just one of those crazy things that floated into my mind while i was in my flu-induced delirium.
Posted by Kimberly Zanetti (Member # 2546) on :
Funny you should ask that...my father mentions in the infamous video that mahl comes from German for paint. Now, I should preface that by saying that I ran it through a translation site and I come up with something different so I'm not sure where he got that info. I'll look in some of his old sign books and see if I can find his source.
Posted by Kimberly Zanetti (Member # 2546) on :
Found in Websters Unabridged Dictionary, 1913:
Maul-stick (Maul"-stick`) n. [G. malerstock; maler a painter + stock stick.] A stick used by painters as a rest for the hand while working. [Written also mahl-stick.]
In The Oxford English Dictionary, 2 Volume Compact Edition:
Maulstick, Also mol stick. mostick, mallstick, mahlstick. From the Dutch maalstock from malen to paint + stok stick. Also from German, malerstock, maler meaning painter, stock meaning staff.
A light stick used by painters as a support for the right hand and held in the left. The upper end is surmounted by a ball of cotton-wool covered with soft leather.
First historical/literary references:
1658 Phillips 1678 Salmon 1855 Thackeray 1872 J. Hatton 1890 Kipling
Posted by Wayne Webb (Member # 1124) on :
Paleoanthropologists have traced it back even further. Some 20,000 years ago, a Neanderthal hunter was attacked and mauled by a cave bear. He survived by poking the bear with his stoneage spear. In the process, though the hunter survived, his spear was broken. But, since it basically saved his life, the cave-man kept his lucky spear (what was left of it) by his side at all times.... even while cave painting. Since his nerves were still frazzled long after the incident, the cave-painter took to leaning on his mauled (mahl) stick to steady himself while painting his mastodons, wooly mammoths and other prhistoric critters on the cave walls. The other stoneage artists took to emulating him because his wooly mammoths and sabre toothed tigers looked so much more realistic than theirs, thanks to his new-found tool. And the mahl-stick was born. That's the honest truth. Posted by AdrienneMorgan (Member # 1046) on :
Pat King seems to be intimately familiar with the Mahl stick....as he is shown here in a demonstration of it's application and use in the South....
They do things dif'rent in them parts.....
[ November 16, 2002, 04:29 PM: Message edited by: AdrienneMorgan ]
Posted by Lotti Prokott (Member # 2684) on :
Wayne, have you been using laquer thinners? Listen to the expert: this thing is really called Malstock, and if properly translated from german, it would have to be paintstick, or at least malstick. I don't know who started to put an h into that word, but mahlen with the "h" means to grind. I'm so glad that I finally know the answer to one of your questions Posted by Wayne Webb (Member # 1124) on :
Lotti..... So you don't believe me??? I'm hurt Yes, lacquer thinner.......lotsa lacquer thinner... and mineral spirits, naptha, xylene, toluene, gasoline, kerosene and caffiene.
Now......time to take my Thorazine.
Posted by CJ Allan (Member # 52) on :
Dang............
I was always told that Jimmy Norris invented it......... !!
..........cj
Posted by Jeff Ogden (Member # 3184) on :
I'd like to know how far back they go. I always heard that Michelangelo used one.
I remember when I was young seeing mahl sticks with leather ends. Seems like they were all that way...my first one was that way...The leather was inside out....kept it from slipping.
Posted by Monte Jumper (Member # 1106) on :
Yeegads...A twenty thousand year old "Letterhead" and I thought this was a recent thing.
Well just goes to show you...Nothing is ever truly new!
Posted by Arvil Shep' Shepherd (Member # 2030) on :
CJ, I was told by Jim Norris (Himself)that He held a Patent on such a device !!!!!!
hehehehe (Inside joke)
Shep'
[ November 16, 2002, 10:22 PM: Message edited by: Arvil Shep' Shepherd ]
Posted by Don Hulsey (Member # 128) on :
I always figured the conversation went something like this...
Curious Onlooker, "Did you have to go to school to learn how to do that? Can you make any money doing that? Did you know my cousin Jimmy can draw real good? I bet he could do that too. Does it bother you when people watch? Can I try..."(interupted)
Sign Painter, "I'm gonna maul you with this damned stick if you don't stop asking all those questions!"
Posted by Kimberly Zanetti (Member # 2546) on :
quote:Sign Painter, "I'm gonna maul you with this damned stick if you don't stop asking all those questions!"
Oh Don, I'm laughing too hard to write anything!
Posted by Fred Floyd (Member # 2251) on :
I think that it is the thang that my Dad used on me in 1956 when he started trying to teach me to paint boards and letters. I do know this, that thing sure stings when it hits ya in the butt. Fred Posted by Kent Smith (Member # 251) on :
I too was smacked once or twice with Dad's mahl stick. I remember in Latin class, illustrations of fresco painters using them in Pompeii. There is also one in the Egyptology exhibit at the Metorpolitan Museum of Art in NYC. There are also many references to the use of a mahl stick by classic portrait artists. And, I have even heard of left handed sticks.
Posted by Don Hulsey (Member # 128) on :
Kent,
I have SEEN a left handed mahl stick. It looks much like the right handed one, but the ball is on the other end.
Sorry, I couldn't resist.
Posted by CJ Allan (Member # 52) on :
Don.... I didn't know Jimmy was yer cousin.......
Actually, the one Jimmy invented had the ball in the middle, but he had Timi straighten it out for him, and get it on the end. They never said whether they were right hand or left hand, cause it was a secret............
Just sittin here tryin to figger out what hand it would be, with it in the middle.........or if you would actually use either hand on it to start with...........startin to git a headache.......gonna go take a nap now.......maybe I'll ask Dr Phil in the morning..... !!
.........cj
Posted by Si Allen (Member # 420) on :
Mahl sticks go w a a a a y back into prehistory!
Picture of me when I was an apprentice!
Posted by Don Hulsey (Member # 128) on :
Hey Si,
Were you painting the Ram thumpin Calvin Pee Boy in that picture?
Posted by Arvil Shep' Shepherd (Member # 2030) on :
Don, My answer to the guy who ask all the questions..(And damn he must be everywhere). "Say your Couisin can REALLY DRAW ???????"
"WHAT DOES HE DRAW ???????......GREEN FLIES !!!!!!!!! ".....HE HE HE
That's when you use the "MAUL STICK " to defend yourself !!!!!
In reality I never used one.....only in rare occassions......and then as a "Bridge"....and not as most people used them..
Check with the US Patent Office and you will see that Jimmy Norris..(Cousin of Chuck Norris)....holds the Patent Rights..he he he he
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