{short description of image}

David Ellis: Collyweston Slater

{short description of image}{short description of image}Oral History {short description of image}{short description of image} {short description of image}{short description of image}{short description of image}Home Page{short description of image}

Dressing the Slate

Click here to listen We'll go onto the dressing- so we got these rough areas of slate erm...and so what we need is a nice piece of stone that we'd call a dressing stone- and this would be a little piece of stone perhaps about a foot square, and then we got a dressing hammer which was very interesting- because it was...it had...a blade at one end- chopping blade- the side was flat and then it got claws at the other end, so and also if you've got a wooden shaft for the hammer and this little hammer would also stand up on the two claws, it sits- so it'll sit up on the dressing stone...We'll use the dressing hammer to get the piece of slate we could nibble the rough edges off with the...jaws- the little jaw- on the edge- just nipped side ways and then got the flat edge to flatten the side out and the blade to chop little pieces off carefully- mustn't use too strongly, and then you'd square your material up- the sides and the base of the bottom of the slate- the top would be left rather rugged.

Click here to hear more of David Ellis' memories...

Back arrow