Scale Board Cutter?

[Hampshire Lass]

Please can someone explain to me what a scale board cutter is?

In 1870 when someone on my tree married they stated that their father was a timber merchant.

When I look to find this person as a youngster on the 1851 census one possibility seems to be someone whose father is a scale board cutter.
On the 1861 census he is still a scale board cutter.
On the 1871 census he is a carpenter.

I wonder whether this is the right father for my man as none of the censuses show him to be a timber merchant. Or is my man exaggerating his fathers profession 

I don't actually know what a scale board cutter is but it sounds a bit wood connected!!!!

[mazi]

I have found a reference to     scale board     as being the thin board used for backing framed pictures, so the timber trade yes, but very specialised.

thinking a bit more, rather than cutting bits to size to fit the picture frame, maybe he cut large pieces of wood into very thin slices in his dad's yard, this would fit with  a timber merchants trade.

mike,   ( who is thinking as he types so hope it makes sense) 

[Hampshire Lass]

Thanks for that info Mike.

As I read your reply, I thought.......oh no, I knew that and didn't I post this question before?
Seriously worried about me now 

I looked back on my posts and sure enough when I last left this brickwall in February I posted the same question on RC because I'm not sure I have the right family.

Although all the occupations are wood orientated it still seems strange that the son says his dad is a timber merchant when he obviously isn't.....if I have the right family that is

[stanmapstone]

From "A Dictionary of Occupational Terms"
Scaleboard Cutter; clamps wood, generally spruce, on bed of cutting machine; adjusts blade of machine by hand to cut wood to requisite thickness (one thirtieth of an inch); switches on power-drive of machine, causing a wide blade to move forward and shave thin sheets from wood.
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,634901.msg4823923.html#msg4823923
Stan

[Hampshire Lass]

As I read your reply, I thought.......oh no, I knew that and didn't I post this question before?
Seriously worried about me now 

I looked back on my posts and sure enough when I last left this brickwall in February I posted the same question on RC because I'm not sure I have the right family.

Thanks for the link Stan         That was why I said "seriously worried about me now"   

This family is very confusing and I put them to one side and then forgot I'd already posted the question.
So, now I do know what a scale board cutter is........but I still can't untangle the family.
Never mind, I'll get there and thanks for the info once again.

[mazi]

when I was young in the days before B**Q  if I wanted a piece of wood I went to a timber merchant, if he didn't have the size I wanted he cut it for me.
is it possible your man's father cut thin pieces by hand for any anyone who wanted them, a sort of specialised timber merchant, there were many such cottage industries in 1851, when machines were in their infancy. By 1871 machines had taken his job so he became a general carpenter.

mike

[Hampshire Lass]

That seems good thinking Mike.

My problem is that the father is William Henry ******* and his son is Henry William ******
and each of them cannot decide which of their 2 names they prefer
and then there is another child who was christened on the same day with the same name and with the father of the same name......but it is a separate family, as the address and mother are different.

Talk about making our research complicated 

I need a clear head for this one.

[mazi]

That seems good thinking Mike.



I need a clear head for this one.

I am often proved wrong


if you find a clear head can I borrow it 

[Hampshire Lass]

Suprisingly I seem to have found a public tree on ancestry that has been compiled by someone with a clear head and they've sorted this family out.

I can't say I've ever trusted a public tree before but this tree seems very logical and so did your reply to me