Serving mallet for making ropes

Category

Museums & Galleries Item

Item no

52337

Title

Serving mallet for making ropes

Description

Serving mallet for rope making, made of dark wood and with round handles for holding with square three claw hand at one end. Used after splicing on ragged ends.

Accession number

NH1/4/94

Copyright

The City of Edinburgh Council Museums & Galleries

Mallets like this one formed an important part of sail makers toolkit, used to create rigging for ships by tightly wrapping the rope in twine to guard against the harsh marine environment, as well as to protect the crew from chafed hands.

"Serving" rigging is the last of a three-step method which has been used to create rigging since some of the first ships set sail. Placing the mallet in a vertical position to the rope, the tarred marline or synthetic seine twine is wound around the head and handle of the mallet. When the mallet is spun around the rope, the twine coats the rope. This ensures no gaps are left between each turn. Before the rope is "served" it first needs to be "wormed" and "parcelled". To "worm" the rope is to fill in any gaps with a smaller, thinner yarn to make the rope watertight. To "parcel" the rope is to wrap it tightly in tarred canvas, burlap or linen and then tar the rope again.

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