A fine handle that's comming together with a fantastic axe

Kevin Houtzager said:
Ehrr, not really: When looking at biometrics, swinging anything with both hands the dominant hand on top equals the highest precision and force. Be it Golf, using a two handed sword, a fishing rod, or an axe, or any two handed tool using a single handle for that matter. It's just the way our body works best naturally.

There is one exception to this rule though, although it has nothing to do with efficienty of the body. Your eyesight. When you use your dominant hand at the bottom, it means your non dominant side eye is dominant. In other words: Although you maybe left handed, your right eye is dominant. And to compensate for that you use your dominant hand at the bottom. Which equals less efficienty and power, because your adapting to an internal mismatch.

Easiest way to test this is to remove any type of vision improvements (glasses/lenses) and just placing a hand over each eye while looking at something. One usuallyproduces a clearer image then the other, but not always.

So as a whole: It's an internal dominance struggle within you body. And weirdly enough more found on lefties then on regulars.
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I'm right-handed and right-eye dominant, but left-foot dominant. When using something one-handed I'll use my right hand and right foot forward, but when using something two-handed I typically prefer to stand with my left foot forward and my left hand on top. This is often useful in two-handed work that allows me to use the left hand as a pivot and the right hand for steering, but even in cases where the upper hand provides the drive and the right hand is the pivot I find it overall preferable. A further complicating factor, I suppose! :p
 
Kevin, as you describe it, finally, I can only imagine you are standing at one side while reaching over to work on the opposite side
Kevin Houtzager said:
I'm always with the log on right side since it is a right sided axe.
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It can be done that way. What then is the function of the off set handle in that case? It would seem only to increase your stretch. Maybe I get too far ahead though. Is it the case you work the opposite side from where you stand?
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FortyTwoBlades said:
I'm right-handed and right-eye dominant, but left-foot dominant. When using something one-handed I'll use my right hand and right foot forward, but when using something two-handed I typically prefer to stand with my left foot forward and my left hand on top. This is often useful in two-handed work that allows me to use the left hand as a pivot and the right hand for steering, but even in cases where the upper hand provides the drive and the right hand is the pivot I find it overall preferable. A further complicating factor, I suppose! :p
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Yes it complicates it enough but very crucial getting the right stance, though I would not want to have the leg that is in line with the cutting edge positioned with any prominence either, a kind of self preservation posture.
 
Kevin Houtzager said:
Contrary to what you are saying, standing with left foot in front is actually balanced. Right foot forward would be kind of weird with 2 hands, but it can be usefull in tight situations where left foot forward would be impossible. Try looking at any form of martial arts for example: Right side dominant is always left forward. Left side dominant is right side forward. Counter balances the pendulum motion when striking or kicking, and by using the core of your body added strength because of the rotation.

It would be a different matter in a sport like soccer. If your right side dominant and kick the ball primairly with your left foot that would be ackward. But as far as I know that doesn't happen naturally, but can be learned.

So in all: Standing with your left foot forward if your right side dominant is perfectly normal
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Contrary? How is it contrary? Where did I say it was imbalanced? And no, not in every martial art--for unarmed that's the norm, yes, but NOT for sword/other single-handed striking weapon arts. It all depends on what you're trying to accomplish that decides which foot forward makes the most sense. When using an axe or machete I'm often changing my leading leg in accordance with the path the stroke is going to take, for the sake of safety and ergonomics, both.
 
Please, try to keep focused on the narrowest of conditions. Not gong-fu or jumping through the bush, much less bio metrics and physiology in the abstract unless you can relate it directly back to the topic at hand. I take this mild scolding as my prerogative as the initiator, of course laughing at myself all the way while doing it.
 
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Kevin Houtzager said:
Let me clarify: Contrary as in: Left foot forward doesn't mean you left foot is dominant. And your right, It should have said : Initial balance is left foot forward. See it like a starting position. Even unarmed it isn't the norm. It's actually quite the same as armed, except for one thing: Safety. Safety unarmed is your own safety for strikes from an opponent, saftey armed is your own safety for striking yourself ;) But all in all: Your perfectly fine with left foot forward ;) Thats what the contrary was for.
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Except I'm legitimately left-foot dominant. I wasn't saying that my left-foot-forward preference meant that I was left-foot dominant. You've got the effect and cause reversed; I'm saying that my left-foot dominance makes left-forward stances especially preferable to me. I get what you're saying, but it's not at all contrary. ;) I disagree with the rest of your above assertions, but that's for another thread.

All I was saying from the beginning was that it's not just an interplay of eye/hand dominance, but that foot dominance can also influence what work arrangement is most comfortable. Dependent on context, one or more of those factors may need to be overridden for the sake of the ergonomics of the most active working component, for safety, or both. :)
 
We can sum it up and return to our corners by accepting that being prescriptive on the level of generalization is nuts with no purpose since the variables involved are infinite. I tried to lay out an approach to a particular version of squaring-up in rational and concrete terms but somehow that never did get traction or at least reciprocity anyway up till this point.
 
At any rate, keep us posted as you move forward with the project! Should lead to some very handsome results.
 
No reciprocity yet. You are wrong about what the videos that YOU posted show. The second video clearly shows a broad axe with a short offset handle being used for final dressing or finished hewing. Nowhere do they show a long handled axe with a offset handle being used while standing on top of the log as you stated as the way to hew. As for your statement that short offset handled broad axes used standing beside the log to hew is a "new technique"; these short, offset, handled broad axes are shown in historic sketches from Diderot, Moxon, Hieronymus Wierix, and many others. You statement "knuckles banging on the wood makes no sense at all since it hardly ever happens". That may be true if all you hew is a log the size of a matchstick. Try hewing larger diameter logs and see what happens. Look at the historic film footage from 100 yrs ago on log hewing in northern Wisconsin that Square Peg was kind enough to post for me some time ago on this forum.

You are correct that there is a lot of speculation going on in this discussion, but not by me. I made my living for over 55 years using an axe every single day, I used axes in the restoration of approx. 500 log or timber framed historic buildings from New England, Appalachia, Southwest, West, Pacific Northwest, Alaska, and Hawaii (Koa wood log cabins about 45 min. from my house on the Big Island). Many of these structures were national treasures belonging to the National Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service so the original tooling marks on these historic structures had to be matched with the replacement logs or timbers. I personally did all the broadaxe, and adze work. Sorry to those of you who have heard this before. The other two professional hewers in my age bracket agree with me on this. It is not that I don't understand the difference between cultures and the techniques of hewing, I have had to replicate to match work done by the many cultures that make up America. What I am saying here is that a lot of what has been said by you here is not based in fact.
 
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Kevin Houtzager said:
And yes, there is a difference in hewing compared to felling.
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Which brings up another question. When swinging a full size axe for felling, bucking or chopping which hand do you place on the knob or swell of the axe? I place my dominant hand there, same as swinging a hammer or a broadaxe. It's just the natural way to use a tool.
 
I find this grip and position comfortable and efficient for a right-handed man.

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Since I prefer hewing top to bottom, once I finish one side I'll roll the timber over and hew the other side top to bottom in this same position.
 
Square_peg said:
I find this grip and position comfortable and efficient for a right-handed man.

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Since I prefer hewing top to bottom, once I finish one side I'll roll the timber over and hew the other side top to bottom in this same position.
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Have you tried a left handed axe?
 
You say, a felling and a bucking, Square_peg, and I do so little of this work, fun as it is, that it's not something that gets much thought, but isn't notching from a-top basically very similar? In that case for me too, I'm holding with my left hand - me being a lefty;) - at the end of the handle. Let's also not forget to mention it, very basic, that even when the chopping direction is reversed the grip configuration remains the same, right?

It strikes me in your pose how unified every element is, (except maybe the elevated platform), and because your using a long handle it exaggerates the situation illustrating well the principle of outside hand down, inside hand up. Can you imagine how awkward the reverse would look, feel and in fact be? Still with that said, you are choosing to position your inside foot forward and straddle the plane, or the lay-out line. It's interesting and I like the concept of centering the work but I guess it makes this complicated staging necessary which would be the only draw-back. I remember from long back in the archives the contributor, GreenPig - or something - posting over pictures which also struck me at the time as making much sense in terms of a similar posture.
 
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Good morning all. First of all, a guy can miss a lot of interesting conversation around if he's not paying attention :)

I really think it's interesting that some guys can effectively chop, hew, and buck with their dominant hand gripping the swell end of the axe as opposed to the shaft of the axe. I went out and grabbed an axe and tried to swing it over my right shoulder as I do when I chop and figure myself to be a hazard to myself or anyone in the close proximity. I tried the same grip and swung it over my left shoulder and it felt more natural - something I think I possibly could do with some practice.
Square_peg - is your natural swing over your left or right shoulder? Can you easily change grip without awkwardness? Only asking out of curiosity.
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Not having thought anything of which hand a guy grabs the swell with before, I found this reference while looking up "Handedness":
"Cross-dominance or Mixed-handedness is the change of hand preference between tasks." So, somewhat of a kind of a natural ambidexterity? I have always assumed left hand dominant people to be ambidextrous to a certain degree due to a lifetime of dealing with right handed tools and general set-up of the man-made world.

Ernest, I have several handles of the same tongue style/type (without offset) and have pondered flipping one upside down to handle a larger goosewing with a square eye. Of course this particular axe is designed with right-handed offset and is a much larger eye than the more classic narrowing socket of the ones I see you post and use.
Your handle and a smaller, tapered eye (to keep me on task)
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This is a Poor example but trying to illustrate my point of the handle potentially being flipped upside down.

Kevin mentioned balance but how much difference would it really make if you were to mount it as such - especially if the grip were then shortened? Meaning, in your case, having the bend then more along the lines of a left-handed offset but with the drop being on the underside of the handle as opposed to the upper portion? With an axe built with a smaller eye dimensions - could one mitigate the drop by reducing the material on the "drop side"?

Also, if your handle is not intended for a hewing axe then I guess the existing shape of the handle's tongue kind of dictates which way it gets hung?

*The handle in my picture was bought being billed as "German Military Surplus" and I think it is Beech but I haven't seen enough Beech to be sure. I do know there is a "Beech" of a runout in one of them...
 
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