Good Evening Lady and Gentlemen: It is (me again Margaret”) No it’s Sharon. Bill’s chomping at the bits to get started, so here we go.

You start with a piece of 1/4″ x 3/4″ flat stock, and I make a mart then use the hot cutter and cut it. About 1″ down I come in at a 45 deg. angle to the center of the piece then go down the center about 1″ is plenty. I lift the cut part up with a dull punch. Then I use a radius punch at the end of the cut to smooth out the cold shunt.

I draw out the tail until it is about 1/4″ square, with a sharp point on the end. It should come out about 6″ long give or take a little. Then come over the horn and start setting down the neck.

We bring what is going to be the “hook” up and start drawing it out to a good sharp point. This should come out about 3″ long. It is important to put that radius at the bottom of that cut or else you will get a cold shunt and the hook breaks off and that is embarrasing.

Now we want to draw down in front of the hook about 4″ to about 1/4″ sq. Then we are going to cut off our bar about 1 1/2″ from that step and start thinning down and drawing out the part that will actually hold the candle. You want to get this as thin as possible.

Using the horn of the anvil as a bottom fuller and a cross pien hammer on the top we thin this down and draw it out to about 2 1/4″ inches. put a slight curl on the end and bend it 90 degrees.

Then we roll the thinned out end around to make approximately a 3/4″ eye (to hold a candle).

It should look something similar to this. This is a piece that is authentic to the early 1800″s and before time period.

I know this as a “Tommy Sticker” Welsh miners used them down in the coal mine, and stick Tommies (english)

 The hook is used for hanging it over the edge of a beam or a chair so that the candle sticks out at a 45 deg angle.

 The point part is for sticking into the dirt wall.

Yes the Welch call it a tommy pick, the Cornish Miners call it a Johnny Pick, and who knows what the english called it.

how much do they sell for , bill?

Buckskinners we know today put them in trees or hang them over a chair for a light. They sell for about $30

The old time fishermen used them stuck in a post in there fish shacks to see to mend nets at night

Thanks Norm. We knew that everyone didn’t have kerosene lanterns, so these things had to be used by folks other than miners.