Tools
Axes
An axe consists of a handle carved out of wood, and the axe head. The axe handle can be straight, curved, or at an angle to the axe head. The axe head itself comes in many shapes and sizes, depending on the type of axe. Some axe heads are made up of the axe blade and what is called a poll. The poll hangs over the opposite side of the axe handle from the blade, giving the axe balance or a striking platform.
Mortise Axe
The mortise axe is like a chisel. The sharp blade is not very wide. A mallet is used to strike the back of the axe head, after positioning the blade against the wood. This type of axe is used to make square mortise holes, for mortise and tenon joining.
Chisel Axe
The chisel axe is another type of mortise axe. The difference is in the shape of the blade. While the mortise axe head is rectangular, the chisel axe head is formed in the shape of an L. The striking area of the chisel is longer. The tip of the axe head, the blade, is actually wider than the rest of the axe head, giving more leverage for the woodsmith.
Broad Axe
The broad axe is used mainly for hewing timbers. The handle of the broad axe is short and bent in such a way so that the user can stand beside a log and use the axe without crushing the fingers. The log is marked lengthwise by a straight line four times, forming a square if you look at the cut end. The woodsmith walks backward down the log, swinging the axe towards himself. This takes large chunks of the wood off, leaving a flat surface. When all four sides are done, the result is a squared-off timber.
Felling Axe
The felling axe is used just for what it's named for, the felling of trees. The handle is long and the blade is flat and wide. Instead of the beveled, chisel blade, the blade of the felling axe is curved to a point, the sides symmetrical.
Hatchet
Hatchets are just small versions of axes. They are made small, and are used for smaller purposes. Hatchet uses vary, from shaving bark off branches, cutting branches, shaping wood, and cutting planks. A hatchet gives the woodsmith more control over the area that is struck. Smaller pieces of wood will be shaved away, and aim is more accurate.
Adzes
The basic description of an adze, is an axe with the blade perpendicular to the handle, and at a right angle to the handle. An adze is used for smoothing rough edges and for hollowing logs. Also listed under the classification of adze are scorps. Scorps are handheld tools with a curved blade used for fine detail smoothing.
Carpenter Adze
The Carpenters Adze is a large adze used for rough smoothing of boards and beams. The adze is used by straddling the board and swinging the adze towards yourself. This adze can also be used to hollow out a log, though other adze's usually work better.
Shipwright Adze
The shipwrights adze is similar in design as the carpenter's adze, and is used in basically the same way. The timbers worked on with a shipwrights adze are used to build ships. The blade is slightly wider, and there is a punch opposite the blade on the adze head.
Spout Adze
The spout adze is similar in size to the carpenters adze. The blade is the key difference. Instead of a straight blade, the blade of the spout adze is curved, creating a u-shaped blade. This tool is used for making troughs and hollowing out logs.
Cooper Adze
The coopers adze is a smaller version of the spout adze. The blade is formed in the same u-shaped curve as the spout adze. The cooper is small and meant to be held with one hand. Woodsmiths use this tool for smoothing out rough edges in curved pieces, and for hollowing out small pieces.
Open Scorper
The open scorper was another tool used for smoothing out curved insides of pieces. It consisted of a u-shaped blade. A handle is attached to each side of the blade. The tool is a small tool, but requires two hands to use.
Closed Scorp
The closed scorp was used in the same way as the open scorper. The only difference is in the blade and handle. With the closed scorp, the blade forms a complete circle and is attached to one handle.
Froe
The froe is a type of wedge that is attached to a handle. Instead of a narrow wedge, however, the froe is quite long. It is attached perpendicularly to the handle and resembles a knife. A regular froe is used by woodsmiths to cut planks. Coopers froes have a blade that is curved to cut barrel staves. The blade is set against the wood and the woodsmith is able to hold onto the handle. A froe club is struck on the blade, driving it into the wood.
Shavers
There are many types of shavers available for smoothing out wood. The spokeshave is similar to the drawknife, except that it has a regulated depth of cut. The spokeshave is a blade inset into a length of wood. The blade is in the center and the ends are formed into handles. The largest shaver is called a chamfer knife. The chamfer knife resembles a froe, except for the sharp upper top that is not designed for striking. A few other shavers are thrown in, top and side shaves. They are really planes, with a blade inserted into a block of wood, meant to be drawn across the surface of the wood.
Barking Axe
The barking axe is a small axe with a long blade, used to score the bark of trees for easier removal with the bark spud. Small cuts were chopped around the tree in a circle, and then down the length of the tree, allowing the bark spud to remove bark in small pieces.
Planes
The main purpose of the plane is to smooth wood. Certain types of planes, such as the gauge plane, can be set to remove shavings from a piece of wood to a certain depth. Other planes, such as the moulding plane, can smooth and shape wood. The plane is a wooden, rectangular block, called the stock, perforated by a central, upward-expanding slit, through which the flat blade, called the iron, is inserted downward at an angle.
Moulding Plane
The moulding plane had a grooved blade and grooved stock and was used to shape a length of board into a unitarian shape. The shape could be simple and round, or complex in a combination convex-concave shape.
Rabbet Plane
A rabbet plane was used to cut into the sides or boards, so that they may be overlapped and joined. Rabbet planes generally have thinner stocks and the blade is usually set askew to avoid tearing wood.
Plow Plane
The plow plane is used to cut a groove into a board for a tongue-and-groove joining. Tongue-and-groove joining is used in flooring and carpentry (think the bottoms of drawers).
Jack Plane
The jack plane, sometimes called a fore plane, is used for quick, preliminary leveling of boards. The blade is slightly convex-edged, perfect for rough surfacing. It cuts deep and quickly.
Jointer Plane
This plane comes in many different styles. Two of which are the Cooper's Long Jointer Plane and the Cooper's Short Jointer Plane. The cooper's long jointer plane is the longest of the planes. It is also remarkable in that it is used upside down. The cooper's long jointer rests on an angle, one end on the floor, the other end supported by legs. The blade side is faced up for wood to be drawn across it. The cooper's short jointer, also called a pull plane, has handles on each side of the plane and is drawn across the wood towards the woodsmith.
Floor Plane
This plane, a variety of the trying plane, is also long and used for the surface-leveling of floors, hence the name. But it has other uses, such as accurate edging of framework.
Smoothing Plane
This plane is a small, boat-shaped block plane and is used to wriggle into corners and over ill-fitted joints. It puts the last leveling touch upon finished work.
Trying Plane
The trying plane is constructed for more perfect leveling (shooting) of edges and smoothing of surfaces. It resembles the jack plane, but is longer and the blade if not convexed. The smoothing plane, floor plane and jointer planes are all variations of the trying plane.
Compass Plane
This plane is used for the free smoothing of concave furniture surfaces, or wall curves. The bottom of the stock is convexed, like the rocker on a cradle. The blade is also convex-edged.
Modelling Plane
This plane is a smaller version of the compass plane. The sole of the block is flatter and not as convex as the bigger compass plane.
Sun Plane
The sun plane is mostly used by Cooper's. It's design is exactly opposite the compass plane. The stock of the sun plane is concave and is used by Cooper's to level the top rims of freshly staved barrels.
Auger
Augers are used to drill holes into board and trees. The tool consists of the brace (also called the bitstock) and the bit. The brace is usually a c-shaped stock of wood that holds the drill bit. The top of the brace has a handle or knob for the woodsmith to hold on to. The body of the brace can then be rotated in a circular motion, causing the bit to turn into the wood. A variation of the brace and bit form is the t-frame auger. The bit has a handle attached perpendicularly to it, forming a 'T'. The woodsmith holds the handles and turns the bit into the wood.
Gouge Bit
Also called the split-quill bit, the gouge bit is an open-sided cylinder, sharpened like a carpenter's gouge. The end of the bit is open, not scooped up.
Spoon Bit
The spoon bit is similar to the gouge bit, except that the end tip is rounded up. This bit is also called a dowel bit.
Nose Bit
The nose bit, also called the down-cutting bit, is a variety of the spoon bit. The inbent and flattened spoon blade is deeply notched into a wing called the nose, sharpened to a profile to cut horizontally, with the remaining small, dull wing of the spoon bent above its level.
Pod Bit
The pod bit consists of a long open cylinder with sides, on of which is sharpened as a blade. The bit is twisted as it tapers down to a screw point. It bores down at an angle, enlarging the auger hole to the full diameter of the bit.
Spiral Bit
The bit itself is spiraled with the cutting edges on the tip of the bit. The spirals carry wood shavings out of the hole as the point bores down. This bit works best across the grain.
Hammers
The basic function of a hammer is for striking. The object struck can be wooden pegs, joinings, wedges or chisels. Mallets are also considered hammers, though their use is striking another object that is against the wood, like the wedge or chisel. Hammers are used for driving in wooden pegs or joinings. Hammers have a small center of force, while mallets are larger, spreading the force over a wider area. To save time, some woodsmiths will use the back of a hatchet blade as a hammer or mallet. The hammer consists of the handle and the hammer head. The striking area is known as the poll.
Cooper Hammer
The Cooper's Hammer is used mainly by barrel makers. The striking head of the cooper hammer is square, flat and large. The back of the hammer head is formed into a claw, to pull out wooden pegs.
Carpenter Mallet
The Carpenter's Mallet is a hammer with a barrel-shaped hammer head. The hammer head is quite large and is used mainly for pounding joinings together.
Wheelwright Mallet
This mallet has a hammer head that looks like a curved block of wood. It is rather large, with a large strike area. Wheelwrights use this to pound the spokes of a wheel into the frame.
Commander Hammer
The Commander Hammer is a large hammer, meant to be used with both hands. The head is commonly made out of a log and attached to a handle. This is used for large carpentry jobs, such as pounding a beam into a frame for a building. The woodsmith would position the beam against the frame on the ground. Then the woodsmith would straddle the beam and swing the commander hammer towards him to strike the butt end of the beam, driving the beam into the frame.
Wedge
The wedge is a splitting tool made of metal. It is used by placing the blade end perpendicular to the wood you intend to split. The top of the wedge is wider than the blade, flattened for a striking platform. A woodsmith strikes the wedge with a hammer until it is pushed into the wood. Repeated strikes drive the wedge further, until the wood splits.
Drawknife
The drawknife is a long blade with handles on either end. The blade can be straight, curved or have a curved bump in the middle. The drawknife has many uses: to taper shingles, rough-size edges of floor boards, rough-trip paneling, to fashion axe, rake and other tool handles, and to make stool legs, yokes, pump handles, and wheel spokes. The woodsmith used it by placing the wood on either a shaving runner, a shaving block or clamping it on a bench. The woodsmith would position himself at one end of the board and then move the drawknife across the wood toward his body.
Bark Spud
The bark spud was a tool used to remove the bark from trees, to hasten the drying process. This large tool consisted of a flat, shovel-shaped blade attached to a long handle. The woodsmith uses this by scraping along the length of the tree.
Chisels
Chisels and gouges are tools that are used to remove parts of wood that can't be removed by other methods easily. A woodsmith has extreme control over a chisel or gouge. The work is very detailed and fine, depending on the size of the chisel. The chisel is a metal tool, with a sharp blade and wooden handle. Variations in length, width and thickness of the blade give chisels special qualities that make one chisel better than another for a particular job. The gouge is a chisel with a u-shaped blade and is used to carve curves or to make dowel holes.
Firmer Chisel
The firmer chisel is also called the forming chisel. It is considered the all-purpose cutter. It is of a basic chisel design and is used for many jobs. One special use is to cut superfluous wood from two auger holes to make a mortise.
Framing Chisel
The framing chisel is a heavier version of the firmer chisel. It is used largely for cutting tenons to fit mortises.
Mortise Chisel
The mortise chisel is one-purpose tool, used to cut mortises. It is a short and stocky chisel with a sharply angled bevel for the cutting edge. The chisel is not very wide and perfect for fitting into small mortise holes.
Slick Chisel
The slick chisel is also known as a paring chisel. It has a big blade that curves very slightly toward the bevel. It is not struck, but is rather used with two hands like a giant plane.
Corner Chisel
The corner chisel is used as a mortise chisel. The blade of the chisel is formed into a 90 degree angle, forming a corner.
Skew Chisel
The skew chisel is really a gouge, with a slight curve to the blade. It is a rare chisel, used in mortise work.
Bowl Gouges
A small grouping of various gouges is laid out. All of the blades are curved, and the blades are generally wider than the thinner chisels. Bowl gouges are used to scrape out curved areas in wood, generally bowl-shaped cuts.
Saws
The saw is used to cut and form wood. It consists of a metal blade with a serrated edge that forms the teeth of the saw. The size of the teeth determines the depth and fineness of the cut that is made. The handle or handles are made of wood. The saw is used by drawing it across the wood, allowing the teeth to cut in. This can be either against or with the grain of the wood. The most common saw found in the WoodCraft is the frame saw, as there is little metal used for the thinner blade. Masters and upper journeyranks may possess open saws, which have larger, thicking blades and use more metal, thus making them priceless. There are a few open saw available for apprentice use, but the apprentices are watched closely by more advanced ranks when they use open saws.
Frame Saw
The frame saw includes many different types of saws. Basically, the frame saw is any saw that falls under the category of its basic design. It consists of two wooden arms with a thin blade stretched between them. There is usually another piece of wood stretched parallel to the blade, giving it the look of a window frame. Depending on the type of framing saw, there may be additional adjustments, widths, heights, lengths, etc.
Open Saw
The open saw includes many different types of saws. Basically, the open saw is any saw that falls under the category of its basic design. It consists of a metal blade with a wooden handle at one end. The saws can be quite large or quite small, depending on its use. Apprentices would never own a saw like this, unless it was a smallwork saw. Upper Journeyrank and Masters own these saws, and watch apprentices using them very carefully.
Tenon Saw
The tenon saw is an open saw with an extra-thin, fine-toothed rectangular blade intended for very exact mitreing or otherwise cross-cutting of comparatively small flat wooden strips. Used commonly with a mitre box (a trough-like piece of wood in which the strip of wood you're working on is laid and clamped. The edges of the trough have angled cuts already in them that serve as a guide for the mitre saw or tenon saw).
Bow Saw
The blade of this frame saw is strained by means of a rope twisted tight between its side arms with a stick caught against its center brace or frame fulcrum, so as to pry open the side arms upon the saw blade, and which brace is loose and shiftable. The good thing about the bow saw is that its blade isn't rigid, rather it's adjustable. It doesn't cut just on a straight line with the frame itself, but can be adjusted for angled cuts.
Buck Saw
The buck saw is a bow frame type of saw. The blade is stationary and heavier. A long handle is added to one of the arms and the saw is used for sawing logs into proper lengths (bucking). The blade is strained by a rope twisted tight between the side arms, upon a stick caught against the center brace. This makes the blade rigid, and limits the uses of the saw. It is used for cross cutting thin or narrow wooden pieces.
Pit Saw
The Pit Saw is a two-man tool. One man stands on top of the log and one man stands below the log. These woodsmiths saw blade up and down along the length of the log. The log is either propped up on two supports slightly above the head, or it is placed over a pit dug into the ground. There are two types of Pit Saws, the Open Pit Saw and the Framed Pit Saw. The Open Pit has a thick, long blade. The upper handle is called the tiller and the lower, adjustable handle is called the box. The Framed Pit Saw has a blade placed within a wooden frame. The support of the wooden frame allows the use of a smaller, thinner blade.
Veneer Saw
The Veneer Saw is another two-man tool that is similar to the Framed Pit Saw. The blade is thinner and more flexible, strained into a heavy wooden frame. The heavy wooden frame is too cumbersome for the work of pit sawing, and the blade is too thin for the board cutting. The veneer saw is used for light sawing of boards and planks, and is often used horizontally, by two woodsmith standing on opposite sides of an upright plank.
Cross Cut Saw
The cross cut saw is mainly used by foresters to fell trees. The saw is large, sometimes twice the height of an average man, with a thick blade. It is used by two woodsmiths. The large teeth on the blade allow for it to easily cut through the grain. The name of the saw comes from the ability to cut cross the grain.
Small Saws
There is a wide variety of very small, handheld saws. Their size ranges from palm-sized to nearly the length of two hands. Most common are saws with long, thin and delicate blades with very fine teeth, though there are a few with short blades. These are used for intricate detailed work, for cutting tenons for joining work, and other small, quick sawing needs.
Awl
The awl is a simple tool whose main purpose is to punch a hole into wood. The shape of the hole depends on the shape of the awl shaft. The awl enters the wood by spreading the wood fibres apart, rather than cutting the fibres as an auger would do.
Credits:
Researched and Written by: Craftmaster Malia
Primary information was found in the following books:
Ancient Carpenters' Tools by Henry C. Mercer, Sc.D.
A Museum of Early American Tools by Eric Sloane
HTML editing: Craftmaster Malia
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Last update: April 22, 2000