Ladle. Grate. Soldering Iron.
Now as the Plumber has to do a great deal of his work in roofs and other places where he is liable to fall, he should be clear-headed, and able to go up a ladder or look over a ledge at a height from the ground without being afraid, and this is all the more necessary because he has to handle tools, and sometimes to pour melted solder out of a hot iron ladle while he is at his work on these places. For the purpose of melting the solder he has to carry his fire grate and melting pot with him to some place near where he is at work, since unless the solder can be used rapidly it cools, and will not make a sound joint. The rest of the Plumber’s tools are the pouring stick for applying the melted solder in the places where it is required, the soldering iron which is made red-hot, and passed over the soldered joints to smooth them and make them all firm and sound; the chisel, shave hooks, drawing knife, and chipping knife, for cutting the lead and scraping it on the surface, or at the edges that are to be fastened together; the hammers and mallets for beating the lead into shape and flattening the ridges, the bossing mallet and dresser for bringing the sheet of lead to a proper shape, and forming it over the ridge of a roof, the chased wedge, the screw-driver, the dunring and the turnpin for various uses in making roofs, laying down leaden pipes and fixing taps, and the sucker hook used in repairing or fixing pumps when the part of the pump called the sucker requires to be rectified.
Pouring Stick. Chipping Knife. Dunring. Drawing Knife. Chased Wedge. Shave Hook. Turnpin. Shave Hook.
There are other tools beside these, such as planes for making the surface of the lead smooth and even, gouges and centre-bits for circular openings in the lead to receive nails or clamps, measuring rules and compasses, and pads of carpet or cloth to hold under a pipe when it is being soldered, that the solder may be pressed round the joint before it cools, and without its dropping on the ground.
Mallet. Hammer.
Plumbers now buy their sheet lead as well as their leaden pipe at the warehouses, but those in a large way of business formerly cast the lead themselves. For this purpose they used a casting table, which is a great wooden bench about six yards long and two yards wide, made of smooth planks, and with a raised wooden frame round the edge. On this table the Plumber spreads a layer of finely-sifted sand, which was made level by a strike—a flat piece of wood with two handles—drawn from end to end of the table; after this the surface was made still more smooth by a planer, which was a flat plate of copper fastened to a handle.
Sucker Hook. Screwdriver. Dresser. Bossing Mallet. Chisel.