Last updated Swedish carpenter's axe with straight handle/cutting edge, beard and notch ideal for choking up on.A Swedish carpenter's axeExamples of Japanese carpenter's axes.
Carpenter's axes or carpenter's hatchets are small axes, usually slightly larger than a hatchet, used in traditional woodwork, joinery, and log-building. They have pronounced beards and finger notches to allow a "choked" grip for precise control.
Carpentry axes have straight, long cutting edges and thin blades with a low bevel angle, making them ideal for working with dry wood. These axes also have straight handles, as the curved handles typical of felling and chopping axes would get in the way of the smaller, more precise cuts that carpenters would tend to make. These features allow carpenter's axes to be capable of detailed work such as cutting a plank's end to a desired angled with a planed surface and even rudimentary woodcarving.[1]
The long straight edge of carpentry axes provides a good degree of stability when cutting as well as being the ideal shape for guiding the blade by eye.[1]
The poll, or butt, is generally designed for use as a hammer. Newer carpenter's axes will often have a groove for pulling nails.
Use in Japanese carpentry
In traditional Japanese architecture, wood is the primary building material, as opposed to the western tradition of using stone and brick. Therefore, in the construction of buildings, carpentry axes are vital for quickly removing large amounts of wood in the initial stages of building, such as the construction of columns and support structures. Japanese carpentry axes have wooden handles that are fitted to a socket and have laminated steel blades, which have two different steels: a harder steel for the cutting edge, with a more soft and flexible steel for the back portion of the head.[2]
Sources
1 2 Caruso, Yvonne (2017). The Axe Book. Stockholm: Gransfors Bruks. pp.10, 26. ISBN978-91-86821-30-2. –or– Caruso, Yvonne; Berg, Elisabet; Gränsfors Axe Museum (2011). The Axe Book. Bergsjö: Gransfors Bruks. ISBN978-91-86821-11-1.
↑ Brown, Azby (1989). The Genius of Japanese Carpentry. Hong Kong: Tuttle. pp.74–77. ISBN978-4-8053-1276-6.
"Woodworking Axes". Handyman Tips. 4 November 2016. Retrieved 21 October 2018.
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An adze or adz is an ancient and versatile cutting tool similar to an axe but with the cutting edge perpendicular to the handle rather than parallel. Adzes have been used since the Stone Age. They are used for smoothing or carving wood in hand woodworking, and as a hoe for agriculture and horticulture. Two basic forms of an adze are the hand adze —a short-handled tool swung with one hand—and the foot adze (hoe)—a long-handled tool capable of powerful swings using both hands, the cutting edge usually striking at foot or shin level. A similar tool is called a mattock, which differs by having two blades, one perpendicular to the handle and one parallel.
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This glossary of woodworking lists a number of specialized terms and concepts used in woodworking, carpentry, and related disciplines.
An axe is an implement that has been used for millennia to shape, split, and cut wood, to harvest timber, as a weapon, and as a ceremonial or heraldic symbol. The axe has many forms and specialised uses but generally consists of an axe head with a handle, also called a haft or a helve.
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