The Block-Grove is described in Plate 21. a b. The Groove in which the Blocks are laid, two Inches deep, and seven Inches and an half wide at one end, and seven Inches wide at the other end: One of the Cheeks as c is three Inches and an half broad at one end, and three Inches broad at the other end, and the other Cheek three Inches broad the whole Length: The Length of these Cheeks are two and twenty Inches.
Plate 22.
The Wedge e f is seven and twenty Inches and an half long, two Inches broad at one end, and three Inches and an half broad at the other end; And two Inches deep.
g g g g The Bench on which the Dressing-Blocks are placed, are about sixteen Inches broad, and two Foot ten Inches high from the Floor. The Bench hath its farther Side, and both ends, railed about with slit-Deal about two Inches high, that the Hook, the Knife, and Plow, &c. fall not off when the Workman is at Work.
The Blocks are described in Plate 21 at a b: They are made of hard Wood. These Blocks are six and twenty Inches long, and each two Inches square. They are Male and Female, a the Male, b the Female: Through the whole Length of the Male-Block runs a Tongue as at a b, and a Groove as at c d, for the Tongue of the Plow to run in; This Tongue is about half an Inch thick, and stands out square from the upper and under-sides of the Block. About three Inches within the ends of the Block is placed a Knot as at c c: These Knots are small square pieces of Box-wood, the one above, and the other below the Tongue.
The Female Block is such another Block as the Male Block, only, instead of a Tongue running through the length of it a Groove is made to receive the Tongue of the Male-Block, and the Knots in this Block are made at the contrary ends, that when the Face of a Stick of Letter is placed on the Tongue the Knot in the Male-Block stops the Stick of Letter from sliding forwards, while the other Knot in the Female-Block at the other end, by the knocking of a Mallet on the end of the Block forces the Letter between the Blocks forwards, and so the whole Stick of Letters between these two Knots are screwzed together, and by the Wedge e f in Plate 21 (also with the force of a Mallet) Wedges the two Blocks and the Stick of Letter in them also tight, and close between the sides of the two Blocks; that afterwards the Plow may more certainly do its Office upon the Foot of the Letter; as shall be shewed hereafter.1
¶. 3. Of the Dressing-Hook.
The Dressing-Hook is described in Plate 21 at c. This is a long square Rod of Iron, about two Foot long and a Great-Primmer square: Its end a is about a two-Lin’d-English thick, and hath a small Return piece of Iron made square to the under-side of the Rod, that when the whole Dressing-Hook is laid along a Stick of Letter, this Return piece or Hook may, when the Rod is drawn with the Ball of the Thumb, by the Knot on the upper-side of it at c, draw all the Letter in the Stick tight and close up together, that the Stick of Letter may be Scraped, as shall be shewed.