A Dictionary of Occupational Terms Based on the Classification of Occupations used in the Census of Population, 1921.

ORDER XV.—WORKERS IN WOOD AND FURNITURE

Sub-order 1.—Workers in Wood

484.—Walking and Umbrella Stick—Makers, Benders, Dressers

bender (stick making), gas bender: bends sticks to shape required, e.g. crook or straight handle, by heating them at a gas flame, or more rarely, in a kiln of hot sand, and curving round a mould or block of required shape; in small businesses sometimes also does work of straightener q.v.
dresser (stick making) ; finisher: smooths sticks; sandpapers and varnishes them, and rubs them with pumice, in preparation for polishing or final coat of varnish.
filer (stick making): rasps and files handles and sticks, by hand, to give desired shape and appearance.
finisher (stick making): see dresser.
fitter, fitter-up (stick making): tapers upper end of stick with a hand knife; fills mount with hot resin, and inserts tapered end therein; plunges stick in cold water, to harden resin; polishes mount on a lathe spindle revolving rapidly; also tapers bottom end of stick and attaches ferrule, by driving brass rivet through with hammer.
kilnman (stick making): see straightener.
scorcher (stick making): heats, with a blow pipe, surface of stick, to change its colour or to produce ornamental marking.
sorter (stick making): sorts sticks, according to purpose for which they are intended, i.e. for umbrellas, or walking sticks.
stick maker: general term for workers engaged in any operation incidental to making of walking sticks or umbrella or parasol sticks, including bender, dresser, filer, fitter, scorcher, straightener, trapper, stick carver (485), stick ferruler (499), stick mounter (288), stick polisher (499), stick pumicer (499), stick varnisher (599) q.v.
straightener (stick making) ; kilnman: straightens sticks by placing them in a kiln of hot damp sand, and then manipulating them in a wooden frame.
trapper (stick making): smooths stem of stick and reduces it to circumference required, with hand tool or by drawing, by hand, through die of trapping machine.

From: A Dictionary of Occupational Terms Based on the Classification of Occupations used in the Census of Population, 1921,
Ministry of Labour, 1927. Digitised by Peter Christian, August, 2016. This text is in the Public Domain.