When we were making them as part of our apprentice ship it was called a Grab, started with scraping all sides of a square block flat and square then so many cuts with a hacksaw then hand the saw back in.... then the fun started with a Hammer and Chisel only, plus safety glasses..............a board of approx 3ft x 3ft was between you and the next guy on the bench.
We went on to make two small ones but didn't need to use the chisel......