan Muir starts a purebred bull sale with the best animal and sets the tone of the sale with the highest price he can. Then he feels he can run through the rest of the sale in a hurry. At the Teichert sale he said he would try for $2,000 for the best bull, which he did.

When he could not get that quickly, he went to $1,000, then $1,500, and finally sold the bull for $2,100.

If lively bidding begins early, there will be a faster tempo to later bidding. Hot demand items start a sale out well, as does knocking down an item quickly at a relatively low price with the "fast hammer." Mr. Trunzo found this method highly successful at one sale when he could not get the excitement going. An antique copper kettle worth $50 came up for sale. The bidding began and someone bid $20, way below the item's value. Before another bid could be called, Mr. Trunzo yelled, "Sold!"

Suddenly everyone realized what a good deal had been missed. They all started paying attention so they would not miss anything else. The sale turned into a huge success.

If a dead spot develops in the sale an auctioneer may switch to another item to enliven the bidding. Before the Teichert sale, Mr. Muir 20

The buyers seek to reduce competition; the sellers and auctioneer to intensify it.

Sometimes there is a reserve price, below which the auctioneer will not sell the item.

Often, an auctioneer will try to increase the bids by set amounts, say one hundred dollars, until a certain price is reached. As the price nears what a buyer would pay in another market, the auctioneer will usually raise the price by smaller amounts. Otherwise, he may lose his bidders. If the increase is too much for a bidder, he may show this by moving his hand away from his body with the palm down. This means he wants to raise the bid by half.

Another way is by showing five fingers (half of ten). If a bidder wishes to see an item for sale more clearly, he may "say" this to the auctioneer by turning the knuckles of his hand and moving his fingers, according to Mr. Trunzo.

In the increasing-bid auction system an item is sold when the hammer hits the table or the auctioneer yells, "Sold!" Over the years different ways of determining when something is sold have been the English "inch of candle" method, where the last bid before the candle goes out is the winning bid; or the sandglass, used in the same way; or by a running boy reaching a certain goal.

Although the increasing-bid system is the most popular, auctioneering takes different forms over the world. There is the Dutch descending-price auction where the auctioneer starts with a figure and then quotes prices at descending amounts until someone yells, "Mine!" and the object is sold to him.

In the Japanese simultaneous-bidding system, all bids are made at the same time using individual hand signals for each monetary unit. Bidding starts when the auctioneer gives the signal and the highest bidder is awarded the lot. In the written bid auction, the highest bid buys the item. In the handshake auction, the buyers communicate their bids to the auctioneer by squeezing his fingers. Then there is the whispered-bid system where the buyers whisper their bid to the auctioneer. But the most common system is the one we are familiar with, the increasing-bid system.

The best auctioneers are good psychologists.

Therefore those who buy at an auction should heed the Latin warning, caveat emptor â&#x20AC;&#x201D; "let the buyer beware." Before the items he wants go under the hammer, he would be wise to examine them well, compare prices, and try to avoid an emotional reaction to the auctioneer and the bidding. Conditions of the sale are usually spelled out in a catalog given to buyers or a posted notice. The basic rules are that the highest bidder is the purchaser, and there can be no bid after the fall of the hammer.

The man wielding the hammer might try to "milk' the crowd by getting every nickel from them. Or, on the other hand, bids may be "left in the room." Good auctions are public competitive sales at their best, where a fair price is paid and received. The auctioneer with integrity is the one who is asked back to auction again.

All present feel they have received good values and had a fun time.

Mrs. Butler is assistant editor of Beehive History and Utah Historical Quarterly.

RINGMANMIKE MONTGOMERY (RIGHT) POINTS TO BIDDER IN AUDIENCE AT BULL AUCTION. BIDS ARE RELAYED BY RINGMEN TO AUCTIONEER ALAN MUIR (LEFT ON AUCTION STAND).

21

y Tombstones: Works of Art and Historic Records THE GRAVE MARKERS IN THE JEWISH CEMETERY REVEAL RELIGIOUS BELIEFS, CULTURAL TRADITIONS, AND EVEN TALES OF VIOLENCE

BY MIRIAM B. MURPHY

Historic documents are usually found in libraries or other special places like courthouses. But some historic "documents," such as tombstones, lie outdoors. A cemetery is considered sacred ground. However, its tombstones make it historic ground as well. The writing and decorations on a grave marker may tell a lot about the dead person: name, age, beliefs, cultural heritage, and, occasionally, even the manner of death.

Many people enjoy collecting tombstone art by making rubbings. It is easy to do. Soft paper is placed on the stone and rubbed with a crayon. Old cemeteries and churches, especially in Europe and the eastern United States, are favorite places to make rubbings. Utah's pioneer cemeteries also contain many gravestones worth collecting and studying. The markers in the Jewish cemetery in Salt Lake City, for example, tell us something about the life, history, and traditions of the pioneer Jews.

Jewish tombstones often display the unique symbols of Judaism. The menorah appears on many stones. This seven-branched candelabrum represents the seven days of creation as described in Genesis. Rabbi Abner Bergman of Congregation Kol Ami in Salt Lake City says that the menorah is one of the most ancient symbols of the Jewish faith, much older than the Star of David, another symbol frequently seen on headstones in the Jewish cemetery. The familiar six-point Star of David consists of two interlocking triangles. One represents humanity reaching up to God. The other is interpreted as God reaching down to humanity. The Star of David is not, however, an exclusively Jewish sign.

Other symbols often carved in Jewish headstones include the lion of Judah, hands, and tablets representing the Ten Commandments.

Both English and Hebrew inscriptions are found on most tombstones. The Hebrew letters are beautiful to look at but puzzling to those who do not know the language.

RUBBING OF A MENORAH ON A GRAVESTONE IN THE JEWISH CEMETERY.

The special symbols and the Hebrew writing on the stones tell us that these people were proud of their religious and cultural heritage. Although the Jewish community in Utah has always been small, it has maintained its identity and kept its ancient traditions, including respect for the dead.

Individual tombstones have their own stories to tell. The marker on the grave of Aaron Morris relates a tragic tale: A man of honor true and tried By the assassin coward's hand he died.

According to the stone, Morris died on August 16, 1884. To find out how and why he was murdered involved further research at the Utah State Historical Society library. Knowing when Morris died made it fairly easy to find his obituary in the Salt Lake Tribune. The bizarre story of his death was reported in the Tribune on August 19, 1884. The tale reads like a Wild West yarn and reminds us of how dangerous it was (and still is) to travel alone at night carrying large sums of money.

22

Ketchum, but the energetic Aaron was determined to return to Hailey. He waited for the moon to rise, rented a horse, and set off alone.

The next morning his body was found along the road. He had been shot through the head and robbed.

Aaron was honest and too trusting, his friends said. One man recalled a recent stage robbery and said, there's been a "bad gang around Ketchum for some time." Another man told the Tribune reporter, "we kill men up here just to see them kicking."

Much more could be told about Aaron Morris — his life, his business interests, his family, and the men who were arrested for his murder. But the little that has been told shows that each tombstone in a cemetery has a story to tell of a person's life. And, by using other historic documents and records in libraries, that life can be pieced together in much the same way a detective pieces together the evidence of a crime. So, to go with the rubbing of Aaron Morris's tombstone — which we can display as an artwork — we also have a story of drama and tragedy in the West almost a hundred years ago.

AUTHOR MIRIAM MURPHY MAKES TOMBSTONE RUBBING IN SALT LAKE CITY'S JEWISH CEMETERY. A SOFT PAPER, LIKE RICE PAPER, IS TAPED TO STONE AND RUBBED WITH CARPENTER'S CRAYON.

RUBBING OF THE ABRAHAM B. WEISS TOMBSTONE. RUBBINGS WILL NOT HARM STONE, BUT BE SURE TO ASK THE CEMETERY SEXTON'S PERMISSION BEFORE YOU START.

Like so many Americans in the nineteenth century, Morris was an immigrant from Europe.

He came to Utah in 1872 when he was twentyone years old to live with his cousin, Isadore Morris. As his cousin's business partner, Aaron took over the management of their general store in Hailey, Idaho.

On the morning of Saturday, August 16, 1884, the two cousins met in Hailey to discuss business. Then Aaron went north to Ketchum, collecting money from customers along the way. He spent the evening with friends and just before midnight ate a meal at a local restaurant.

His friends advised him to spend the night in

HEBREW LETTERS IN UPPER LEFT OF SAMUEL LAMBEK GRAVESTONE MAY BE TRANSLATED AS "THE SOUL IS RESTING HERE." THE HANDS ARE IN THE POSITION OF ANCIENT PRIESTLY BLESSING. THE SHADOW THEY CAST MADE THE HEBREW LETTERS FOR ONE OF THE NAMES OF GOD. 23

Rifles for the Modern Mountain Man SKILL AT GUNSMITHING REQUIRES PATIENCE AND A DESIRE TO PRODUCE "THE BEST"

BY JOHN M. BOURNE

The Hawken rifle was one of the most respected weapons in the West during the era of the mountain men. As one expert has said, "From William Ashley's first forays on the Missouri and beyond the Rockies to the last days of Kit Carson at Taos, the name Hawken on a rifle was one to swear by." The Hawken is one of the finest examples of the Plains rifle which, in turn, was an improvement on the design of the old Kentucky rifle. These rifles were relatively accurate. In the hands of an experienced marksman they were effective on most types of game up to 150 yards.

Many of the mountain men, including Jim Bridger, used Plains rifles. If Jim Bridger returned to Utah today, he would have no trouble securing a new Hawken identical to the one he carried for many years. In fact, when the Montana Historical Society wanted to duplicate Jim Bridger's original Hawken rifle, they came to Utah to do it. The Green River Rifle Works in Roosevelt, Utah, was selected by the Montanans as the most qualified gunsmithing firm for the job.

A recent visit to the Green River Rifle Works showed us why they were chosen. The company is a small one that operates out of a building on a side street in Roosevelt. It was started in the early 1970s by Gary White, a local physician. At first he employed one or two men working at a shop set up in a two-car garage.

Over the years the demand for high-quality reproduction muzzle-loading rifles increased, and in 1974 the company was forced to move to larger quarters. Now they claim to be the "largest m a n u f a c t u r e r s of custom m a d e muzzle loading guns in the country."

According to Greg Roberts, company manager, there are two basic characteristics that make the Green River Rifle Works different from other manufacturers of muzzle-loading arms. The first of these is that Green River makes their own barrels by cutting the bores.

Most companies make their barrels by "cold swedging." When this method is used, steel barrel blanks are bored out with a drill. Next, a "swedge" or hard steel cutter is pulled through the barrel by a hydraulic press. This cuts the rifling and finishes the barrel in one step.

On the other hand, Green River uses an oldstyle rifling machine to finish their barrels.

They start with round bar stock. Next, they drill a hole the length of the bar. The barrels are placed in the cutting machines and the rifling

RIFLING MACHINE ATTHE GREEN RIVER RIFLE WORKS CUTS ONE GROOVE AT A TIME INSIDE RIFLE BARREL. 24

GUNSMITHS AT THE GREEN RIVER RIFLE WORKS ASSEMBLE EACH RIFLE BY HAND, A PROCESS THAT TAKES MANY HOURS..

is then cut in the barrel one groove at a time.

Finally, the barrel is placed on a surface planer and the flat surfaces are cut. This method of making barrels is superior to the mass-production method because the bore of the barrel can be lined up to be perfectly parallel to the sides of the barrel. In addition, the rifling machines can place a slight "choke" at the muzzle. This "choke" or reduction in bore size makes the rifle more accurate.

The second characteristic of Green River rifles is the manner in which they are made.

The company does not use an assembly-line method. Each rifle is custom built by a single gunsmith. When an order for a particular style of rifle comes in. it is given to the gunsmith who specializes in that rifle.

The gunsmith first goes to the woodbin and selects a piece of wood for the stock. Using a pattern router he roughs out the stock. Next, a bar of steel is selected for the barrel. With the assistance of the staff of the rifling shop, the barrel is bored, rifled, and finished. At this point, the gunsmith takes the barrel and stock to his workbench for the final fitting. The stock is clamped in a special vise and the various parts are set in by hand.

After all the parts are fitted and the rifle undergoes final adjustment, it is disassembled

and sent to the browning and finishing room.

The metal parts are "browned." a process that takes around five days and results in a deep brown rust finish. The stocks are finish sanded and stained with an authentic stain and finishing oil. The rifle is then reassembled and nacked for shinning to the customer.

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MTH RIFLE IN AN EARLY STAGE OF _ _ â&#x20AC;&#x201D; STOCK HAS BEEN ROUGHED OUT AND BARREL FITTED.

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HAVE ALWAYS ON HAND

FowlingPieces,Rifles,Pistols and Gun Material.

All kinds of repairs neatly and promptly executed on guns, door locks, and sewing machines.

Near Tabernacle.

Logan, Utah.

LOGAN, UTAH, GUNSMITHS ADVERTISED THEIR SKILL IN AN 1878 DIRECTORY.

Orders for Green River rifles come in from all over the United States and from many foreign countries. The employees take pride in their work, and many of the gunsmiths learned their trade as apprentices working at the shop.

Some came to work there from jobs that paid more, but they were willing to take a cut in pay to build authentic rifles. The people at Green River Rifle Works are justifiably proud of their product, for as Roberts says, "No one in the world builds a better muzzle-loading rifle than we do."

Normally, a relatively simple rifle like the Lehman takes from twenty to twenty-five hours to make. A more complex rifle like the Hawken takes from forty-five to fifty hours.

The large amount of labor and hand finishing makes these rifles more expensive than an ordinary replica rifle. For example, the Green River Hawken sells for $600 to $800 depending on the features ordered.

The quality of these guns is easily seen.

When the Green River Hawken is placed next to Jim Bridger's Hawken, the only important difference is that the Green River Hawken looks new.

Mr. Bourne is museum coordinator for the Utah State Historical Society-

EMPLOYEES OF THE GREEN RIVER RIFLE WORKS DISPLAY GUNS IN VARIOUS STAGES OF COMPLETION. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF GRRW. 26

ARTIST: TRAVIS WINN

The Utah Potter — Ancient and Modern USED BY EARLY MAN, POTTERY IS A DEVELOPMENT IN TECHNOLOGY, A TOOL FOR ARCHAEOLOGISTS, A USEFUL CRAFT, AND AN ART FORM

BY JANET G.BUTLER

Sometime during human development, people discovered that containers of some kind were absolutely necessary. Natural objects like animal skins and gourds were among the first containers used. Next came baskets. But once fire was under control, a new kind of container was needed — one that would heat but not burn, one that could be used for cooking. Pottery was an early answer.

Not everyone used pottery. Nomadic peoples sometimes found such heavy "baggage" inconvenient. And they did not stay in one place long enough to build the kilns to fire the pots. But those peoples who settled in one place and had the raw materials handy could start making pottery. Many did, among them the Anasazi Indians living in the Four Corners region of the United States. As a matter of fact, the early Anasazi were called Basketmakers and the later ones Pueblos partly because of the shift in their technology from baskets to pottery.

Pottery is made of clay, dug from the earth's surface, from which all stones and hard particles are removed. When water is added to the clay it becomes pliable and easy to work with.

When the clay dries, however, it shrinks and cracks. So, nonplastic materials must be added to temper the clay — sand or chopped grass, cinders, dried dung, or old potsherds. Next, the clay must be wedged or pounded to remove air bubbles that could cause the pottery to burst during firing.

An early method of shaping clay was by coiling. Long, thin ropes of clay were wound around to form a base. The sides were formed by continuing to coil up to the desired height.

Then the coil ends were pinched together, the pot smoothed to eliminate seams, and the clay dried to a leather-hard consistency. Finally, the pot was fired, simply by setting it in the fire until it became hard. Then it was usable.

Imagine the delight of these early peoples when they discovered the firing process, be27

pocket knives, skinning knives, bread knives, butter knives, goldbeater's knives, blacksmith's knives, scaling knives, carving knives, corn knives, palette knives, filleting knives, putty knives, cane knives, felt knives, woodcarver's knives, throwing knives, paper hanger's knives, hacking knives, fighting knives, fruit knives, oyster knives, hunting knives, oilcloth knives, chopping knives, butcher knives, survival knives

HUNTING KNIVES. All these knives are of the very best quality steel.

No. 8641. Deer Foot.

No. 9641. Hunting Knife, deer's loot handle, 7 inch clip blade, best steel, leather sheaths, with loops to attach to belt, nickel bolstered, (see cut) .$1.50

y Knives Are Versatile Tools

No. 8642. Hunting Knife, buck horn handle, 6 inch steel clip blade, leather sheath, with loop to attach to belt; entire length 11 inches; by mail. 6C extra 75c.

No. 8643. Hunting Knife, same description as No. 8642, 6 inches, spear point; by mail, 8c extra 95c.

No. 8644. Hunting Knife, same description as No. 8642.

8 inches, spear point; weight, 13 oz $1.65 j j 111 in; I,,1 ru*. 1

BY THOMAS J. ZEIDLER

, ejl

WmtmamSSSBm ' (By mail. 8c extra.)

No. 8645. Hunting Knives, scored ebony handle, bolstered with guard, best steel blade, 6 inch blades.

Each, 50c. eyt inch blades, each. eoc. 7 inch blades. each 70c.

Knives come in a bewildering variety — their shapes and sizes depending on their function. You would not use a butter knife to skin a deer, nor would you cut a slice of bread with a circus performer's throwing knife.

Ancient peoples made knives or knifelike tools out of stone, bone, and antler. The Anasazi Indians who lived in southern Utah centuries ago carefully chipped a sharp edge on a piece of rock called chert. This stone knife blade was then fastened to a wooden handle with pine pitch. Sometimes sinew, thread, or cord made from animal tendons was wrapped around the handle for extra strength. Utah's ancient Indians also made scraping knives out of obsidian (volcanic glass).

Copper was the first metal to be used for knives. More than 7,000 years ago the peoples of western Asia discovered that copper — which occurs in a pure state and does not have to be refined — could be made into tools or utensils simply by hammering it into the desired shape. The American Indians who lived near the Great Lakes also used this method for making copper knives.

Thousands of years later it was discovered that if the copper were melted and mixed with tin (about nine parts copper to one part tin), it would form an alloy called bronze. The tools and weapons made with bronze were harder and sharper than ones made of copper.

The discovery of methods of using iron over 2,500 years ago was a great advance in the history of tools and weapons. Iron utensils

KNIVES SOLD BY SEARS, ROEBUCK, & CO. IN 1897.

RICHARD SEARS, FOUNDER OF THE COMPANY, WAS THE SON OF A BLACKSMITH AND CUTLER.

are stronger and sharper than those of copper or bronze. Although ironworking is more difficult than copper- or bronzeworking, iron ore is much more plentiful. This means iron weapons and tools can be produced cheaply.

Most people think of a blacksmith as someone who shoes horses. But one definition of blacksmithing in the nineteenth century called it "the art of uniting several lumps of iron into one mass, and of forging any lump or mass of iron into an intended s h a p e . " Until the beginnings of mass production in the late nineteenth century, the blacksmith's most important function was making tools and weapons.

City blacksmiths were expected to be able to make plane bits, chisels, carving implements, auger bits, and files — all the tools used by such skilled craftsmen as cabinetmakers, locksmiths, wheelwrights, carriagemakers, and tinsmiths.

Farmers called on the blacksmith to make axes, adzes, plows, and scythes.

Both farmers and city dwellers relied on blacksmiths for items like knives and guns. So, some blacksmiths began to specialize as cutlers 30

or gunsmiths. Blacksmiths who only shoed horses were called farriers. Some blacksmiths practiced two or more related trades. James Wells, a blacksmith on Salt Lake City's Main Street in the 1860s, manufactured "Bowie and Butcher's Knives, Edge and Shoemaker's Tools." Wells also filed saws and ground scissors. Another Salt Lake City blacksmith firm â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Daft and Hague â&#x20AC;&#x201D; engaged in a combination of gunsmithing, locksmithing and the manufacture of cutlery.

Modern cutlers use two methods of knifemaking: forging and the stock-removal method.

Forging is much more difficult but is closer to the way old-time blacksmiths made knives.

The steel must be heated to the proper temperature and hammered into shape (forged). Then it is gradually cooled (annealed). Before the easy availability of good steel, forging was the only way to create a sharp, strong knife that held its edge well.

Most modern knifemakers use the stockremoval method. The cutler draws an outline of the desired blade shape on a blank piece of steel, then saws it out. The blade is then ground and polished into shape. This is not quite as

Pommel or Butt Cap Spacers

Handle or Grip Escutcheon Plate

Choil Spacers Quillion

Guard or Hilt Ricasso

Choil Finger Clip or Finger Cutout

Back or Spine

Bevel

False Edge Swedge, if sharpened

Point

easy as it sounds. Curt Croston, Salt Lake City knifemaker, hand-polishes his blades with sandpaper, using five progressively finer grades.

It takes hours of grinding and polishing on both sides of the blade to produce the mirrorlike finish of a handmade knife. Such knives can cost from $50 for a plain hunting knife to more than $500 for a custom-made Bowie knife.

Why do people spend so much time and money on a handmade knife when they can skin a deer or cut a rope with any kind of storebought knife? "One reason a handcrafted knife is so popular now," says Croston, "is because no one else in the entire world has one exactly like it. You go to a store to buy one and your next door neighbor might have one just like it, since they manufacture them by the ton."

Another reason, though, is the desire to create or possess something of excellent quality.

Today, many items from toy cars to giant trucks seem to start breaking down as soon as they have been built. The work of a master craftsman, however, is made to last. H a n d m a d e knives can be tools or weapons, but they are also the heirlooms of tomorrow.

ANASAZI KNIVES WITH CHIPPED STONE BLADES AND WOOD HANDLES WERE UNCOVERED AT WESTWATER RUIN, NEAR BLANDING, UTAH.

Mr. Zeidler is assistant editor of Beehive History and associate editor of Antiquities Section Selected Papers.

31

Knifemaking

THREE STAGES OF KNIFEMAKING: PATTERN DRAWN ON BLANK STEEL, CUT OUT, AND THE FINISHED KNIFE.

KNIFEMAKER CURT CROSTON SPENDS HOURS SANDING AND POLISHING HIS KNIVES UNTILTHE BLADES HAVE A MIRROR FINISH.

HOURS OF TEDIOUS FILING (ABOVE) AND OTHER HAND PROCEDURES, RESULT IN BEAUTIFUL ONE-OF-A-KIND HANDMADE KNIVES (LEFT).

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