The mortising axe or post axe

S

Square_peg

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I've recently acquired an old mortising axe out of Pennsylvania. I've had my eyes open for one of these as I'm considering building a split-rail fence the old fashioned way. This is just what I was looking for, an axe that was purpose built as a mortising axe rather than converted out of some other type of axe.

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It's very poorly hung. Someone just shoved a chunk of old axe handle in it and drove in a single small metal wedge.


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It has a long heavy poll to give it some weight and power. A forge weld is visible where the additional mass of the poll was added after construction of the eye, much as we saw Jake Pogg do in his 18th c. R&D thread.

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I had a dickens of a time convincing my camera to focus on the top of the eye rather than whatever was in the background behind it but eventually got a decent photo. The front of the eye is clearly forge welded and doesn't appear to have a dissimilar metal between the 2 sides. It's unclear how the bit was done.

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A little background on how these were used and why they are sometimes called a post axe comes from Henry Mercer's wonderful book "Ancient Carpenters' Tools". It seems one of the common tasks these axes were called on to perform was the mortising of fence posts for split rail fences.

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Have a look at that massive stone wall in the background! Reminds me of Robert Frosts 'Mending Wall'. ‘Good fences make good neighbors.’


Mercer has some good examples of this axe in his book. One of his looks an awful lot like an ice axe to me. He may not have known the difference and simply reported what he was told.

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He goes on to describe the use of the tool.

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I hope I get a chance to put this one back to work.
 
Ernest DuBois said:
Axe 125 is a bundaxt, regionale pattern of Bavaria and austria used in carpentry though not intended in any particular way for mortising work
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I'm guessing that and the ice axe were either repurposed as mortising axes and labeled as such, or the author/museum owner saw they were roughly the same shape as a mortising axe and decided they must be some variation of that.
 
That sure is a beautiful old axe,good for you for searching out one that old and nice.
Thanks for showing it,and also for that print-out of Mercer's book,cool stuff.

I hope you get(make) an occasion to use it,i'd bet you'll enjoy yourself.

Twybill/bundaxt- is one lovely tool also.Never had a chance to use one,would like to someday.

I'm in my usual ridiculous situation here:Love old tools,and fairly often conspire to do the kind of work that they were meant for-but invariably having to do so with modern power tools...More expeditious.

I'm starting the log-work that'll most probably involve half-dovetail corners,and even the sample to show the homeowner i've done with power tools,or about 97% of it,just cleaned up a bit with a chisel...:(
 
A17 said:
I'm guessing that and the ice axe were either repurposed as mortising axes and labeled as such, or the author/museum owner saw they were roughly the same shape as a mortising axe and decided they must be some variation of that.
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Yes, its been discussed from time to time here what consequences removing an axe from its broader context is libel to have.
 
Or a bandhacke that Muller or Stubi is selling would, with some alterations to the handle, be even more suitable for chopping such over-sized fence post mortices. With one of these i bet you could chop the mortice from one side..
 
I like Mullers bandhacke. I think the thin profile might be good for this purpose. I'm thinking about reprofiling this axe and I'm wondering if flatter grinds might be more appropriate for this work. I think it would enable me to work deeper.

I see Muller alternately spelled Mueller. Do they use one name in Europe and another in the US? For example, this website uses one spelling in the url and another at the top of the web page.

Ennstaler Rindenschäler, mit Eschenstiel

Rindenschäler, Ennstaler Form. Universeller Schaber, ideal zum einfachen Entrinden und Entfernen dünner Äste. Ergonomischer Stiel aus Eschenholz
mueller-hammerwerk.at mueller-hammerwerk.at

Similarly I see Muller axes for sale on Amazon with the seller name being Mueller. I think the products are stamped Muller (or Biber). Is Mueller the retail side and Muller the manufacturing side of the same company?
 
Mueller and Stubai's product linbes are so similar I wondered if they were related companies. Stubai seems to have eliminated many of the products they made a decade ago.
 
Boy, i'm not the one to answer such questions i don't follow all these consolidations, so called rationalizations or corporate boardroom antics. Likely there are convergences at some point in the flow charts. It is the nature of the blade as a whole that's critical though, the bandhacke essentially a chisel on a stick speaking of which a stichtaxt is also related. IVe considered grinding the chopping blade of my kreuzaxt to a single bevel and reversing directions though speaking from experiance using a single beveled bundaxt this greatly increases the difficulty using the axe.
 
Square_peg said:
I like Mullers bandhacke. I think the thin profile might be good for this purpose. I'm thinking about reprofiling this axe and I'm wondering if flatter grinds might be more appropriate for this work. I think it would enable me to work deeper.

I see Muller alternately spelled Mueller. Do thefy use one name in Europe and another in the US? For example, this
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A bandhacke which i always reach for first does have an asymmetric bevel. Its hard to say if my prefference is wholly attributable to this feature but i like to think at least in part it is.
 
Ernest DuBois said:
A bandhacke which i always reach for first does have an asymmetric bevel. Its hard to say if my prefference is wholly attributable to this feature but i like to think at least in part it is.
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Thanks. That's what I really want to know, is it worth going assymetrical at the cost of having to switch to the other side or rotate the work for the other side of the hole. Seems like I'd want to be able to alternate strikes on one side then the other, which calls for a symmetrical bevel. And I have a good variety of sizes and weights of slicks to clean up the work if I went quick-n-dirty with a double beveled mortising axe.

If I were doing heavy timber framing and cutting mortises that required some precision I might prefer a tool with a single bevel with maybe a slight relief on the flat side.

But for this work I think I'll try it like this first (with a little touch-up), trusting that the original owner had good reasons for this to be shaped like it is.
 
Since this axe i'm going on aand on about is in fact double beveled with one bevel flattened and elongated, against the wood side, and its opposite bevel bevel shorter and convex it is still usable from both sides in two directions. Its only that i have a prefference for using it one way and not the other and when working in tandem i always ask if i can stand to the right but since i am a lefty and in the minority this usually works out fine for both parties.
 
Square_peg said:
Mueller and Stubai's product linbes are so similar I wondered if they were related companies. Stubai seems to have eliminated many of the products they made a decade ago.
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Mueller is sometimes spelled Muller because the proper spelling is Müller but a ü is not compliant with URL standardization, which only allows digits 0-9, English letters A-Z, and a very limited handful of other special characters, and Mueller is the company name as anglicized to comply with URL formatting. It's why Austrian scythe manufacturer Schröckenfux's website is Shroeckenfux.com

As far as Müller vs. Stubai product lines, Müller's primary work is supplying rough-forgings to industry, and they provide contracted forgings to a number of other tool companies who then finish them out. It's pure speculation, but it would not be surprising if Müller acted as the forging contractor for Stubai.
 
Do you guys start your post mortises by boring two holes? That the way I was taught. Although, like Jake observes, modern expectations usually require me to bore a line of holes and clean it fast with a chisel or slick.

Parker
 
When you're doing it for a living there is no alternative but to remove the material in the most efficient way possible. But the project I'm planning will be for myself on my land with my trees so I can afford to mix some pleasure in with the work.
 
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