A race knife, also called a timber scribe or scoop knife, is a knife with a U-shaped cutting end used by lumbermen, carpenters, coopers and surveyors to cut marks directly into wood. The marks it leaves serve various purposes, including keeping count, identifying parts, numbering, and tracing a pattern around a template as part of marking out; the gouges a race knife cuts are more durable and weather-resistant than a pencil or chalk mark would be.
Facts
Partially Attested
Introduced When (Circa)Date reflects the earliest located documentation of the tool in Edward H. Knight's dictionary, not necessarily the date the tool was first invented or used Sources
1. Small Objects with Big Stories (The Henry Ford)
Article, Historical Documentation sectionQuote, Article, Historical Documentation section
Edward H. Knight described these tools in his Practical Dictionary of Mechanics (1877).
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