what do the chisel and mallet symbolise in the Mark degree and where does that reading come from

In the Mark degree, the mallet and indenting chisel serve as the working tools 1. Operatively, medieval freemasons executed carving and dressed prepared stone using the mallet and chisel 2; within the degree, they are used operatively to indent a Mark Master's approval on a finished stone 1.

As Mark Masons' Hall explains, their symbolic and moral reading represents the advantages of discipline and education.

In the Craft, the action of the hammer and chisel represents removing the rough excrescences of stone to expose the inner perfection, symbolizing the divesting of vices and superfluities from the heart and conscience 4. This contrasts with the Mark degree, where the chisel and mallet operatively mark approval on completed work and morally signify the advantages of education and discipline.

Craft Masonry also assigns an administrative function to the mallet or common gavel that is distinct from its operative use: it serves as the emblem of the Worshipful Master's personal power and authority in governing the lodge 4. While the chisel is classified broadly as a working tool across certain Masonic degrees 3, its Craft reading focuses on the initial moral shaping of the candidate rather than the final inspection and marking of finished craftsmanship.

William Preston popularized the symbolic elaboration of the chisel as an emblem of discipline and education in his Illustrations of Masonry, though the underlying concept originated earlier in William Hutchinson's The Spirit of Masonry and eighteenth-century lodge lectures, according to an article on the Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon's website. The tool was absent from late seventeenth-century Scottish and English catechisms, first appearing in printed exposure texts between 1724 and 1726 following the formation of the Premier Grand Lodge in London.

Regarding the hammer or common gavel, its moral reading as an instrument for divesting vices and superfluities to reveal inner spiritual perfection is detailed by Carl H. Claudy, who also emphasizes its function as the emblem of the Worshipful Master's executive authority in governing the lodge 4.