Oldschool Tools

This week we will be taking a glance at some tradesmen's tools which were used back in the Golden Days...

Three of these tools have been in our possession for a long time- the first was dropped in to our showroom just a week ago with suggestions of using it in our “Industrial” themed window display.

The Airlyne Rugmaker is quite a curious looking contraption – proclaiming to have once been “The World's Fastest Home Rugmaker”, it was invented by William Edward Humphreys Jones whilst at Airlyne Products, Abergele in the 1950′s.

The device is clamped to the edge of a table and one uses the foot strap to run the machine so their hands are completely free to manoeuvre the rug on the table.

There is a small screw which you move to determine how far the needle pushes through the base cloth, thus creating a long or short pile.

The thread is pulled up through the eye and shank of the needle with the aid of a wire which is provided with the Airlyne.

Getting your hands on one of these Airlyne Rugmakers won't set you back an awful lot at all. I'm sure it'll cost you more than the 28 and 6 pence that it originally went for, but chances are you could pick up one for less than the price of an Ikea rug and you are guaranteed to have a lot more fun making this!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VINTAGE-AIRLYNE-HOME-RUG-MAKER-MACHINE-KIT-1950s-/370772233327

The next little contraption we'll show you is our Robert's Cookie Cutter, a nifty little carpet repair tool.

This may have been used if say for instance cinders had left a scorch hole in your carpet- the Cookie Cutter is basically a blade fixed in to a circular handheld cutter with a pin fixed to its centre.

You press the pin into the centre of the offending area and twist clock-wise in a full circle.

You then remove the damaged piece and cut another piece for repair using the same method and once adhesive is applied to the exposed floor you line up the rows and insert the newly cut piece, smoothing over with you r fingers.

The Morgan Lee Trimmer is a wallpaper trimmer and it has been stored with its original instruction leaflet.

The leaflet claims that this invention will “make profits for enterprising decorators” and “will last a lifetime”.

I have no doubt about it. The tool came in handy when wallpapers were sold with a salvedge edge , which had to be cut away by the decorator before application.

See the instruction leaflet below for detail on use.

Roberts' Ankorite Tool is a British made headless pin machine for tacking down carpeting into place.

You place a tack into the opening and with the pin entered in to the Ankorite shaft, you hold it gainst the area of carpeting you wish to tack down and hammer the top of the tool. Using headless tacks means you are not left with great tack heads rusting your carpet and it also means you won't feel them so much underfoot. 

Each and every one of these tools could still be used today and would still be as functional and as efficient as they were when they were first introduced. 

Do you know anyone who still uses these tools today? If so please share this post and let us know, we would love to hear about their experiences with them! 

By Ciara Eloise Nolan.