The Trestle Board
The board on which the master workman draws his designs, standing for the moral plan a Mason builds his life by.
Also called: tracing board · trestleboard
What it means
Listed with the rough and perfect ashlars among the immovable jewels of the Lodge. The operative workmen built to the designs the master laid down on it; the speculative lesson is that a man should build to the designs laid down in the Volume of the Sacred Law.
Many Lodges use "the Trestleboard" as the name of their newsletter. The painted tracing boards and charts used to illustrate the lectures are related objects, and 19th-century prints of them are popular as Lodge-room and study art.
In context: The Working Tools of Freemasonry, Explained
Frequently asked questions
What does the Trestle Board mean in Freemasonry?
The board on which the master workman draws his designs, standing for the moral plan a Mason builds his life by.
Who can wear the Trestle Board?
This is a lesson rather than a badge. It turns up on Lodge charts, prints and gifts, and owning or displaying one says nothing about rank. On a lapel most people will read it as Masonic.
Sources
Drawn from the published monitors and from what the bodies concerned publish about themselves. Nothing here comes from, or goes beyond, any obligated material.
- Thomas Smith Webb, The Freemason's Monitor; or, Illustrations of Masonry (1797)
- Jeremy L. Cross, The True Masonic Chart, or Hieroglyphic Monitor (1819)