Object Description
A Scandinavian birch scutching or swingling knife, which was used after pounding the flax straw into flexible fibres, when it was beaten with a scutching knife to remove the last particles of broken chaff, so as to prepare it for spinning and then weaving into linen. Scandinavian knives are sometimes elaborately carved. This one is signed C.B. Dinmafogar on one side and also decorated with four simple rosettes. They usually have hand holes in the handles, which also allow them to be hung up as wall decorations after use. The whole has a pale honey colour and retains a patination.