Casgliadau Arlein

A specialist knife for shaping the wooden soles of clogs. It has a very large, straight blade forged onto a long iron bar. One end of the iron bar is shaped into a hook, which woud be attached to an iron ring on the clogmaker's bench. On the other end of the bar is a wooden handle. The clogmakers held the handle in his right hand and the wooden blank in his left hand. The iron ring held the knife in place and enabled it to be used like a lever to pare away unwanted wood from the sole blank.

Shaping, hollowing and mortising knives were used by clogmakers for shaping the wooden soles. The hook on the end fitted into a ring on the wooden bench. The clogmaker used the knife with one hand and held the sole in the other.