| The overseers were required to provide oakum so that the able-bodied poor could be kept at labor. |
| The ruffian casual laughs at him, and sings funny and oftentimes libellous songs concerning him as he breaks stones or picks oakum. |
| But the oakum washed away in no time, and water poured below decks, soaking the fan belts of the blower pipes and preventing them from working. |
| Then there was the nasty business of oakum picking, a task of unravelling the twine of old tarred ropes salvaged from ships. |
| However, it is normal practice to caulk the garboard strake and the hood ends with cotton caulking, or oakum in heavier work, and seal it over with a filling compound. |
| It is widely used in manufacturing tarred ropes and twine and in impregnating hemp fibre for oakum. |
