Cleaving knife

identifier
ID 76
morphology
craft
craft
craft
craft
holotype
MOT V 88.0611 L=36cm WD=6cm WT=800gr
holotype
MOT V 91.0617 L=45cm WD=10cm WT=1200gr
holotype
MOT V 94.0513 S L=27cm WD=6cm WT=1400gr
alias
knife froe (syn.) (SLOANE: 33)
description

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]