in founding, tools used mainly in hand molding for packing, finishing, and mending molds and cores. In pit molding, shovels are used for digging the pits in shop floors, filling mold boxes with sand, and other auxiliary operations; hand and pneumatic rammers are used for packing the molding sand. Strike-offs remove excess sand from the filled drag half of the mold, and a steel vent pin is used to bore ventilation channels. When the pattern is removed, the edges of the mold are moistened with a hemp brush, and draw spikes and hammers are used to lift and break apart the pattern, respectively. The mold cavity may be finished and mended with flat and curved trowels, spoons, slicks, cutters, and hooks. The working surface may be painted with a hemp or hair brush. Shovels, pneumatic rammers, vent pins, hammers, and flat trowels are also used in machine molding.