Also 8 spal, 9 spaul, spawl. [Related to SPALL sb.1]
1. trans. a. Mining. To break (ore) into smaller pieces.
1758. [see SPALLING vbl. sb. 1].
1778. Pryce, Min. Cornub., 215. Tin-stuff … is first spalled or broken to the size of a man’s fist or less. Ibid., 233. They … spal or break them [sc. the larger stones] to a less size.
1855. [J. R. Leifchild], Cornwall, 52. The ore … is … drawn up, after being ‘spalled’ or broken.
1875. J. H. Collins, Met. Mining, 106. The ores, if in large masses, are first ‘spalled,’ or broken up by means of heavy ‘spalling hammers.’
absol. 1855. [J. R. Leifchild], Cornwall, 164. There they sit, ‘spalling, jigging,’ ‘buddling and trunking,’ and doing all manner of mining mysteries.
b. To dress (stones) roughly with a hammer.
1793–. [see SPALLED ppl. a.].
2. To split or chip. Also with off.
1841. Hartshorne, Salop. Ant., Gloss., Spauled, split, cleft, as wood.
1846. Holtzapffel, Turning, II. 502. Should the fibres have been split, or spalled off in shooting the ends, the removal of the edge b, as the last process would correct the evil.
3. intr. To break off in fragments or chips.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xl. (1854), 363. Spawling off under the axe in dangerous little chips.
1881. Young, Every Man his own Mechanic, § 423. If this precaution is not taken the corners will ‘spawl’ off.
