Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
appear to be based on achieving flat faces, square to one another in the sim-
plest, swiftest and most effective manner. In preparing stone, a mason looks
first to work the surface flat, the accuracy of which is vital so that the other
planes and angles related to it will not be thrown out. Due to the normally
large size of stone this typically involves using a mallet and chisel to work down,
about 25 mm, two flat draughts, or drafts, at opposite sides. Once formed and
checked, the mason will then work across the face of the stone, one side to
the other, using the original draughts as guides. The surface is then cleaned
with the boaster and drag and the flat surface checked by using a straightedge
diagonally from corner to corner.
Hewers working a narrow face on a brick (in comparison to stone) simply
followed an older stonemason practice from the eleventh and twelfth centur-
ies when working with a stone-axe, evident in studying the stonework of this
period (Colvin, 1982, 333-4):
With their unmistakable axe-tooling, diagonal on flat surfaces…
They worked the face of the brick down using the brick axe diagonally between
two prepared adjacent arrises (edges) cut to answer to the templet, therefore
flattening, checking, and presenting a textured, or 'axed', finish across the full
width of the face of the brick, all in the one action. It is important to remem-
ber that with the normally large width of the bed joints on brickwork of this
period, it was not absolutely vital that the worked face was exactly 90º to the
bed face. This could be 'taken up' by altering the bedding of the brick into the
mortar during the laying process, tilting it backwards or forwards to achieve
'face-plane' to the surrounding facework. Where it was necessary to have the
face at 90º to the bed, this could be achieved by marking up from the bed on
to the header face at either end with the 'try-square'. One could then scribe
the two lines across to meet one another along the top of the brick, and then
'work' the brick face 'true' to those marks.
Practical tests, as discussed above, appear to indicate that the brick being
axed to finish would sit flat on a sturdy workbench, historically termed the
'chopping-block'. It would be positioned face up and resting on what is trad-
itionally termed a 'softing', usually some thick hessian sacking that helps to
take the jarring action of the blows, thus preventing the brick being damaged.
The brick is positioned and held at the desired angle, rather than turning
the blade of the axe, so that the brick axe is used with its blades parallel to the
hewer rather like an adze, thus producing the diagonal axing marks on the face
of the brick. The brick axe, used in a chopping-action, is worked from the top
to bottom corner towards the hewer, which allows the cutting surface to be seen
and position of the blade to be judged to maintain parallel lines. Care needs
to be exercised when starting and finishing to prevent dislodging the corners,
