Timber Framers Guild Forums Tools Tool Forum Tools for Mortising

Hi csi,

I think that you mean "twybill" or "bisaigue" which is the French equivalent name.

I own and have used one of these tools and these are not used to "make" a mortice but are used to clean out a mortice. Mortices are generally made by drilling a hole at either end and then using a morticing chisel to quickly and fairly roughly chop out the wood between the holes. The mortice corners are squared up and cleaned out using the morticing chisel end of the twybill which is then rotated through 180 degrees to use the paring chisel end to clean up the sides. Body weight is more than sufficient to power both ends of the twybill and being a long tool the timbers are best worked on the floor rather than on horses.

Regards

Ken Hume

I don't think that twybil and bisaigue are the same thing. Similar purposes, but different tools.

Hello,

The origin of the tools is the same. The English word twybil can be traced to its German roots - that is not to say the tool itself is originally German - twy or zwei = two, bil or beil = axe: so twybil = double axe). The handled version came first and whether or not it was thrust or swung, or most probably both, is difficult to say. Later the wood handle was done away with but the short socket remains as a grip used in thrusting and pairing.

Greetings,

Don Wagstaff

Hi Dave,

There are two versions of the English Twybill with one being identical to the bisaigue and the other being much shorter as used by green woodworkers in the production of sheep hurdles.

Please provide some reasoning for the expression of your opinion so that I can provide a more informed reply.

Regards

Ken Hume

Ken,
I am aware that in America, the word Twybil refers only to the smaller version, and the bisaigue is unknown.

Don,
The Twybil and Bisaigue do, in fact, have a German origin. The first tool along these lines to show up was the medieval German Kreuzaxt, or 'cross axe' which is basically identical to the later twybil. This tool developed in different regions into 3 distinct tools, the English twybil which was more or less the original, the French bisaigue which is more or less a gigantic version of it, and the German Stichaxt which did away with the mortising chisel end. These tools reflected the needs of the framers who used them, the stichaxt for example seems to have arisen around the time that the Germans switched to smaller timbers and shallow mortises. It is essentially a slick ideally suited to the German method. The bisaigue adapted to the large French joinery (in comparison to German) and from what I understand appeared in France around one of the times when they occupied the German-speaking Alsace.