Edge-tool maker
Cliquez ici pour la version française
Le Taillandier | The Edge-tool maker
The taillandier, or edge-tool maker, manufactures or repairs sharp objects used in agriculture, such as a plow, spade, pick, or pickaxe. Some edge-tool makers also knew how to make funnels, lanterns, moulds, and files, while others could make kitchen utensils, such as pins, tweezers, pots, or large tools such as hammers and weights.
The edge-tool maker was one of 7 main occupations in New France relating to metalwork, the others being the blacksmith, the coppersmith, the tinsmith, the gunsmith, the locksmith and the arquebusier.
An Edge-Tool Maker’s Workshop ("Le taillandier = Der Zeugschmied," 1847 drawing or painting by Jean Frédéric Wentzel, Bibliothèque nationale de France)
Source: Claude Lemay, "Fonctions et métiers délaissés," l'Ancêtre, number 281, volume 34, winter 2008, and number 280, volume 34, winter 2007; digital edition, Société généalogique de Québec (www.sgq.qc.ca/images/_SGQ/R_LAncetre_plus_libre/ENT-FONCTIONS-METIERS-DELAISSES.pdf).