bob hutchins wrote:

 Likewise, pure ornamentation seems very unlikely given the
additional labor - ergo costs - associated with its manufacture.
  Could the distance from the outer nib to the handle perhaps
be a cubit?

I for one am routinely surprised in this day and age, to find out that 
labor was one of the cheaper aspects of
manufacturing in centuries prior. Raw material and shipping costs were 
a huge part of the bottom line, but the cost of a man's work over the 
course of a day, minimal. No insurance, paid time off, pension or 
social security contributions.

not to diminish any of the fine points, speculation, learned discourse 
that has come before, but it seems to me that
simple decoration of working tools, costing primarily in the labor 
involved, would be an inexpensive addition.

Michael, San Francisco, who found an early 40*s Disston #4 backsaw for 
a dollar among the books and can openers on a
street vendors blanket on Friday. 
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