Summary

Used for sailmaking.

The Palm is known as a sailmaker's thimble. It is a ring or strap of leather with a thumb hole, worn around the hand. It has a dented metal plate which is used to hold the back of the needle steady while pushing it through the tough canvas or rope. The plate on a Seaming Palm has smaller indentations than that of the Roping Palm because the needles used for roping are less coarse. The palm also has a metal guard around the thumb hole which is used to wind twine around to pull it tight.

Physical Description

Leather strap with stitching and metal inserts.

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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