Tiller Pin

[Cheshire cat]

There are lots of vintage brass pokers and companion sets on ebay

[pete harrison]

There are lots of vintage brass pokers and companion sets on ebay

There certainly is, but I would rather buy from a shop / person where I can see exactly what I am getting

[RLWP]

A poker with a brass shaft would probably take some finding. Usually plain steel or 'brassed', with a skin of brass rolled onto the steel. I agree that's what looks 'right' to me, though no good with a row of cans the same size. That's a rather shiny, fancy can ;)I do like the tiller pin. Probably a sign of gradually increasing prosperity, I was sent out, as a young man, to order a (rather expensive!) length of brass tube from an engineers' merchants as a tiller bar for the Hotel Boat 'Jupiter', about 1969/70. Up to that point, it had one in painted steel. I've been boating since 1965, by no means only Narrow Boating though, and earned my living on the waterways since about 1970. Although I did socialise a bit with boatmen at the very end of NB carrying in the North West I've never got deeply immersed into the Working Narrow Boat Culture, either real or preserved, maybe for that reason the only time I've heard of back cabin 'handrails' called 'cants' was on this forum a few months ago.Tim

And perhaps because there was never a single, unified language of the canals. The idea that there was seems to be part of a modern desire to capture the 'true' past and communicate that as fact.

 

Richard

[X Alan W]

Tims post #51 I think that the can was at that time either new or re painted Jess Owen ( Charity Dock) job, & pretty certain the tiller pin was a Charity supplied to some one "jobbie".I had one almost or exactly the same, IIRC Joe seemed to have a never ending supply.

[Neil2]

And perhaps because there was never a single, unified language of the canals. The idea that there was seems to be part of a modern desire to capture the 'true' past and communicate that as fact.

 

Richard

 

And the problem with trying to resolve arguments about canal custom, practice, tradition etc is that there is little documentary evidence to point to, so much of what is claimed as "fact" is merely anecdotal.

 

The word "cant" is an architectural term used to describe the raised edge or corner of a nominally flat roof and has no traditional use in marine terminology, AFAIAA. The fact that someone recalls the word being used to describe what is popularly know as an "integral handrail" doesn't mean it is the "correct" term.

 

If you insist on using words/names that no-one else understands, unless you can come up with definitive evidence for it, it's not maintaining a tradition, it's just being bloody minded. Mind you, us Yorkshire folk are very good at that!

[RLWP]

Cant is also a word used in carriage building, and following on from that into car construction. So the cant rail is the reinforcing member that runs along the join between the roof and the sides. These days it usually includes the top of the door opening.

 

Richard

[madcat]

They're handrails to me but Iam not and never have been really part of boating culture. I've no connection whatsoever ever to the days of long distance carrying and only a peripheral place in the enthusiasts world .

I m interested in the boats just as themselves , the nuts and bolts and rivets detail I suppose . I enjoy a project.

 

I do enjoy boating if I get the chance . Life keeps getting in the way though.

 

 

Tony , I've no idea where the poker handle / tiller pin came from . I was given it along with some other things. It's a particularly attractive shape though and unusual without being over the top fancy.

 

 

I'm not a fan of brass tiller bars , mine came with the boat and I never got round to finding a replacement . A tube trying on session failed to yield anything that fitted out of a job lot of possibles .

[Neil2]

Cant is also a word used in carriage building, and following on from that into car construction. So the cant rail is the reinforcing member that runs along the join between the roof and the sides. These days it usually includes the top of the door opening.

 

Richard

Yes but in this case there is a "cant" ie slope on the upper surface of the rail to match the slope of the roof, hence the name. On a narrowboat these rails are not normally "canted" as they are meant for grabbing hold of. Also they wouldn't provide much of a platform for the water can if they were sloping.

Edited February 16, 2015 by Neil2

[tree monkey]

Unless her aim is spot on, and the flow starts and ends perfectly, I can see at least one obvious good reason for not doing it that way!

 

EDITED TO ADD:

 

Daphne has also failed the "small dinner plate test", and her chimney chain is a bit different to many.

 

For all that, I always absolutely love that photo!

I also like that photo, look at those muscles in her arms! Hmmmmmmm

[Barry]

I also like that photo, look at those muscles in her arms! Hmmmmmmm

 

Fabulous forearms

Edited February 17, 2015 by Bazza2

[Timleech]

Yes but in this case there is a "cant" ie slope on the upper surface of the rail to match the slope of the roof, hence the name. On a narrowboat these rails are not normally "canted" as they are meant for grabbing hold of. Also they wouldn't provide much of a platform for the water can if they were sloping.

A sloping top wouldn't matter when it comes to sitting a can on it, it's only the outer edge of the can bottom which sits on it. The inner edge would be on the cabin top itself or on a pad or strip which brings it closer to horizontal.

Please don't misunderstand me, I wasn't tring to suggest that Cant is not a word widely used by boatmen for cabin handrails, simply that I'd never heard it used. I do like to use the 'correct' names for parts of a boat, but I won't be adopting that usage (too late now!).

 

Tim

[RLWP]

Yes but in this case there is a "cant" ie slope on the upper surface of the rail to match the slope of the roof, hence the name.

 

Maybe. I doubt there was much of a slope on the roof of a stagecoach. It's as well to not be too precious or prescriptive with these terms. First off, they usually have a highly specific meaning within a profession that isn't clear to outsiders, and secondly they get bastardised outside of the profession.

 

I wouldn't be surprised to find that cant has a French origin, many coachbuilding terms have

 

Richard

[alan_fincher]

I also like that photo, look at those muscles in her arms! Hmmmmmmm

 

 

 

Yeeeeeees. Fabulous forearms!

 

Only "tasteful" admiration please, though chaps - she is related to one of our forum regulars!

[dor]

I also like that photo, look at those muscles in her arms! Hmmmmmmm

I read your quoted piece by Alan as "Excited to add"

 

Rather goes with your own content...

[alan_fincher]

 

Maybe. I doubt there was much of a slope on the roof of a stagecoach. It's as well to not be too precious or prescriptive with these terms. First off, they usually have a highly specific meaning within a profession that isn't clear to outsiders, and secondly they get bastardised outside of the profession.

 

I wouldn't be surprised to find that cant has a French origin, many coachbuilding terms have

 

Richard

 

Well I cant vouch for accuracy, but the "freedictionary" gives....

 

[Middle English, side, from Old North French, from Vulgar Latin *cantus, corner, from Latin canthus, rim of wheel, tire, of Celtic origin.]

 

[tree monkey]

 

 

 

Only "tasteful" admiration please, though chaps - she is related to one of our forum regulars!

I am only ever tasteful Alan☺ but accept my apologies whoever the relative is, if I caused any upset

[BruceinSanity]

And the Oxford online dictionary also gives:

 

Language specific to a particular group or profession and regarded with disparagement.

 

Nice touch of irony there, I thought

[Machpoint005]

 

>> you wouldn't put a coiled up line on it unless you'd licked all the gravy off first.>>

 

Why would there be gravy on a mooring line?

[RLWP]

I'm not sure about gravy, but the stuff to get soup of a rope is Scrope

 

Scrope is so strong that no rope is too long

 

Now, soup off a hoop is a totally different proposition

 

Richard

[pquinn]

That is not the best way to hang your plates, the mountings looking like those designed for a house. I bet they clang together when you bump a cill.

 

My plates used to overlap a lot more but were hung on individual hooks or pins, and I could really whack something (accidentally) without any plates touching. My plates are even safer now as after recently being retrieved from my ex-wife they all reside in a cupboard in my house

 

.

Yeah! and i'd like to see you try to eat spaghetti off some of those holy plates.

Filling a kettle - I just turn on the tap!

 

Dave

You crazy rebel.Your just like Indiana Jones.On the constant lookout for adventure and action.

[pquinn]

Come to think about it,its hard to see how these lads and lasses of old got any work done at all,what with the plate arranging and the fussing over mops not to mention the arguments there must have been over nomenclature and tiller pins.It must have been like an interior designers convention down at the old wharf of an afternoon.

[Machpoint005]

It's amazing how much brass you can polish when there's no TV to distract you.

[David Mack]

Cant is also a word used in carriage building, and following on from that into car construction. So the cant rail is the reinforcing member that runs along the join between the roof and the sides. These days it usually includes the top of the door opening.

 

Richard

 

Cant has the same meaning for railway coaches. The cant rail is where the sides meet the roof, although with modern monocoque construction I don't think its an actual rail any more.

 

Cant is also the railway term for the increased level of the outer rail on curved track, equivalent to the highway engineers term superelevation, or in general parlance, banking.

[mark99]

I just cant get used to it.

[Machpoint005]

There's a dropped apostrophe rattling around somewhere. It will probably have rolled under something because of the canted floor.