Fash & Sprue

Referring back to last night's post about the Sheffield penknife cutler, I watched another couple of videos from this wonderful series this afternoon, including one about auger making at the Footprint factory in the same city. By the way, my lifetime awareness of and familiarity with the Footprint brand is via the above-illustrated pipe wrench, colloquially known amongst gas engineers such as my dad, who gave me this pair, as 'Footprints', just as pipe-grips were known as 'Gordons' after their originator, and likewise 'Stilsons', also eponymously referenced. Many brands of all three designs exist, but I will always refer to them by these names, much like we use the term 'Hoover' to reference any old vacuum cleaner.

The title of this little scribble? I think most practical people of a certain age would recognise 'sprue' as the bits of waste material that result from the pour and vent holes of a casting, later to be removed to release the cast object for finishing. But as to the term 'fash' as an engineering reference, most - at least outside industrial areas - would simply think only of the Scottish term for fuss or bother. By contrast the terms flash and flashings - again to a traditional practical metalworker would automatically be recognised as the little bits of feathering caused by the slight leakage of casting material from between the mould halves. Fash, however is the slight burring or excrescence raised by welding, engraving and filing metal...