hewing

Hewing is the shaping of solid material, typically wood or stone, by removing material with a bladed tool. The term covers traditional handwork as well as related modern practices. In contrast to sawing, which cuts with a rotating blade, or carving, which removes material to form patterns, hewing produces flat or angular surfaces by striking a blade across the workpiece, often in large, deliberate strokes.

Wood hewing uses tools such as the broad axe, felling axe, or adze. In timber framing and log construction, hewing creates square or rectangular cross-sections and smooth faces on logs or beams. Hewing a log to a rectangular timber involves shaping along the grain and removing long strips to produce straight, true surfaces. The resulting tool marks are characteristic, often visible as broad, parallel grooves or planes, and the finished pieces are commonly described as hewn timbers or hewn logs.

Stone hewing involves using adzes, chisels, and points to rough out and define blocky shapes from quarried stone. Historically essential in ancient and medieval construction, stone hewing reduces a block to near-simplified rectangular form before dressing with finer tools. The process establishes the size and alignment of stones used in walls, foundations, and monuments, with marks indicating the removal of corner and face surfaces.

In modern contexts, hewing persists in traditional woodworking and historic restoration, and the term also survives in the expression “to hew to” meaning to adhere to a plan or standard. The practice emphasizes manual control and the creation of flat, true surfaces through direct removal of material.