Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Hand-saws
The small hand-saws mentioned above would have been similar to what Moxon
(1703, 245) displayed in
Mechanick Exercises: OR, The Doctrine of Handy-Works.
Applied to the ART of Bricklayers Work
and described as:
A saw made of Tinn, to saw the bricks where they cut
Later, this type of saw, most likely of tin-plate, became known to bricklayers as
a 'grub-saw', used for marking around a templet prior to cutting to prevent
spalling, or splintering, of the brick face around the new arris (edge) during
cutting. It could be used for cutting away, to the established setting out lines,
large parts of unwanted brick following the long-established masonry cutting
sequence of 'chamfers, fillets, hollows and humps'. The saw being utilised to
make a series of cuts down to the scribed lines, directly into the fillets and hol-
lows to facilitate either chiselling-out or 'axing'. The hand-saw could be used
to cut and shape certain sections too as on the cut-moulded finial brick from
Wallington Hall
c
.1525 (see Fig. 2). This saw is very similar in size and shape
to the mason's 'drag' and to a lesser degree the 'cock's comb'. In both the
teeth would have no 'set' and the latter was used for cleaning-out small hol-
lows, detailing, and the intersections of some mouldings.
Drags
With specific regard to the use of a mason's drag for finishing a moulding Peter
Hill (2001) made the following observations, based on the trials noted above:
The use of drags was clearly most satisfactory for removing up to 5-6 mm of mater-
ial down to the finished surface. This was very quick and easy, and when used
with care few if any marks were left on the surface. You get better control with
one hand above and one below and that if you lay the drag almost flat the effect
is much reduced. Keep working them in two directions or more, up at 45º to one
side, slide it back, and up at 45º to the other side; it is a sort of figure-of-eight
movement. If you don't go in two directions you will soon wear a hollow.
Brick Axe
The brick axe was clearly a very popular cutting tool amongst medieval and
Tudor hewers that was small, relatively light and easy to carry with them from
job to job and to care for. With some changes in style and skill in its use, it
remained in a common tool in the cutting shed until well into the nineteenth
century. The brick axe of this period, forged from a length of iron, resembles
a double-bladed bolster with two wide blades at opposing ends with average
