Mortise Axe

This tool at Smith’s Tavern is a mortise axe.  It has a long wooden handle and a steel axe head, one end of which has a thin axe blade and the other end has a larger butt end.  

 

This is a specialist axe designed for hewing sills and notches in joints.  The long narrow axe head made it easier to work on large logs.  The shape enables the user to hew a long way down into the notch, where otherwise a chisel would be needed.

 

This tool is also hammered but more like a chisel than a splitter.  The mortise axe chisels a tenon from the end of a hewn log. This tenon will fit into a mortise hole made with other tools.  A mortise and tenon joint is a standard joint used when building a post and beam structure.

 

Reference:  https://www.dalzielbarn.com/pages/TheFarm/Tools.html

Catalog Items:

Item T24

Location:	Panel 17
Length:	54 cm
Width:	22 cm
Weight:	1919 g