John Cook recalls Reg Court and his "Chip Cutter"
Memories of the Light Machine Shop's Charge Hand in the 1950s
John Cook remembers Reg Court and his "Chip Cutter"
"John_Cook_Reg_Court_Chip_Cutter_LMS". Genre: Vocal.
At Fielding’s, workers would always grind their own tools rather than have them done by a tool maker and Reg was no exception. Reg was a “brilliant machinist” and, if he was grinding a lathe tool, John Cook remembers he would put a cut along the edge of the blade which Reg called a “chip cutter”. “It really cut!” John recalled and would last until such time as the tool softened, when it had to be rehardened in the Heat Treatment Room.
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Hi David! What a fascinating story! Many thank for sharing it with us. I hope others will read this and be encouraged to share their stories of times in the light machine shop with Reg. A lot of good words have been written on the website about Reg. A true professional and an all-round good chap. John B
I remember getting a fellow apprentice to do a ‘foreigner’ for me, probably for the Morgan three-wheeler I had at at the time.
Walking in one morning Noel said it was done. Sometime later that morning I went up to the light machine shop to pick it up. Noel and I were back to the gangway examining the component but you sensed Reg’s presence could not hold out for long. A voice floated over ‘**** off kid.’ I wished there had been a hole in the floor, I grabbed my part and scurried off down the shop, tail between legs! Again this voice floated after me. ‘any jobs in the future see me not my guys. I know when they can be done without anyone getting into trouble!’ That was advice that I followed all through my life, to good effect.
I also remember Reg as a brilliant machinist. I once complained about the lathe I was working on at the bottom of the stairs to the apprentice school. It was absolutely clapped out (and rumoured to have been the first self-powered lathe in the shop). I couldn’t get anywhere near the times allowed for the job. Reg consoled me with an arm around my shoulder ‘never mind kid, if you can do it on this one you can do it on any machine in the shop’.
Definitely a man who had my respect.
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