Tools continued

Contemporary Scapers: Today, scrap metal, brass, wood, leg bones of caribou (occasionally reindeer in Sanikiluaq and the Mackenzie Delta), and other assorted material are made into scrapers. Scapers made from leg bones are strengthened by filling up the hollow core with a mixture of wood chips and glue. Metal, other than aluminum, which leaves black marks on the seal skins, is prepared for blades. A metal blade is usually riveted or glued into a slot cut into a handle, which is often carved from hardwood and carefully shaped to fit the user's hand. A piece of tin embedded in a piece of wood makes an ideal scraper. Old shotgun barrels are popular scrapers among numerous groups (Igloliorte n.d.).

Caroline Tookalook, a seamstress from Sanikiluaq, has scrapers made from old brass and copper pipes. Caribou, Copper, and Ungava Inuit use distinctively different styles of scrapers. Caribou Inuit dull scrapers are about 15 cm long; their sharp scrapers are about 10 cm long and beveled on the top side. Except for the size, the handles, blades, design, and construction of these two scrapers are identical. The handles are made from old gun stocks, oak stairs, ammunition boxes, caribou antler, plastic sled runners, or plastic cutting boards. The blades, which are cut from scrap metal such as 45-gallon drums or old cross-cut saw blades, are bent up and rounded on the outer corners to reduce the chance of slicing into the skin while scraping. A similar blade is used by other central and eastern Canadian Arctic Inuit. In contrast, Copper Inuit dull and sharp scrapers have long,

Sinew also has an advantage over waxed thread in that it tapers to a point, allowing a finer needle to be used so that sewing leaves smaller holes in the skin. Tendons from a variety of animals are used for sinew, depending on what animals are readily available in each area. Caribou tendons, which are about half a metre in length, are the most common source of sinew in the Canadian Arctic. Narwhal tendons, which are about a metre long, round, and look like spaghetti, are limited to the eastern High Arctic communities where narwhal occur. Bearded seal, beluga whale, and bird tendons are frequently used by women living in Sanikiluaq when caribou (or reindeer) sinew was unavailable. In the past, seagull oesophagus also was substituted when other sinew was unavailable (Saladin d' Anglure 1984). Labrador (Edmunds 1992, Watts 1992) and Baffinland Inuit use caribou or beluga sinew, while Caribou and Netsilik Inuit use mainly caribou. Today, however, all groups use commercial waxed thread more often than sinew.
The tendons used for sewing are usually removed from along either side of an animal's spine and occasionally from each leg. To prepare tendons, any attached meat is scraped or chewed off, then they are washed and laid on a board to dry. Once tendons are dry, individual strands are easily separated from the bundle. The strands are wound around the palm into a small coil and stored in a cool, dry place. Inuit often stored sinew in a bird skin bag, and this is till done by some women in Sanikiluaq. A sinew bag is made by case skinning a loon; the skin is peeled off like a tube. The holes left by removing the wings and legs are sewn shut, and a piece of seal skin or fabric is overcast to one end to create a bag. A sinew bag is used with the feathers to the inside, so that the oils in the skin and feathers will prevent the sinew from drying out. Sinew bags were also made from caribou stomachs in Arctic Bay.

To prepare a strand of sinew for sewing, the seamstress moistens it between her lips, threads the tapered end through the needle's eye without rolling or twisting it (Birket-Smith 1929, Manning and Manning 1944). She then knots the blunt end and takes a stitch in the top band of the sinew bag. The knot holds the sinew fast as she pulls on the needle to stretch the sinew. Once the sinew is stretched, she cuts the knot, and the sinew is ready for sewing. The upper bands on sinew bags are covered with these cut-off knots (Amarudjauq 1986). Sewing with sinew is an art, as it has a grain and frays easily.
Needles: In the past, Iglulik Inuit made needles from bone (Mathiassen 1928), and several elders today recall using bone needles when they were younger and had run out of metal needles. Caribou Inuit continued to make needles from caribou metatarsal bone or walrus ivory (Birket-Smith 1929) even after 1719, when steel needles became available from Hudson's Bay Company traders. In the past, other groups used both steel and ivory needles, according to Hatt (1914) and Taylor (1964). Historically, Tununermuit from Arctic Bay made bone needles by sharpening a piece of caribou fibula to a fine point and drilling a hole for an eye (Alooloo 1984). Netsilik Inuit shaped their needles from bird wing bones or polar bear bone (Balikci 1970), and Ungava Inuit carved needles from eider wing bones or walrus tusks, giving them a sharp point and an elongated eye. On the Belcher Islands, many of the elders (Ippak 1989, Iqalaq 1989, Meeko 1989) remembered women using needles made from bird bone and walrus tusk, though they themselves were too young to sew at the time. Their mothers and grandmothers used bone needles only when metal needles were not available from traders. Contemporary Inuit prefer brass-eyed needles, which are easier to thread and fray the sinew less; when those are not available, they substitute steel-eyed needles. Women use round, steel-eyed number 9 to 12 sharps for sewing waterproof seams and smaller needles to make tiny stitches in soft, thin calfskins (Kaviok 1985-87). Many seamstresses use glover's needles to sew rows of reinforcing stitches around the heel and toe on boot soles, and a few prefer small glover's needles for sewing haired boots. They keep their needles sharp by rubbing them on sharpening steels or stones.

Needle Cases: Cases of walrus ivory were used historically by most Inuit to store their needles. Baffinland Inuit once made needle cases from a hollow ivory tube

with carved indentations on each side to help secure the skin thong that was tied around it, but today they are rare. Ungava Inuit stored their needles in ivory needle cases filled with sphagnum moss and plugged with a wooden or ivory stopper held in place with tiny pegs. They also made skin "pin cushions" stuffed with sphagnum moss and decorated with beads. Sinew, thimbles, needle cases, and scraps of skin were carried in small skin sewing bags (Turner 1894), but today the are kept in mass-produced sewing baskets purchased from the local Northern or Co-op store. Caribou Inuit stored their needles in a moss pin cushion carried in a sewing bag (Birket-Smith 1929), but they also used scraps of stiff tubing (possibly copper pipe) for needle cases. Netsilik women kept their thimbles, needles, and some thread in bone or antler cases attached to their parkas (Balikci 1970). Today, seamstresses generally keep their needles in pin cushions or bone needle cases and take care not to lose them in the carpets of their houses.
Thimbles: In the past, seamstresses used thimbles of caribou antler or polar bear bone when sewing extra-thick skin. They also wore skin thimbles on their index and baby fingers. Today, metal thimbles for the index finger are used interchangeably with ones made from caribou or seal skin (Mathiassen 1928). Some women still slip a skin thimble over their baby finger to protect it from abrasion when they pull thread or sinew. One way to make an index finger thimble is to cut two slits in a small strip of shaved or aged seal skin. The seamstress slips her index finger through the slits and adjusts the "thimble" to protect it. A thimble for the baby finger is made the same way (Kaviok 1985-87). Another type of thimble, which is still used today, was made from a piece of seal skin sewn into a cylinder about 1.5 cm wide to fit on the index finger (Turner 1894). Some Inuit make this style of thimble from a semicircular rather than a rectangular piece of skin.
Boot Stretchers: Wooden boot stretchers are used to stretch and soften skin boots that have been worn in damp conditions. A boot stretcher is made from a single piece of wood (approximately 75 X 7 X 5 cm) with one end beveled. Sometimes a metal blade is inserted into the tip of the stretcher. Occasionally, the stretcher has a crosspiece added to the lower end to make it stand upright. A woman holds the style without the crosspiece between her feet and knees while she is sitting or standing, then slips the boot over the beveled end of the stretcher and rubs it back and forth until the sole becomes soft and pliable.