Summary

For sewing leather, sailcloth or similar materials. Thread is stored inside the handle and passed through handle to tension post and then through the eye of the needle. Part of a sailmaker's tool kit.

Physical Description

Hollow wooden handle with a bobbin with brown thread inside, contained by metal end cap. Metal ferrule attached to threaded post with needle in the end. Covered by chuck lock.

Significance

This object is part of a collection of hand tools and materials, related to the trades of shipwrighting and sailmaking. Shipwrights and sailmakers were a very important trade for the construction and maintenance of water transport, such as paddlesteamers and sailing ships. The early colony of Victoria relied on the skills of these trades for construction of new vessels as well as their ongoing maintenance.

There are close to 7000 objects, documents and images related to the Trades Collection, which is primarily a collection of the tools associated with various trades, such as baking, blacksmithing, bookbinding, boot & shoe making, bricklaying, broom making, butchering, carpentry & woodworking, coachbuilding & wheelwrighting, coopering, coppersmithing, drafting, founding & moulding, gardening, glazing, hairdressing, hat making & millinery, jewellery making, knife & blade sharpening, leatherworking, metal working, organ building, painting & decorating, patternmaking, plumbing, printing, saddlery, shipwrighting, stonemasonery, tailoring & dressmaking, tiling, tinsmithing, tool making, undertaking, upholstering, wig making, and woodturning.

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