"Puntello"

photo by Garrett Budwine

Visit the workshop of a remer and you'll see some familiar power-tools, along with some handtools that date back to an age before electricity was even discovered.  The floor-mounted vise, "la morsa da remeri",  with it's large turning nut has been featured here before (see "Vise" from January of this year).  This vise in the shop of Saverio Pastor, is a beautiful, hard-working, piece of equipment that really gets the job done.

But sometimes the remer needs a little more help.  In certain situations he may be seen employing the device in the above photo. 
It's usually called a "puntello". 
I believe the english equivalent would be "prop".

It is quite simply, a stick with a little padding on the notched end. 
All remers use puntelli.
My guess is that many of these begin as humble scrap, trimmed from a board and tossed on the discard pile, before an inventive craftsman says to himself:
"hey, I need a little something to help hold my forcola in place".
He digs around, finds the one piece that's just right, notches the end and puts a little leather on the end.
Bingo!
"Puntello!"

Special thanks to Nereo Zane helping me discover the name of this device.