Graphical Construction Glossary >> Tools. >> Hand Tools >> Carpenters Axe

Carpenters Axe

In woodwork a tool with a flat metal blade fixed to a wooden handle. Used to hew and cut wood into rough shape.

Side Axe

An axe with one flat face the better to give a smoother finish. Typically used working downwards on the side of a baulk of timber.

Broad Axe

An axe with a wide blade. Used for felling trees, a woodsman's axe.

A axe is one of the oldest tools known to mankind. From stone age hand axes to modern tool steel. The example above in the British Museum is a Roman military axe head, made in their thousands and used for general woodcutting.

The two axes above are part of a shipwrights tool collection at Chatham Dockyard in the UK. These axes have

These are quite specific tools for getting a smoother finish to timber. They do have wide blades but the term broad axe does not tell the full storey. I have only seen side axes for right handed work but no doubt in the days when these were hand made by blacksmiths then they could have been made left handed also.

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