bott hammer

English

Alternative forms

• bott-hammer

Etymology

Borrowed from German Botthammer.

Noun

bott hammer (plural bott hammers)

1. (obsolete) A hammer used to process flax.
   • 1859, Alex. Hunter, “The Raw Products of India suited to the Manufacturing Wants of Great Britain”, in The Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal‎^[1], volume 10, page 188:

     The bott-hammer is sometimes used for bruising or crushing fibrous plants; it consists of a wooden block, having on its under face channels or flutings which run across its surface; the block is fixed to a long belt-helve or handle, and may be worked singly, or several hammers may be worked in a row by machinery.

   • 1868, Baden Henry Baden-Powell, Hand-book of the Economic Products of the Punjab, page 500:

     The same was also effected by the bott hammer, a flat mallet, with its face cut into grooves, the handle to it being curved, and this being repeatedly struck on a quantity of fibre spread out on a board, first on one side and then on the other.

   • 1918, Frank Moore Colby, The New International Encyclopaedia‎^[2], volume 8, page 672:

     In Austria and other European countries a more primitive, but, it is claimed, less injurious method of breaking is pursued, in which the fibre is opened with a "bott hammer" (batting hammer), which is made of wood ridged like a cook's implement for pounding steak.