The Joiner’s axe—Part II

DSC_0138 Most axes I’ve seen others use and picked up have rarely been sharp. Do I judge by this? I suppose I do if it’s a joiner’s axe and not a kindling axe or a felling axe. Joiner’s axes are working edges mostly and sharpened to the same level as a chisel or a plane. I do keep a couple for wedges though and these can be dull because they continue the start work of the splitting axe if say you are parting wood.

DSC_0094

An axe splits straight grained tenons and housings quickly and can be used for paring when used two-handedly like this, to pare down to the lines. DSC_0101 As a young man site work relied on the axe for much work including the removal of half an inch from an odd sized refit door. I made many a tenon for a large door frame this way too; cut the shoulders with the handsaw and then spit cut and pare. It was fast and effective in woods like redwood pine and oak. Woods we used a lot.

DSC_0102

Here a recessed housing is shoulder cut and then chopped to remove the bulk of the waste in a matter of a minute or so. DSC_0109 Today’s carpenter makes a few cuts side by side across the grain and to depth with a skilsaw and then switches to the ripping claw of a claw hammer to rough down close before paring with a stubby chisel. It takes about the same time, but it’s funny how the latter still seems excessive and cruder to me than the well-tuned axe. Perhaps it’s the screams of the skilsaw, the need for electricity and the excess of all of that somehow.

DSC_0118 DSC_0120 DSC_0121

Here is how a plug is cut. Notice the thumb is not hooked and hanging over the top of the plug piece but tucked out of the way. First I chop one corner section of the ‘propellor’ as shown…

DSC_0123
Thumbs wrong here!

 

… and then I turn it around and chop the opposite side.

DSC_0195

I then turn it end for end and so do the same. This makes two plugs  in each length of pine. The plug is generally driven between the bricks, left shy of full depth, cut off with the panel saw, and then hammered home with the back of the axe.

DSC_0201
Woodworking is as much about texture and life recorded in the wood as it is about speed and efficiency. It’s lifestyle.

In restoration of the old Victorian houses I always cut a hundred rough-cut plugs at a time and then fitted each one on my knees to the relevant opening for a perfect tailored fit. We only used dry wood left by the pot bellied stove for a day to make sure there was no shrinkage once driven.

Here is how the plug looks from the end. They are generally custom sized according to the gap in the bricks. DSC_0197

These plugs were more than a mere friction fit or a beaten in wedge. They were well thought through and strategised by men who cared about life and longevity. We can look at how these work next.

13 Comments

  1. Very cool. Why is the thumb position wrong in the picture commented as such? It doesn’t look like it is in danger from a safety perspective. The times I’ve seen you predict splitting properties by looking at the grain have always amazed me, and I endeavor to try after I figure out how to read the grain in the first place. Axe work is something I am interested in because before I saw you I wasn’t really ever thinking of the axe as a woodworker’s tool, probably because I’ve never seen one used in such a way and at the stores a real carving or joiner’s axe is extremely rare to non-existent compared to the typical general purpose / kindling one.

  2. I’ve read about these in old books, but I have never once in my life seen one. How do the work? What are they for? How do you use them?

  3. Now this is getting very interesting. I have read many books on woodworking, and they nearly all relate only to cabinet work or hobbyist making of wooden things. The work of the joiner I have not seen recorded anywhere, and such secrets as the brick wedge I doubt has ever been documented at all.
    I hope you keep on with this theme for a while, tell us more please.

  4. Paul,
    Could you bear-in on the shape of the axe a little more? One of your prior notes indicated a different shape depending upon whether the side was facing you as you cut.

    I am uncertain about the precise angle to shape the edge when preparing the axe and could use a little more guidance.

  5. All axes must be razor sharp. I learned that as a 12-year-old when a dull axe glanced off a log and hit a fellow Boy Scout’s foot. There was a lot of blood inside that boot when I took it off and started a pressure bandage. A lot of blood.

  6. Now that it seems you have a plug, or may two, how about a demo of them being put yo use? Thanks Paul

  7. I must disagree with the statement on dull felling axes. Mine is as sharp as all my tools so it will precisely and safely cut the wood or tree I’m felling. I do find these posts on axe use interesting as I had never thought to use them for this purpose.

    1. I think that that reads as a mistake. Felling axes are as sharp as any other of not sharper.

  8. Poppy,

    Depends on what you mean by “similar”. The one flat sided axes I know of are called broad axes and/or hewing axes. And there are hatchet versions. They usually have a distinctive profile that gives a broader striking edge and larger reference surface than the joiners axe Paul shows above.

    If you’re in the market for such be careful of three issues. The first I just recently came across and that is an axe that clearly has a broad axe profile BUT isn’t flat on one side. Never saw the like before but I came across it a few days ago and is advertised by the manufacturer this way so it wasn’t an accident.

    The second is hewing axes that have been “sharpened” to create a bevel on both faces. The person sharpening just didn’t quite grasp the point of the hewing axe design and tried to make it look like a regular axe. I bought one of those off Ebay and any attempt to fix it would require a lot of metal removal.

    Finally, take a look at the axe to see if it’s for left or right hand use. Most of the ones I have seen can be simply be re-handled to make them work for the other hand but that might change your opinion of the value of the tool.

    Some hewing axes (never saw this on a hatchet but it could happen) have a handle that’s bent to one side to keep the handle out of the way of the plane to which the head is hewing. I can see the advantage in beam work but the few I tried felt quite awkward to me.

    My two cents on the topic.

    John

  9. Strange some people unaware of dooks. As known in Scotland. The mortar bed was chiselled out with a dooking iron usually by apprentice. Check all older joiners hands at thumb and forefinger where the mushroom end of dooking iron followed through as evidence of hours spent dooking as a boy. Dooks are used for plasterers grounds every second brick. Grounds are straightened nailed to dooks. After plaster Dook provides fixing for skirting. Door standards are also dooked 4 in height of standard leg Off cuts of 7/8 ths flooring was always used as mortar bed was 1/2 inch allowing you to axe Dook to size chopping material from opposite corners. With heel off axe you knocked cut Dook into bed Good dooks twist and sing as you chap them home. Similarly when you nail your 13/4” door standards you know you have a good tight job by the ping ping sing of a 4” nail as you drive it home.

Comments are closed.

Privacy Notice

You must enter certain information to submit the form on this page. We take the handling of personal information seriously and appreciate your trust in us. Our Privacy Policy sets out important information about us and how we use and protect your personal data and it also explains your legal rights in respect of it. Please click here to read it before you provide any information on this form.