Wednesday 22 February 2012

The medieval toolchest: woodcarving knives

I have been busy with chip-carving a sella curulis lately and this is done with one tool. the (wood) carving knife. We know this tool was used in medieval times (and even up till now) based on the furniture and other wooden utensils that are left from this period. There is not much archeological   evidence or illustrations (e.g. in miniatures) of medieval knives that can be directly correlated to woodcarving. Knives that are found can be used for many reasons and many trades. 

In Novgorod, Russia, however, some medieval knives of the 12th and 13th century could be linked to woodcarving and whittling of carpenters and coopers. They had a curved blade and a down-turned tip lower than the axis of the handle carving. 

 
Woodworking knives from Novgorod: (a) and (b) 13th century, (c) 12th century. (d) drawing of the blades with the axis 
of the handle. Images from Wood use in medieval Novgorod by M. Brisbane and J. Hather.

Our woodcarving knife also has such a curved and downturned blade. The design resembles modern woodcarving knives. The blade of our knife was forged by the German mastersmith David Schütze (Wollschmiede). He is specialised in reconstructions of archaeological finds. The knife was especially hardened and whetted to perfection by him for hard woods like oak. I have added a handle of apple wood to it.


Another use of a knife (or an awl) in medieval woodworking is for marking lines and geometric designs. Many of such marks have been found on wooden objects (furniture, houses, etc.) dating from the middle ages. See the photos below for examples of knife marks on the medieval chests from the Luneburger cloisters (Germany).
 



















(above) Knife marks providing guides for carving on chest TR-NR-400 from cloister Wienhausen, dating 1320. (right) Knife marks on the inside of the chest for the groove of the small tray. Photos from the book Die Gotischen Truhen der Luneburger Heidekloster, from K.H. von Stulpnagel.


A third type of knife for (late) medieval woodworking, which was still used in the last century by carpenters is the so-called shoulder knife (it even can be bought today at specialist tool shops). This knife has a very long handle which rests against the shoulder providing a stable hold. This stability feature makes the shoulder knife very useful for the very precise construction of intarsia, like the (intarsia) self portrait of Antonio Barili clearly shows.

Image of Antonio Barili (1453-1516) from Sienna, Italy. The artist carves the letters: HOC EGO ANTONIUS BARILIS OPVS COELO - NON PENICELLO EXCVSSI. AN.DN. MCCCCCII. (This work have I Antonio Barili  made with the carving knife, not with a brush. In the year 1502.). Other tools shown are a gouge, a folding knife and a pencil. The woods used for the intarsia are pear, beech, walnut, maple and palisander. The intarsia sadly has been destroyed during the second world war.

The last knife used by medieval woodworkers discussed here is the spoon-carving or hollowing knife. This knife was exclusively used for carving the hollows of spoons and bowls. Again, they have been found in medieval Novgorod, Russia (11-14th century - along with more than 650 spoons), but also at Arhus and Trelleborg in Denmark (10-13th century).

11th-14th century spoon carving knives from Novgorod. Image from the cd of the book: Wood use in medieval Novgorod.

9 comments:

  1. Those are not knife marks on the chest. They are marks from a pair of dividers, a compass used to lay out the circular pattern

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  2. You are correct that circular patterns are often made with the compass, as they produce a correct and smooth curve. However, with more repetitive patterns moulds were used (as they did with stone cutting). For the use of moulds you need a marking knife.

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  3. Where did you get the Barili image from? Book?

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    1. It is from the book Mobel Europas - Romanik-Gotik by Franz Windisch-Graetz (ISBN 3-7814-0212-6) on page 239. The intarsia has been lost during the second world war, but used to be at the MAK in Vienna.

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  4. How large is your chip carving knife? It seems like to make something like this (link below) one would need a larger blade than the typical commercially available chip carving knife. Imgur.com/3Th8Tqp

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    1. the blade is around 3 cm. I am afraid that the image link does not work (for me).

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  5. Actually, you have posted about the chest I was trying to link here:
    http://thomasguild.blogspot.com/2012/02/progress-on-sella-curulis.html?m=1
    Down the page there's the 13th century chest currently at the Victoria and Albert museum.

    The cuts are incredibly large and deep. What's more they're in hardwood. The roundels appear to be about 20cm in diameter. Am I seeing that correctly? Even if I had a large and sharp enough knife, I'm not sure how I would make some of those cuts. Look at the rightmost roundel. Are we seeing 10cm long, 1cm deep curved chips there?

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  6. Hi I am researching the Ripon Miserocrds in the Cathedral and I really like you website to help me, could you possibly send me the author thank you

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    1. I am afraid I am not able to travel to Ripon Cathedral at the moment. I did search for Ripoon cathedral misericords and found the wikipedia site. It showed a 'misericord, alleged inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' with a eagle on it. the feathers seem to be carved similarly as those on the eagles heads on my sella curulis. had I known before, starting carving would probably have been easier...

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