I just googled through years of posts that I made about bulldogs, most I had forgotten about. But, I cannot find the specific thread. It was shortly after I joined PM, and I had bought a box of French bulldog stummels from Skip that were from the turn of the century. I had made stems and creative bands for several of them, and then Skip was showing them off which started folks at The Briary sending me messages about the history. Skip has some old ads from the late 1800's that had the write ups on them, and then there was discussion about frasing (frazing?) machines that were the old slot and peg types that fully fabricated the shapes. Mark Tinsky is who I would ask more about that, or Erik Nording, as they have worked with these old machines a long time ago. I had thought about writing an actual research article on them, but most of what I was getting was hearsay, secondhand information, "Erik said" or Mark said." Mark and Skip are old friends, going way back. But, I lost interest. But, i still get the odd bit of information here and there, because I still collect bullies.
But, the best I understand it, these first fraising machines were not the typical lathe, and in my box of stummels, I could tell that the holes weren't drilled till after the outside had been carved, because some didn't have holes, and some were very badly drilled. I would still love to see one of these machines, to see how they were made. But, I imagine they are similar to how the lapidary carving machines work, making the mass produced ivory and ebony chess pieces. I use that as an example, because I have seen these at Gem and Mineral shows. The slots and pegs are all set to control the cutters, making it stop at various points to created a 3D image.
Thumbing through some of the antique ads that Skip has, I found the pictures of the first sets of bulldogs with the brass caps. I have one that I then bought off of eBay. It was very easy to remove the caps, because it was paper thin and merely held on with two little brass nails. And, you'll see the little holes in many of the older bulldogs sold on eBay. Now, why guys removed the cap... just pull it off with little effort... because they were frilly, non-masculine, or easily damaged... that was just guesswork. But, knocking one with a cap on it onto a knocker would easily damage the thing, so... it was probably a mixture of all of these.
Maybe one day, when I have spare time, I will do some real research, maybe visit France to try to find one of these machines, and write up an actual research article. But, as for now... I will just enjoy my bullies and hold them in fascination for how they were created. They appeal to me. :
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