Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
also produce red bricks that numerous examples show are eminently capable
of being cut, carved and abraded too.
How the brick axe developed is lost in the passage of unrecorded history, yet
it is possible to put forward a plausible theory based on practical experience of
working post-fired brickwork and of re-examining craft tools and techniques
no longer used but historically associated with such work. As stated above,
masons/hewers would have adapted their tools for suitability of purpose and
the varying types of wooden-handled stone axes in use during these periods
would have been unwieldy. They generally require two hands to use them and
would have produced too heavy an impact on the brick. 'Hafting' does, how-
ever, endow a tool with better control.
A series of tests carried out using a blacksmith-made facsimile of a fifteenth-
century brick axe provided evidence on axing both ashlar and moulded
enrichments. This work was undertaken to assess the true practicality of using
a brick axe, in order to help develop a better understanding of the reasons for
the development of this unique, and once highly-prized, hewer's tool (see case
study, p. 52). Also to gain a better understanding of why the bricks were being
worked in the manner described above.
Using one hand to hold the brick was, and remains the preferred craft tech-
nique for cutting and shaping, so there would be a desire to work with a small
cutting tool that would facilitate this practice (Fig. 23). It is quite reasonable
to imagine the craftsman ignoring the hammer, yet picking up a wide-bladed
'bolster' by clasping the shaft, so the blade emerges beneath the hand, and
Figure 23
Author axing a cut-
moulded brick for a
Hampton Court Palace
chimney.
