Cat´s paw
Query URLs
https://term.museum-digital.de/md-de/tag/132371
- Note
- A cat´s paw or cat´s claw is a metal hand tool used for extracting nails, typically from wood, using leverage. A standard tool in carpentry, it has a sharp V-shaped tip on one or both ends, which is driven into the wood by a hammer to capture the nailhead. Essentially, it is a smaller, more ergonomic, purpose-designed crowbar.
Historically, the cat´s paw had a single significantly rounder, more cup-shaped extracting head, giving it its name. Today, the norm is to have the two much narrower and more pointed heads offset 90-degrees (in plane) from one-another (allowing the bar to be pressed fully down when using the tip on the long end without damaging the surface the free end contacts). By the physics of its design the tip on the short end has substantially more leverage, but is not always convenient to be set with a hammer.
References
[]