A Harmless Diversion

UKworkshop.co.uk

Help Support UKworkshop.co.uk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Andy Kev.

Established Member
UKW Supporter
Joined
20 Aug 2013
Messages
1,364
Reaction score
128
Location
Germany
Here's something which you might find amusing to do in the coffee break. You'll need a pencil, a ruler and a sheet of A4 paper (graph paper would be ideal but plain will do). I teach English to German technicians and one of the things we cover is the ability to produce and understand reasonably precise descriptions of simple objects. Below is one such description. I reckon that many of you will be able to identify what it is just from reading it and some of you might be able to identify the manufacturer if you do the sketch.

Assuming that the reader can understand all that is written (which is so in your case), this is more a test of the description writer than of the sketcher.

WHAT IS IT?
The object is 25.5 cm long and it consists of three main components: a wooden handle, a conical ferrule and a shaped metal bar.

The handle is 10.5 cm long, has a circular cross-section and the free end is slightly domed. The diameter at the end is 24 mm and it widens to a maximum of 30 mm at a point which is 30 mm from the end. It then narrows to a minimum of 20 mm at a point which is 7.5 cm from the end. It widens out again to a diameter of 25 mm at a point which is 10 cm from the end. It then narrows to 20 mm at the point in which it is housed in the ferrule.

Note: the transitions from each diameter to the next are curved.

The ferrule, which is made of steel, is conical, 2 cm long and tapers from a diameter of 20 mm (where it houses the handle) to a diameter of 15 mm (where it houses the steel bar).

The metal bar is made of steel, has a rectangular cross-section and is 13 cm long. For the first 20 mm of its length from the ferrule it is 7 mm thick. Its width is 14 mm at the point where it joins the ferrule. This tapers to 12 mm at a point 11 mm from the ferrule and then it widens to its final width of 25.4 mm at a point which is 34 mm from the ferrule. The width thereafter is constant to the end.
The underside of the blade is flat all along its length. All tapers are on the upper side only.
The thickness of the bar tapers from the last mentioned point from 7 mm down to 5 mm at a point 12.2 cm from the ferrule. A second taper, which is 1 cm long then begins and it goes from 5 mm down to zero.

Your sketch should include a plan and lateral view of the steel bar.
 
Good God!

It was obviously far, far, far too easy! Mind you, it's probably about the right level for my students.

I wonder if we could turn this into a game: you got it right, so now you've got to come up with a description.
 
For Woody2Shoes:

The Germans translate chisel with either Beitel or Meißel. I don't know if there is meant to be a subtle difference between the two. I'm sure your translation of mortice chisel is correct. However, I've seen "Steckbeitel" more often.

In any event, Cheshire Chappie trumped you with the bang on correct answer. :D
 
Well, the fact that it was identified does indicate that the description was accurate and easy to understand - which given it's purpose, shows how well written it was!
 
The first line gave me 'chisel', I don't know enough to specify further, however the description does have a fault, in my opinion, in that it refers to the 'steel bar' immediately prior to specifying that the 'metal bar' is 'made of steel'.
Sorry to be a pedant, but I think that is largely the point of the exercise.
 
To avoid confusion I would stick to a single unit of measurement. Not switch between cm and mm.
 
In the spirit of Andy's challenge, here's a description to 'name';

This item consists of three firmly-joined parts, two of metal and one of wood. It is 11" long overall.

The wooden part is 5 1/2" long, and mostly round in cross-section. The outer end has a maximum diameter of 1 7/8", and has two flats cut on it on opposite faces. The piece then has a waist of 7/8" diameter, before swelling to 1 1/4" diameter, and finally reducing to fit tightly into the second part. The first maximum diameter is at 1 1/4" from the end, the minimum diameter of the waist is 2 3/4" from the end, and the next maximum diameter is 4 1/2" from the end.

The second part is firmly attached to the first, and is of yellow metal. It is cylindrical, of 3/4" outside diameter and 3/4" long. A short notch is cut across the end 1/4" deep, into which the third part fits.

The third part is of silvery-grey metal, and is 5 1/4" long including the part fitted into the notch of the second part. The third part is of mostly rectangular cross-section, 3/4" wide and 3/16" thick. Two chords of metal are cut away from the length of the third part, centred at 2 1/4" from the joint with the second part, leaving a waist 3/8" wide. The chords, one each side of the third part, are 1 3/4" long. The third part then tapers in width from the 3/4" at the end of the chord remote from the second part, to 3/8" close to the end. The final section is short at 3/16", tapers sharply in width, and less sharply in thickness, but does not quite end in a sharp edge. The two facets of the final taper in thickness are not flat, but slightly curved, leaving the tip almost parallel in thickness.

Some lettering is impressed into the third part, close to where it joins the second part.
 
Andy Kev.":w2zfceyo said:
Good God!
It was obviously far, far, far too easy!

Elementary deduction, my dear Watson.
You're on a woodworking forum and posted this: "The object... consists of three main components: a wooden handle, a conical ferrule and a shaped metal bar".

I had it at that point. The rest is just padding - It's gunna be a chisel, innit......?
(hammer)

Good fun game though and, I imagine, a real challenge if you're learning a language at the same time.
We have done a similar drawing exercise where one a couple is given an image and one must describe what the other (who cannot see the original image) must draw in order to accurately replicate it. Good laugh, it was!
 
Have a look at a London pattern screwdriver and I think you will see!
 
AndyT":1kl44dni said:
Have a look at a London pattern screwdriver and I think you will see!

Spot on!

Just like this one, but not by Clay : https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VINTAGE-TURN ... SwcNxZjG1B

(The lettering on mine says "TOGA", and for some reason, has the letter "E" directly underneath it.)

Edit to add;

Actually, AndyKev's question about the word 'chord' is a good point. I thought it was clear, but then I've spent half a lifetime in engineering drawing offices. Not everyone has. Lesson learned - simple English, not technical jargon!

The chord in question is the part-of-a-circle depression in the width of the blade, as if someone's taken a bite out of it, but smoother. Looking at the ones on my turnscrew, I think they were hand ground, because one of them is somewhat uneven, and more like a slice of the side of an egg than the side of a circle - but that's by the by!
 
So, keeping the idea going...

A cylinder of wood, 19mm diameter x 250mm long, connects at right angles to a semi circle of wood 19mm thick, 150mm along the diameter. The straight edge of the semi circle holds a strip of yellow metal 3mm x 12mm, with one long edge radiused.
 
OK, here we go. A piece of wood 125 mm long, circular in cross section, rounded at one end, rising to a diameter of 38 mm, decreasing to 26 mm, rising to 35 mm then decreasing to 26 mm . The second end is connected to a piece of brass, cylindrical in cross section and 46mm long. The brass piece is 25 mm in diameter where it meets the wooden piece. This diameter of this piece decreases abruptly to 18 mm at approximately its mid point. The smaller diameter part of the brass piece is tapped in two places in line and fitted with two cheese headed screws. A rectangular slot 13 x 2 mm extends through the length of the wooden and brass pieces.
 
Andy Kev.":1lcpgg81 said:
In any event, Cheshire Chappie trumped you with the bang on correct answer. :D

Wait, the description said that the metal part had a "rectangular cross-section", which would make it a firmer rather than a bevel-edge chisel.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top