Plowshare
Encyclopedia
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
, a plowshare (or ploughshare) is a component of a plow (plough
Plough
The plough or plow is a tool used in farming for initial cultivation of soil in preparation for sowing seed or planting. It has been a basic instrument for most of recorded history, and represents one of the major advances in agriculture...
). It is the cutting or leading edge of a moldboard which closely follows the coulter
Coulter (Agriculture)
A coulter is a component of many plows which consists of a vertically mounted knife-like blade. It cuts down into the soil ahead of the plowshare, softening the dirt and allowing the plow to undercut the furrow made by the coulter....
(one or more ground-breaking spikes) when plowing.
The plowshare itself is often a hardened blade
Blade
A blade is that portion of a tool, weapon, or machine with a cutting edge and/or a pointed tip that is designed to cut and/or puncture, stab, slash, chop, slice, thrust, or scrape animate or inanimate surfaces or materials...
dressed into an integral moldboard (by the blacksmith
Blacksmith
A blacksmith is a person who creates objects from wrought iron or steel by forging the metal; that is, by using tools to hammer, bend, and cut...
) so making a unified combination of plowshare and moldboard, the whole being responsible for entering the cleft in the earth (made by the coulter's first cutting-through) and turning the earth over.
In well-tilled terrain the plowshare may do duty without a preceding coulter.
In modern plows both coulter and plowshare are detachable for easy replacement when worn or broken.