Hi,
sorry my images don't come up so good I just can't figure out which method to use to set them on here. Anyway, if this comes over clearly you can see that the head of this mortising ax is almost exactly the same form as the French bisaiguë. This is an austrian mortising axe with a double bit or kreuxaxt, the one from Gransfors is, we can presume, a Scandinavian version of the same thing called Stemmaxt but then with a single bit and possibly more suited to work in softwoods which are more abundant in Scandinavia, which is not to say it was not used in timber framing.

So what we have under the English word "mortise ax/axe" is, in French, bisaiguë, in German, kreuxaxt, and in Swedish, Stemmaxt, in Dutch, steekbijl,... . Even though this French tool pretty radically differs from the one in the picture they both have similar origins.

This is from that French web site regarding the bisaiguë :


"This tool consists of two complementary parts – a chisel at one end and a mortise chisel at the other. In its long form, it is French in origin, and probably is the descendant of a much more hazardous tool, which had a longer handle and shorter head. It was known as a twybill, a piochon in French, and a Kreuzaxt in Germany...."
[url=]mortise axe[/url]

That web site goes further into it including pictures of it in use., all you have to do is in the English version type in "mortise axe" in the search space.

It seems mortising axe can mean many different things. Still, depending maybe on where you are, it is just as much a timber framing tool as a broad axe, an auger or or a slick. I think further, its use would be straight-forward in theory but in practice would take a lot of practice. That one there with the pink background is for sale second hand, maybe I'll see how many €'s they want for it...

Greetings

Don Wagstaff