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Glossary entry

French term or phrase:

arraché au marteau

English translation:

clinched with a hammer

Added to glossary by Christopher Crockett
Apr 20, 2017 20:01
7 yrs ago
2 viewers *
French term

arraché au marteau

French to English Art/Literary Archaeology ancient art
Hello!
DOC: 1907 Museum catalog of ancient Egyptian mirrors. Catalog entry.
CONTEXT: 44031. Miroir. - Bronze. TECHNIQUE. Le disque est fondu. Sous la patine verdâtre et rougeâtre apparaissent des taches couleur d'ardoise qui révèlent un alliage différent de celui du manche. Le manche, fondu d'une seule pièce, a été sobrement retouché au burin. Assemblage ordinaire: rivet unique dont la pointe, trop longue, a été ***arrachée au marteau***, et mastic. CONSERVATION. Intact dans son ensemble pour tout ce qui est métallique; le mastic et les parties colorées ont disparu.
ATTEMPT: Ordinary assembly: a single rivet, whose overly-long point has been removed with a hammer, and mastic.
ISSUE: Somehow I don't think this is removed, wouldn't it have been hammered up/off or something?
Thank you in advance!
Proposed translations (English)
5 +1 clinched with a hammer
4 pulled off with a hammer
3 hammered off
Change log

Apr 25, 2017 18:06: Christopher Crockett Created KOG entry

Votes to reclassify question as PRO/non-PRO:

Non-PRO (1): Nikki Scott-Despaigne

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Discussion

Christopher Crockett Apr 25, 2017:
The use of "arrachée" here is, indeed troubling. I really can't see any other means whereby a rivet might be used to attach the mirror (via a tang) to the handle --even if "clinching" is perhaps not, technically, the correct term used in metalworking. (But, if not, what is?)

Even though, as I said, it seems to have the blessings of the OED: "To fix (a nail or bolt [or rivet?]) securely, esp. by bending and beating back or **flattening** the **point** or end which has passed through a plank or plate of any kind; to make fast by such means."

After all, it is the "la pointe, trop longue" which "a été arrachée au marteau."

Could there be some variant in the (many) meanings of arracher to be found in the TLF entry here:

http://www.cnrtl.fr/definition/arracher

Or perhaps it's some technical meaning specific to metalwork?

After all, though "clinching" is known to all woodworkers (and metal workers?), it is not at all in common usage among the hoi poloi.
B D Finch Apr 22, 2017:
@Nikki That is a good point! Thinking about it led me to this interesting video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_rDKXuT_gI . While the material being cut there is stone, perhaps some similar technique might be referred to here?
Nikki Scott-Despaigne Apr 22, 2017:
I may be in bird-brain mode here, but as the original is "arracher", there has to be an indication of the point beng removed. Chris's "clinching" is really interesting and he's provided loads of helpful references. I may be missing something essential here, but as clinching is all about securing and fixing, I don't get how it can work for "arracher", which is all about removing something, and with force to beat!

I was more than anachronistically out to lunch with my claw hammer idea. I may be stuck on that one, but I can't understand how securing something in place can convey a notion of something being removed.

Can anyone help here? Or should I just go back to pecking grains? ;-)

Proposed translations

+1
16 hrs
Selected

clinched with a hammer

"a single rivet whose end extends through and beyond the other side of the handle and is secured by being clinched (beaten flat) with a hammer"

He's talking about how the "rivet" (= a short nail)

http://cdn1.bigcommerce.com/server1000/f2668/products/74/ima...

is firmly fixed after it passes through the hole in the handle (and tang of the mirror disk).

With nails, this is done by bending the extended end over, using a hammer --technically known as "clinching" it.

The best examples of the process can be seen with longish nails:

http://cache.lexico.com/dictionary/graphics/ahd4/jpg/A4clinc...

http://www.diy-wood-boat.com/images/Clenching.jpg

Its the standard way of securely affixing any two elements together, here a metal shoe to the hoof of a horse:

http://www.horseproblems.com.au/Photo's/Farrier/racingshoein...

Here's an example of a very, very sure way to secure the joinery using a nail which is split in two parts up its length (a method probably too complex even for the Egyptians to think of):

https://pfollansbee.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/clinching-th...

And the same idea applied to a "slotted clinch rivet"

http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/bjgAAOSw8w1X5X~Z/s-l300.jpg

In the case of our mirror, we're dealing with a rivet/nail which extends only a short distance beyond the handle (technically known as the "clinch allowance")

http://www.hansonrivet.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Screen...

http://www.settingtoolsinc.com/apppic.JPG

so the result of the clinching would be more of a flattened "button" than of a bent over nail; like these short nails on the sole of a boot:

https://pfollansbee.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/clinching-th...

Thus, the process consisted of drilling the hole through (both sides of) the handle and through the extended tang of the mirror disk, inserting the rivet through the hole, putting the whole ensemble on an anvil (a flat, hard stone), with the extended end of the rivet up and clinching that end with a (probably stone) hammer.

Modern methods get rather complicated, but the basic principle is the same

http://cdn1.bigcommerce.com/server1000/f2668/products/74/ima...

http://www.hansonrivet.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Screen...

The verb "to clinch" is in common use in certain crafts and is found in the OED

"1. trans. To fix (a nail or bolt) securely, esp. by bending and beating back or flattening the point or end which has passed through a plank or plate of any kind; to make fast by such means."

But it is not commonly known to laymen (or women), so some further explanation of the technique might be necessary (hence my "beaten flat" above).

I don't know any other way to say it in English, however.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 4 days (2017-04-25 18:06:00 GMT) Post-grading
--------------------------------------------------

I don't like "clinched with a hammer" --it's using a technical term which won't be understood by most readers.

How about something like "The mirror is attached in the ordinary manner, with a single rivet which passes through the tang of the mirror and the handle, and is firmly held in place by clinching with a hammer the end which protrudes beyond the surface of the handle"?

Still not quite right --but perhaps a loose grip on a greasy pole on a slippery slope on the way to being right.
Peer comment(s):
agree B D Finch : Thanks for correcting my layperson's take on this.
1 hr
You were on the right track, BD; I just happen to know something about the principle of clinching as it is used in carpentry and extrapolated that onto a metalwork application (with a little help from google/images).
neutral Nikki Scott-Despaigne : An excellent post on "clinching", as in "clinker-built" boat, or "clenched fist", for ex. Hwvr, and this may just be me, I still don't get how it renders "arracher", which describes removing something (with force) and not a means of securing something.
6 hrs
A good point, Nikki; I can't really make sense out of it, either, linguistically --except to say that I'm sure that clinching was the means of securing the thing. Note that it's "la pointe" which is being "arrachée au marteau" --in a sense, "removed"?
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thank you!"
1 hr

pulled off with a hammer

One end of a hammer head is used for hammering, the other for hauling nails out.
Peer comment(s):
neutral mrrafe : But if it was removed, how would they know there was a hammer or a rivet? Maybe it was flattened (hammered down) but not removed. Is there a picture?
4 hrs
Yes, only the pointed end/tip has gone.
neutral Christopher Crockett : I don't think so, Nikki; the situation is a bit more complicated than that (and I don't think that the type of hammer you're talking about ("claw hammers") were invented until Roman times, thousands of years after the creation of our mirror here.
15 hrs
Thank you. My suggestion does seem a bit off target now.
Something went wrong...
13 hrs

hammered off

That leaves the actual technique (pulling or hitting) open.

59.167.233.142/publications/pdf/mix06.pdf
The nibs of ribbed panels were hammered off in a pre-determined ...

Peer comment(s):
neutral Christopher Crockett : That's pretty close to the general idea, B.D., and perhaps conveys the literal sense of the French, but there is a technical term which we can use here. And I can't say that I've ever seen the term "hammered off" in the primitive U.S. dialect.
3 hrs
neutral Nikki Scott-Despaigne : This is interesting as in UK English, the verb "to hammer" involves a hitting action, so in UK EN, hammering sthng off cannot describe a pulling action. That's one point to today's newbie list. ;-)//"Clinch": to secure, yes, but for "arracher": to remove?
10 hrs
You can pull nails out with a claw hammer, as you noted in your answer, but that isn't really hammering and can only be done from the head end of the nail. Anyway, we've both learned about clinching from Christopher!
Something went wrong...
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