In 1887 Oscar Wilde wrote, “We really have everything in common with America nowadays except, of course, language.” And for those of us in the trades who converse with our counterparts in the United Kingdom, we get it. A lot of what we consider ‘common terms’ are very different for trades people across the Atlantic, and even terms we do share are often spelled differently.

The spelling differences, like fiberglass in the US and fibreglass in the UK, are pretty easy to explain; most of this was simply the colonists’ way to differentiate themselves from the old regime. And even some word differences are easy to explain; what we call sandpaper, because it basically uses sand glued to paper, they call glasspaper, harking back to the first commercially made product, invented by John Oakey from London in 1833, that was actually made of ground glass glued to a paper backing. But other differences are not so easy to find a direct source for.

A hand drill and a hand brace perform the same tasks.

We use a clamp to hold items together, they use a cramp. We weld a custom gate for your driveway, they weld a bespoke gate for you. They use a brace to bore holes, we use a drill. Interestingly, the dichotomy is not restricted to old terms; we use an electric planer to bring stock to a final dimension, but they employ the electric thicknesser for that task, and where we may set the Z-axis on a milling machine, they refer to this axis as Zed.

In reality, none of this has any effect on our work-a-day lives; customers in all trades are able to find what they need at 2Sand.com, but it is fun on a Sunday morning to contemplate the differences while enjoying the morning coffee (or tea, if you prefer). It does lead one to wonder if at some time workers in England ‘glassed’ a molding before finishing.

This drop front desk can also be called a fall front desk.

Thankfully, things worked out the way they have. We aren’t very sure that 2Glass.com would be anywhere near the same, but you can rest assured that 2Sand.com will continue to be your trusted source for fast, fair, superior sanding supplies .