ID-DOC: general search

The broad axe is used for shaping logs and heavy pieces of wood by hewing. It is also sometimes used to peel a tree. This axe weighs approximately 1.5-3.5 kg and is characterized by a wide blade (up to 40 cm) with one bevel. The stem is 25-40 cm long and is held with one or both hands. The trunk is first smeared (see chalk line) to indicate the shape to be obtained. If little wood has to be removed, the carpenter immediately proceeds to work with the broad axe; he stands next to the trunk and thus cuts in the direction of the fibers. If the sapwood is too thick, he chops notches in it with the felling axe (1) to about 0.5-1 cm from the line; the distance between the notches (90-180 cm) (2) depends on the type of wood and also on the piece (straight fibers or not). The wood between the notches is then cut away with the felling axe. The rough surface is cut evenly against the line with the broad axe. The broad axe is the iconic tool of the (ship) carpenter. The tool can be distinguished from the carpenter's axe....

Knife (approx. 15-18 cm) with a spatula-shaped, non-cutting blade, which is pointed or rounded at the end. With the butter knife you take a lump of butter from the butter dish and put it on the bread. See also butter spoon. [MOT]

Picked from the churn, the extracted butter must be kneaded to work out the buttermilk. This kneading can be done by hand or with a butter paddle. This is a wooden hand tool with a flat, ribbed blade and a straight or T-shaped handle. [MOT]

Wooden spoon (approx. 20 cm) with a ribbed, concave blade. It is used to take butter from a larger butter block. Sometimes it is also used for kneading and working up the butter, but usually this is done with a butter paddle. See also butter knife. [MOT]

Larger pieces of meat are cut and shaped with a butcher knife. A butcher knife has a long (approx. 25-35 cm) and sturdy blade with a cut that is bent towards the end, ending in a sharp point. The wooden or plastic handle is shaped in such a way that the hand cannot slip when cutting. [MOT]

Drill resembling a small nave borer (approx. 20 cm long) that is used to drill the core out of a cabbage before cutting it into pieces. [MOT]

The baker or the customer takes pastries from the counter with a shovel or with cake tongs. Her jaws are 3-5 cm wide and sometimes open. The tongs close around the pastry when the arms are pressed shut. The arms are not crossed. [MOT]

The cant hook serves to turn logs, sometimes beams (cf. ring dog and sappie). With a modern model, in particular the log jack (1), it is also possible to lift a trunk to cut it. The tool consists of a wooden rod of about 1.20-1.75 m, to which a heavy metal hook is attached by means of a ring. That hook revolves around a spindle. The bottom end is studded with a metal plate or ends in a metal tip that allows the tool to be pushed (2). Holes are sometimes drilled in the hook; it is then fixed by means of a bolt and can be adjusted. The cant hook is used like the ring dog except that the rod is attached to the ring. In general, two or three men work together. When working alone, sometimes two cant hooks are used that alternately roll the log further. The cant hook is mainly used in the sawmill or at the warehouse. The lumberjack prefers the lighter ring dog. [MOT] (1) FORBES 1961: 16.17; HUGGARD & OUWEN:...

The carpenter's adze with straight blade

This gouge is to be distinguished from the gouge of the joiner, the wheelwright's gouge and the clog maker's gouge.

The coachmaker uses a special router plane for planing straight, concave or convex edges, for example on doors, and for making laterally curved wooden frames. More technical information on this page in dutch. [MOT]

The cartwright's compass is a six-sided wooden block with three iron points in each direction. It serves the wheelwright to mark the diameter of the wheel hub in order to use the lathe and core the hub. [MOT]

The carpenter's pincers have strongly curved jaws to pull out nails. Their gripping surface has also been reduced to a minimum so that the jaws can possibly clamp under the head of the nail and penetrate slightly into the nail to get a better grip. Once the pincers hold the nail, they are used as a lever to pull out the nail. Sometimes a piece of wood is placed under the jaw to protect the wood surface. Some models have a square opening between the jaws for loosening nuts. One of the arms sometimes ends in a screwdriver, a sphere - to protect the hand - or a crow bar. In the latter case, the arm may be bent outwards because of too much pressure and the forceps were bent. The pliers are also sometimes used to cut metal wire, but the jaw is actually not sharpened enough for this purpose. It is better to use these thongs. Their mouth is sharper and more flattened than that of the carpenter's pincers. [MOT]

Large pieces of meat are pre-cut with a carving knife. It has a slightly flexible blade (approx. 25-30 cm long) with a sharp, sometimes curved point with which the meat can be cut loose from the bones. In the past, carving knives were quite wide so that the meat could also be served with them. Most carving knives have a 3/4 or full tongue. The handle can be made of all kinds of materials: plastic, wood, stag horn, stainless steel, silver or ivory. The stiffer knives serve to pre-cut beef, pork or lamb; slightly flexible knives are used for poultry. It is often used in conjunction with a carving fork. See also ham slicer. [MOT]

The cask-scrub is a brush used in a brewery to sand and wash the barrels on the inside. The working part is made of heather, baleen, etc. and attached to a wooden handle (approx. 100 cm). [MOT]

The chaquitaclla (1) (pronounced tcha-ki-tak-li-ja) is a typical agricultural implement in the Andes mountains of southern Peru and northern Bolivia. The men use them to work fallow soil by tilting the clods - as with the Spanish Laya, after which the women pow ​​the potato tubers by hand (2). It is not uncommon for five men to work side by side; then they tilt a whole bar in one go. The chaquitaclla evolved from a digging stick to a tool with a sharp metal tip, a curved or straight handle, and a footrest. It is about 1 to 1.5 meters long and has a diameter of about 6 cm. The footrest consists of two poles of approx. 20 cm long that are tied parallel to each other at a height of approx. 45 cm. The wooden handle is tied to the shaft with strips of llama or cow leather. When working on steep slopes, a lower-placed handle - close to the footrest - is more convenient for balancing. The stem fits into the socket of the blade, which is about 7-10 cm wide and 40 cm long. If no metal is available...

When you pre-cut a large piece of meat with a carving knife, you can hold that meat with a carving fork. It has fairly long (approx. 7-10 cm) - usually three - sturdy teeth and a handle made of plastic, wood, stag horn, stainless steel, silver or ivory. Between the blade and handle there is usually a bumper to protect the hand if the knife should slip; often there is also a folding stick so that the fork does not penetrate too deep into the meat. See also carving tongs. [MOT]

The chain hook is an approx. 80 cm long iron hook with a T or ring handle, with which heavy (anchor) chains can be transported on ships or in the harbor, for example during a check. When the vessel is stopped by a chain when launching a boat, the worker at the capstan catches that chain with the aid of two shorter chain hooks (1). [MOT] (1) FROST: 140.

Rectangular iron shovel (approx. 30 cm long) with a wooden D-handle (approx. 70-80 cm). It is used by the stoker when filling the boiler of a heating installation or of a steam engine, and by the brickmaker when heating the oven. It has raised edges so that the coals do not fall out when shoveling. See also the coal scoop and coal shovel. [MOT]

See also the cheese knife and cheese cutting knife.

The chicory knife is used to cut the tops of the chicory in the field. It is a small (approx. 20 cm) and light (approx. 25 g) knife with a straight blade and smooth edge, which lies comfortably in the hand. The blade is often sharpened, making the edge somewhat hollow. The handle can be wood or plastic. [MOT]

Meat and vegetables can be chopped on a cutting board or a chopping block. The latter is a cross-sawn piece of tree trunk (approx. 30-60 cm diameter; approx. 13-50 cm thick) - often the hole in the tree - possibly with three legs underneath. Usually it is made of beech wood. [MOT] 

Kitchen utensil for chopping vegetables. There is a wide variety of shapes. The cut can be rectangular or rounded; the handle can be attached to the top of the blade - horizontally like a crank or connected to the blade at one or both ends - but can also be in line with the blade. In the latter case, the knife resembles the meat cleaver, but it is lighter. The vegetable chopper is always used in combination with a chopping block or a wooden bowl or porringer. See also the mincing knife. [MOT]

The cigar box opener is a manual tool with which one can open a cigar box. It has a flat, rounded, blunt blade with a small notch along the side, and a straight handle. With the rounded end you cut the paper band around the lid of the box loose and with the notch you pry the nail loose. In some models there is also a hammer head present to hammer the nail back in. Sometimes the cigar box opener is combined with a cigar cutter. The same tool is used to open boxes with scoops (1). The cigar box opener can also be part of a pocket knife. [MOT] (1) Paul Duflos. Outillage pour le travail du bois. Tariff No. 5. 1920: 13 marteaux-couteaux pour primeurs.

The cleaving knife is an all-metal hand tool for splitting short standing logs. It is a rectangular iron (20-50 / 5-10 / 0.5-1.5 cm) of which one long side is sharp and the other is extended by a co-plane rod (approx. 10-15 cm) which serves as a handle. The craftsman, eg the clog maker or the cooper, places the tool on the cross-section of the piece to be split and hits it with a froe-maul. The splitting wedge is mainly used for splitting long horizontal pieces, unlike the cleaving knife and the splitting wedge with handle. [MOT]

Kitchen utensils with a heavy, usually rectangular blade used to chop meat into pieces. Blade and handle form one whole, or the blade is inserted into a wooden handle and takes up more than half of the total weight. In this way, the cleaver falls forward and down, as it were, making chopping easier. The weight (300 gr - 2.5 kg) of these meat cleavers varies depending on the work to be done with them. Heavy cleavers, for example, effortlessly cut through most joints and bones. See also the billhook for wood and the two-handed cleaver. [MOT]

The claw hammer is a hammer - very similar to the farrier's shoeing hammer - with square or round face, of 300-900 gr, with a split pin. The claw is used to pull out nails (1). To do this, the carpenter takes his hammer with the iron under his hand, places the nail in the tapered crack and pulls back the handle. Due to the force exerted on the joint, it is often reinforced by two springs. See also this hammer of the carpenter. [MOT] (1) The double claw - two claws one above the other - occurs only exceptionally (eg SLOANE: 99). It was probably used to pull out long nails.