Under this title may be found the tools that ‘Masons’ used.
There is an overlap between a Mason and a Bricklayer. The latter being primarily involved in laying courses of bricks for a building whereas a Mason was able to integrate/lay other building stones such as granite or limestone, and not necessarily in a uniform measure. There are therefore overlaps in the tools employed and I have tried to extricate just the tools used primarily by a ‘Mason‘.
The 1873 Catalogue seems to list the earliest Masons’ Tools:
Next are the listings from 1888:
The 1897 Catalogue sees these things:
From there we progress to the 1909 Catalogue:
1921:
1928 Catalogue:
From the 1938 Catalogue:
1959:
Many tools were discontinued between 1959 and 1965.
From the 1965 Catalogue [#15]:
In the Supplement to the slim 1971 Catalogue there is only this shown:
I did set about doing a Table for these tools, going from 1909 onwards, but there are simply too many tools and variables to do this successfully! So I can only recommend that you peruse the shown pages from the catalogues [above] and draw your own conclusions.
GALLERY:
Here I will try to show as many of these Masons’ tools as I can find .
As far as I can tell, a MASONS’ Drag Saw and Cocks’ Combs were listed as far back as 1897, but I must assume that you know what these tools were for, because I certainly do not!!
The 1897 information is below:
The 1909 listings [as before] show a change of item numbers:
These items were not listed [ along with many tools post WW1] after the war in 1921 but re-appear in the 1928 Catalogue:
The 1938 Lists the same tools at the same prices as the 1921 Catalogue..
But the 1959 Catalogue only lists this:
The last listing of these tools, that I can find, is in the Price List of November 1963
Here you can see a good Masons’ Drag, but I suspect that the ‘Combs‘ are now few and far between.
Here is a Masons’ Cocks’ Combs #4258 A&B :
#4222 Brick Cleaning Axe:
This item is first seen in the 1909 Cat. as #4222 and described as ‘with strong Ash handles.’ It was offered in 2 sizes, 1.1/4lb and 1.3/4lb through 1928 and 1938 but reduced to 1.3/4lb in the 1959 Cat. It seems to have been discontinued at the end of 1963
#4310 Pointing Trowel:
#4349 Paviors’ Hammer:
