Mallet from the Mary Rose

Cleft planks are made by splitting a whole tree trunk in half. The halves are then split into quarters, then eigths, sixteenths and thirty-seconds!

Tree trunk being split with wedges

This is done with a mallet and wedges.

It's important that you choose a tree with a straight grain to the wood, otherwise you'll end up with bent planks.

Would you like to learn more about these cleft planks?