Tools
- awl
-
A sharp metal spike, set in a ball-shaped wooden handle,
used for piercing and making holes in soft materials like
wood and leather. The spike is usually about 10-12cm long
and tapers to a sharp point. The tool is also known as a
pricker, scratch awl, scribe or scriber.
- axe
-
The history of the axe began in the Stone Age, when a roughly
worked stone, chipped on one side to form an edge, was grasped
in the user's bare hands. By around 6000BC, flint and stone
axes were fitted into wooden shafts, made from knotty branches
or timbers like elm which do not split easily, secured in
place with leather tongs. The earliest metal axes, made
in the West of Europe from around 1000BC, were cast in copper
or bronze, and had wooden handles attached. When cast iron
axe heads were introduced, they were socketed or later cast
with a hole to take a wooden ash handle. By Roman times,
the axe had taken on the form that is still in use today.
During the later Middle Ages, axes for specialised tasks
had been developed, including tree felling axes and broad
side axes, used for hewing flat sides of timber. A hundred
and fifty years ago, most woodworkers in Europe favoured
an axe with a long straight handle, wedge-shaped blade with
straight sides and a straight cutting edge, and an iron
head. In the nineteenth century, an axe of American design
was introduced to Europe, with a curved handle, ending in
a swelling bend called a "fawn foot", and a convex
blade with a convex cutting edge, which was faced with compressed
steel. This American pattern is now the most common type
of axe found in Britain, although some woodsmen still prefer
the straight bladed, straight handled variety. The axe is
generally used for felling (sometimes now replaced by the
chain saw) or cleaving wood.
The chair bodger's axe is struck with a mallet, and is used
to split out sections of a tree trunk into billets before
the wood is turned into chair parts, including legs and
stretchers. The timber to be split is supported on a splitting-out
block while it is being cut. Skill is required to use the
tool - if the bodger cuts too large or small a billet he
will waste raw materials.
- bodger's sandpaper
-
Wood shavings used to smooth the surface of a turned piece
of wood made by a bodger on a pole lathe.
- bow saw
-
A small frame saw which takes its name from its resemblance
to a string bow. An Iron Age example from around AD100 had
tension provided by a piece of springy ash wood, bent into
a half loop and fixed to the two ends of the saw blade to
form a D-shape. This kept the narrow, and relatively weak,
metal blade in tension and prevented the blade buckling
when in use. The modern bow saw, which developed around
1914, consists of a blade 24-36" long, held under tension
in a tubular steel bow. The saw is used for general farm
work, forestry and for cutting firewood. It is also used
in British woodlands for felling small trees and cross-cutting
timber.
- chisel
-
Chisels for woodworking have
been used since Neolithic times, and in the Bronze Age metal
examples were cast in stone moulds. The Romans developed
a range of types of chisel for different jobs, and many
of these forms of the tool are still used by woodworkers
today.
A tool with a steel blade, usually rectangular in section,
with the end ground to a sharp edge. The blade is set in
a wooden handle, generally made in beech, ash or boxwood.
Used for paring wood to a smooth surface.
Chisels used by bodgers are longer than the carver's chisel
to allow very precise control of the tool. The end of the
handle is tucked under the arm, and both hands are used
to guide and steady the blade as it is held against the
work rotating on the lathe. They are used with a rubbing
action above the centre-line of the work to avoid digging
into the wood and causing a jam. Alternatively, they are
worked by a scraping action, below the centre-line, to hollow
out bowls and dishes.
- draw knife
-
The drawing knife has a long, if patchy, history. An example
dating from AD100 was found in Sweden with a group of Viking
shipwright's tools. Although tools of this type were widely
used for working wood in Medieval Russia, there is no evidence
of their existence in Western Europe at this period. The
tool consists of a flat or curved metal blade, 20-45cm long
and up to 6cm wide, which has been bevel-ground on its front
edge. It has two wooden handles, one at each end of the
blade, set at right angles to the cutting edge. Used for
removing surplus wood, and for rounding and chamfering.
When working wood using a drawing knife, the piece is held
securely in a shaving horse, and the knife is draw towards
the user. Also known as a draft shave, drawing knife, draw
shave or shaving knife.
- gouge
-
A form of chisel with a curved cutting blade. Used for carving
and shaping curved surfaces of wood. The blade is normally
made in widths from 0.5-5cm, and in a set of eight standard
curves from "flat", to "middle", "scribing"
and "fluting", depending upon what the tool is
being used for and how deep the woodworker requires the
cut to be. There are two main types of gouge blade - out-cannel,
for hollowing-out curved, saucer-like depressions; and in-cannel,
for cutting in a straight line, for example when scribing
a moulding.
Gouges used by bodgers are longer than the carver's gouge
to allow very precise control of the tool. The end of the
handle is tucked under the arm, and both hands are used
to guide and steady the blade as it is held against the
work rotating on the lathe. They are used with a rubbing
action above the centre-line of the work to avoid digging
into the wood and causing a jam. Alternatively, they are
worked by a scraping action, below the centre-line, to hollow
out bowls and dishes.
- mallet
-
A tool like a hammer made of wood. The tool is used for
driving wooden objects that might fracture if struck with
a metal hammer. A coppice worker's mallet is a homemade
cudgel or maul, made in one piece from a small log, with
one end shaved down to form a handle. The tool is also known
as a batter, beater, beetle, cudgel, club or maul.
- marking awl
-
A type of awl, used for marking and setting out wooden work
pieces.
- pole lathe
-
The pole lathe is a simple tool, made entirely of roughly
hewn wood components, and designed to be dismantled and
carried from site to site. The traditional pole lathe has
a horizontal wooden bed, supported above the ground on stout
wooden uprights. Two smaller upright members, the 'poppets'
or puppets'(wooden head-and -tail stocks which carry metal
centres), stand above the bed. The bases of the poppets
pass through gaps in the bed and are secured from below
with wooden wedges. The rod to be turned is fixed so that
it can revolve between these poppets. One or both of the
poppets are usually adjustable along the lathe bed, so that
rods of various lengths can be turned. A springy ash or
larch sapling up to 12' long, the pole, is secured firmly
to the ground at one end and left unsupported at its other
end over the lathe itself. From the thin end of this pole,
a cord or leather thong is looped round the work-piece,
and then attached to a foot treadle below. Depressing the
foot-operated treadle pulls down the pole by means of the
cord, and twists the work in one direction. This allows
the bodger to cut the work with a gouge or chisel. When
the treadle is released, the bodger withdraws the blade
of his tool as the pole springs back again, turning the
work in the other direction. In the process of turning on
an ordinary lathe, the work-piece is cut with a chisel when
the work is rotated towards the operator. In the case of
the pole lathe, however, this only happens on the down stroke
of the treadle. When foot pressure is relaxed, the spring
of the pole winds the work-piece in the reverse direction
and takes the treadle back to the "up" position.
The wood turner withdraws his tool from the work-piece during
this reverse action. The pole lathe has one major drawback,
therefore - the actual cutting of the wood can only be done
on the foot-operated turn of the lathe.
- saw
-
The first known metal saws were used around 2500BC by carpenters
and stonemasons in the Middle East. Early examples were
made of soft metal, and their teeth were not set, the tool
only cut on the pull stroke. By the first century AD, the
Romans had begun to set the saw teeth, which made the tools
less liable to buckle or choke in the wood. Consequently,
they could be used with more powerful and accurate push
strokes. The Romans used many different types of saws, including
small frame saws, narrow-bladed hand saws, and large cross-cut
saws with handles at each end of the blade. These types
of saws remained in use, almost unchanged, throughout the
Middle Ages. Towards the end of the seventeenth century,
however, improvements in steel technology made wider strips
of metal available for "open" hand and pit-saw
blades. By the mid eighteenth century, English hand saws,
usually made from Sheffield steel, were very similar to
the types of saw in use today. A strip of metal with teeth
cut along one edge, held taut in a wooden or metal frame
or handle. Saw teeth are described as either "rip",
for cutting along the grain, or "cross-cut", for
cutting across the grain. Most saws have teeth bent sideways,
alternatively left and right, so that they cut slightly
wider than the thickness of the blade to enable the tool
to move freely without binding in the wood. Used for cutting
wood, metal, stone and other materials.
- sawing horse
-
A frame consisting of two crossed timbers, approximately
1m long, held apart by stretchers, to form a V-shaped bed
in logs are placed to be sawn. Also known as a saw buck
or wood horse.
- shaving horse
-
A low bench, supported on splayed legs, astride which the
operator sits at his work. The wood that he is working on
lies in front of him, gripped at its farther end by a bar.
This bar is set on a pivot jointed to a footrest, so that
by moving his feet he may hold or release the section of
wood that is being shaved. The quick grip and release are
essential for speedy work There is a pedal-operated jaw
which bears down on a sloping platform to hold the wood
being worked, leaving the operator's hands free for shaping
the work-piece, usually with a draw knife. Shaving horses,
generally homemade, are used in many trades, including by
coopers, chair-makers and woodland workers. Bodgers use
it for roughly shaping legs and stretchers before turning
on a pole lathe. Also known as a mare or shaving brake.
- splitting-out block
-
A short piece of tree trunk about 18" thick and 2'
high. Used to support logs when being split into billets
with a chair bodger's axe and a mallet.
