Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
as the other blade dulls, requiring the attention of the blacksmith only half as
often.
This latter point is of importance, as even though the bricks selected for cut
and rubbed work were relatively soft, they still caused the edge of the brick axe
to dull rapidly. This accounts for the large number of brick axes being used
by the hewers and frequently sharpened by the blacksmiths. Contemporary
accounts for Kirby Muxloe Castle (Leicestershire), reveal sharpening every two
or three weeks in the winter of 1482 (Hamilton-Thompson, 1920, 293-4):
Monday 18 November…
Smyth, …For sharpyng 10 dosen axes with Chesell and other
Tooles, at 2d [a dosen]…20d
Monday 9 Dec[ember]
Smyth, …for sharping 12 dosen axes with Chesells and other
Tooles, at 2d…2s 0d.
The sharpening of brick-axe blades and other cutting tools was not just a
simple matter of grinding on a grindstone, as at York in 1499 where Salzman
(1967, 337), says the blacksmith was paid:
Pro les gryndyng les axes et tules”, or for the grinding of axes and tools.
This type of sharpening would be executed on what Salzman says was “a great
round stone….” Called a 'gressour' or a 'gryndelston'.
It was generally accepted that it took one blacksmith to keep three masons
continually provided with tool care (Coppack, 2002), including re-working the
edges of cutting tools, by what was then termed 'bateracione', or 'battering'.
(Salzman, 1967, 337) quotes a payment:
…to Katherine the smith-wife for steeling and battering of the masons tools.
The forging and sharpening of a hewer's brick axe would clearly have been the
skilled work of a blacksmith. It is a complex, yet very interesting subject and
one that is worth exploring if we are to gain a deeper understanding of the
brick axe (see case study, p. 60).
Axing Technique in Practice
Why hewers axed their bricks in the manner they did becomes apparent when
testing the brick axe in use. On a brick face the diagonal axing strokes would
