In american carpentry of the 17th and 18th centuries an axe was used much more in cutting joinery than one might imagine. Here is a video if a tenon being cut with an axe in Europe. http://www.en.charpentiers.culture.fr/thepeople/portraits/petrruzickaczechcarpenterJim
The closer you look the more you see.
"Heavy timber framing is not a lost art" Fred Hodgson, 1909
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