Hewing is done with axes. Like cleaving, it appears to have been
practiced, in a crude way, from the very earliest period of humankind’s use
of tools. By the later Middle Ages, it had become a sophisticated technique
involving specialized axes (Fig. 6), which was fast and accurate as well as
economical, in that much of the waste could be used productively. It is
unlikely that panel material was ever produced by hewing alone. Beams
were habitually taken straight from the ax, but when thin panel stuffwas
required, it would normally have been sawn from a hewn balk, a proce-
dure that took advantage of the flat surfaces and right-angled edges pro-
duced by the preliminary hewing. Nevertheless, the hewing ax (or side ax,
as it is often called, by virtue of its edge being beveled on one side only)
was a tool of preference in all stages of woodworking up to the finalT M P: H R W T T 179Figure 2
Hewing a tree trunk into a balk. There are
many medieval representations of this process,
some of which show that the artist was con-
fused about the practical details. This example,
with the tree supported on trestles and each
man working the timber to his left, his right
hand and his right leg forward, is entirely
feasible, although there are refinements of the
technique that had certainly been practiced in
Roman times. Carpenters’ window, Chartres
Cathedral, ca. 1250. Stained glass.
Figure 3
Ripsawing a balk into planks using a two-man
framed saw. The balk is supported at an angle
on a single pair ofcrutches in a procedure
that has become known as the seesawing
method. Noah Directing Sawing for the Ark,
thirteenth century. Fresco. Basilica San
Francesco, Assisi.
Figure 4
Two froes. The froe is a riving tool that is
started into the end grain of a piece of timber
with a blow from a wooden club. The split
that has thus been started is then extended
and controlled by up-and-down leverage on
the handle.