Having finished the beam of wood that is to be the bed of my lathe I got a bit carried away and didn't take many photos of the first mortice that is to take the Head Stock. I remembered as I started the mortice for the tail stock.
I got this far and the thought of picking up the chainsaw and ripping two slots to rough out the mortice was very, very tempting. The tool lying on the lathe bed is a type of builders chisel. In German it is known by many names which roughly translate as Thrust or Push Axe or Mortice axe, while in France it is known as a Demi Bisaigue or a Pontache which as far as I can work out translates as Half Bisaigue or Pontache.
It is basically the equivalent of the English slick. I haven't managed to document this tool to the medieval period but its larger cousin the Bisaigue does appear in a number of manuscripts. The one below is from the
16th century
With the moritces cut it was time to work on the head and tail stock.
I cut a length of log off the other half of the log that the lathe bed came from.
First step was to roughly square it up by taking most of the sap wood off with the froe.
Then clean it up with my hewing hatchet.
Then I cut the tenon and through it a mortice to hold the stock in place with a wedge.
Very pleased with progress.
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