The paper has been worked out based on the investigation into a museum collection at the Wallachian Open-Air Museum, including documents from Karel Jež´s estates replenished with knowledge
from archival documents and literature. As resulting from these, the
brush-making workshop of Karel Jež (1885-1959) from Lázy (District of Vsetín) is an example of a rural workshop operated by a small-scale craftsman in the first half of the 20th century. The handicraft is for him a welcome opportunity of earning some extra
money to farming which is the main source of livelihood for the whole family. In the introduction, the study informs about the history
of brush making in Moravia and Wallachia beginning with the19th
century. It presents Karel Jež´s family situation, and it characterizes
their source of livelihood consisting in arable and cattle farming.
Furthermore, it focusses on the operation of brush-making handicraft, description of his workshop, production techniques, materials, types of goods, and way of selling. It draws the information mostly from Jež´s notebooks where he wrote down
particular orders. He did not have any shop and he did not produce for other distributors, but everything that he made he sold either at
home or at markets and fairs. He mostly used domestic raw
materials which his customers brought to him, as substantiated by
numerous records in his diaries. The complete equipment of the
workshop offers a unique opportunity of presenting it within a long-term exhibition of the Wallachian Open-Air Museum.
File making is a less known branch of smithery, the production of which can be divided into two basic typologically distinct groups - files and rasps. Handmaking of a range of files and rasps included a number of special operations, which led the metal processing sector into becoming a specialized and independent area. The fundamental task of file-making was to create a cutting edge on a prepared forged piece of a file or rasp item. The oldest method was
hand crafting which survived from ancient times until the 20th century in almost unchanged form. Independent areas with a strong concentration of file manufacturing were established thanks to some specific conditions. In the Svratka region, a significant part of archaic technologies referring deep into the past of file manufacturing all the way to the 1950s was preserved due to the prosperity of file making.
Equipment of file manufacturing handicraft workshops.
The traditional handicraft form of file manufacturing required the creation of aspecific workshop environment. The disposition breakdown of file workshops was not too complicated and it reminded of a smithery in many aspects. File making required highly specialized tools focused on forging and grinding of items, cutting of blades, annealing and tempering. With the narrow specialization, small home-based workshops were established in the Svratka region, in which craftsmen and home-based workmen attended to partial tasks. A strong professional layer of residents also brought the professional language of file makers to the countryside. It did not disappear until the second half of the 20th century. The traditional handicraft manufacturing in the Svratka region disappeared quickly in early 1950s. Hand crafting file makers either entirely ceased their activities or moved on to factories in Jihlava and Hlinsko.