Acoulter is a component of manyploughs that precedes the plowshare and makes the first cut into the soil as the plow advances. It cuts a slit about 7 inches (18 cm) deep, ahead of theplowshare.[1] Its most effective depth is determined bysoil conditions.[2] (The name is sometimes spelledcolter; the name is from the Latin 'culter' = 'knife'.)
Its earliest design consisted of a knife-like blade.[3][1] In 2011 an early medieval coulter was excavated from a site in Kent, England.[4][5] Coulters using a flat rotating disc began being used c. 1900.[6][1] Its advantage was a smoothly cut bank, and it sliced plant debris to the width of the furrow.[2]
In his 1854 book,Henry Stephens useddynamometer measurements to conclude that a plough without a coulter took about the same amount of force to pull but using a coulter resulted in a much cleaner result.[1] It softens the soil, allowing the plough to undercut the furrow made by the coulter.[1]
A rolling coulter has an optional accessory called ajointer.[2] The jointer flips over a small part of the surface on top of the slice before the plowshare flips the main slice.[2] It ensures that all of the plant debris gets covered by the flipped slice.[2]
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