Pattern, Woodworking
Carrier or basket handle bending form, Canterbury, NH
Description
Basket handle-bending form of birch (Betula spp.) held together by steel flat-head wood screws and 7/16" diameter threaded rods, washers, and four octagonal nuts. Handle blanks are bent into the form rather than over it. Three rows of 1/8" x 3/16" whittled birch pegs set into the sides and bottom of the form at 1 3/8" spacing to hold the handle blanks in alignment. The handle blanks were apparently held tight against the bottom of the mold by a 3/16" overlap of a cap strip on each edge of the inside, so that the handle blanks would have had to have been cut to an exact length before steaming.