That being said things do turn up, like this late 18th C lath splitter found sealed up in the cavity above a ceiling in an early house in Dresden, Me. The lath is 3/4" vertically sawn pine attached with 8d wrought nails.
Accordion or splitboard lath was installed by nailing one end of a board then splitting , wedging, and nailing your way across an area to be plastered. In midcoast Maine accordion lath was used starting around 1790. Before then riven lath (lath split on all four sides) was used.
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| 8" long x 1 3/8" wide x 1" thick |
Saw Nate in the KJ this morning. I did split board lath in my kitchen...with mixed results. I used dry, old boards and most of them just split apart all the way. I imagine REAL split board lath was done with green wood? And the wedges...probably had to use a few of them?
ReplyDeleteQuestion. Did some roof repair on an old cider mill building in Belgrade. It's pretty in tact...along with the horse sweep and timber framed press. I imagine these mills were semi-common, but are many of them left? I guess Old Sturbridge Village has one.
-Dan Mitchell
They may have been common, but as far as I know very few exist now. There supposedly was one down the road here in Dresden, but the building collapsed in the early 90's. Do you have any pictures from Belgrade you could send along? Or if possible I'd loved to check it out in person.
Delete-Nate
I'll be doing more work there later this summer, and I'm sure the owners wouldn't mind if you had a look. I've got some pictures too.
Delete-Dan
Fascinating- I have never seen a lath splitter. Wouldn't you think a metal tool would be more effective at splitting wood? Maybe both metal and wood were used? Anyway, thanks for posting these! Really interesting blog!
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