Dutchman (repair)

A dutchman, or for some uses, graving piece is a small repair section let in to replace a damaged area. The term is also used for related senses of "cover up" or "makeshift" in theatre set design, and for rail brake hose stub extensions.

Woodworking

In construction and woodworking, a dutchman can refer to an inset wood patch used to repair wood.^[1] In stone masonry, a Dutchman is an inset selectively replacing only the fault in a stone with new stone material, usually matching adjacent material as closely as possible.^[2]

The term is also extensively used in shipbuilding, boat-building and ship's carpentry, for metal as well as wood.

Railroading

In railroading, a dutchman is colloquially a short air brake extension hose^[3] or a temporary rail repair.^[4]

A rail repair Dutchman is typically a 4-6 inch (100-150 mm) long piece of rail that is cut in advance for this purpose and carried by a section crew. If inspection and maintenance gangs find a chipped or broken rail end, they remove the connector plates, cut out the broken section, replace it with the dutchman and replace the connectors. This is often only a temporary repair, e.g. used in winter, until new rails could be installed.

Earlier use of Thermite rail welding used an approximately ¾ inch section of railhead, also called a dutchman, between the sections being joined, with only the web and foot being new Thermite steel.

References

1. "How to Repair Rot Damage with a Dutchman". thisoldhouse.com/. Retrieved 2015-06-18.
2. "Dutchman Repair". millenniumpreservation.com/. Retrieved 2015-06-18.
3. Transportation Dictionary: Railroad Dictionary.
4. Where Did the Term 'Dutchman' Originate?