U.S. [prob. ad. Ger. boszhammer, in same sense, f. boszen to beat.] A mason’s large breaking hammer, often having square ends cut into pyramidal points; also a hammer for dressing millstones, usually having detachable steel-bits in the dressing face.
1885. Ellen Day Hale, in Harper’s Mag., March, 558/1. They took the bush-hammer out of their chests that the ladies might see the varieties with five, six, eight, and ten edges, which gave the granite the slightly lined or ridged appearance.
Hence Bush-hammer v. To strike or dress with the bush-hammer.
1884. Knight, Dict. Mech., Supp. s.v., Rough-pointing, tooth-axing, bush-hammering. Ibid. Sandstone is seldom bush-hammered, as the stunning makes it scale.
