Dropping a pine by hand+Hewing (pics N vids)

Sparrow92 said:
What?!? someone must have pressed the wrong button by mistake. :-/

Thanks for posting these videos - I'll watch 'em sometime soon. It's good to know that at least some of us on the Axe forum are actually getting out there and using axes! :)
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Eh--I'm with G-pig on this one. If you're not peeving off at least one person on the internet you're doing something wrong. It's one of those backwards immutable laws of the web. :D :D :D

I'll be honest--I don't often have a strong need for an axe around the homestead as we only have a relatively small stand of trees to play with at the edge of our rented 2 acres. I usually use an Estwing Rigger's Axe for various wood-based fix-it projects. For me it's the farm version of a crating hatchet. :p Most of my chopping work is done with a variety of machetes.
 
I actually went back and disabled comments on the felling videos. Youtube is not a place where I want input from. You could cut a tree down flawlessly and someone would still be a dinkweed about it. If a tree falls on me and kills me, its my own fault.
 
G-pig said:
I actually went back and disabled comments on the felling videos. Youtube is not a place where I want input from. You could cut a tree down flawlessly and someone would still be a dinkweed about it. If a tree falls on me and kills me, its my own fault.
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Aw c'mon! There are millions of "experts" that want to help you! :D :D :D
 
Square_peg said:
I really enjoyed your hewing video. That's a good sharp axe you have there.
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The second axe (3 pound Spiller) had some problems biting too deep-- despite being a Maine pattern with good flare to the cheeks, it would sink about 2/3rds of the way to the eye. took a little wiggling to get it back out, but im used to that cutting Pine.
 
The timber I started hewing is almost done. Some more footage of juggling with a little Walters axe and hewing with a friend's Snow & Nealley tie hacking axe (works great for hewing, since thats what they were for).

[video=youtube;aY_0XD0b3aQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY_0XD0b3aQ&feature=youtu.be[/video]

[video=youtube;OSc5DdvslV8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSc5DdvslV8&feature=youtu.be[/video]
 
To your hewing all I have to say is, great job, that's beautiful!
But the way you chopped the juggles off sorta confuses me… I guess it's because I learned to chop them lengthwise along the log; not using the same motion as hewing per se. For instance, compare your chopping technique at 0.48 and 1.01; chopping from the side generally splits the juggles off much easier and faster than using the typical hewing swing. Try it, and tell me if it doesn't work better! =)
 
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Sparrow92 said:
To your hewing all I have to say is, great job! you sure know how to hew logs! But the way you chopped the juggles off sorta confuses me… I guess it's because I learned to chop them lengthwise along the log; not using the same motion as hewing per se. For instance, compare your chopping technique at 0.48 and 1.01; chopping from the side generally splits the juggles off much easier and faster than using the typical hewing swing. Try it, and tell me if it doesn't work better! =)
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I had a video of knocking the juggles of from on top of the timber in the same way you describe, but knocked the camera over. I use both regularly. I think Mike Beaudry of Maine uses the same technique a lot of times, all using a double beveled axe (never worked with him or met him, just remember seeing him chopping that way). I never paid much attention to which works better, ill have to test it more. a lot of times I split wood the same way, while its laying on it's side without hitting the end grain.

Should specify, Beaudry uses a double beveled hewing axe, with a real wide face, not just a felling axe or what have ya.
 
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G-pig said:
I had a video of knocking the juggles of from on top of the timber in the same way you describe, but knocked the camera over. I use both regularly. I think Mike Beaudry of Maine uses the same technique a lot of times, all using a double beveled axe (never worked with him or met him, just remember seeing him chopping that way). I never paid much attention to which works better, ill have to test it more. a lot of times I split wood the same way, while its laying on it's side without hitting the end grain.

Should specify, Beaudry uses a double beveled hewing axe, with a real wide face, not just a felling axe or what have ya
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Actually you probably have way more experience hew than I do, so I shouldn't be telling you what to try!
In fact Mike uses both double and single beveled hewing axes (he also has a beautiful John Neeman axe); this I can vouch for, since I've watched him use both. (I met him at the Common Ground Country Fair in Unity, ME.)
I never got very good at splitting wood lying on it's side, haven't had much practice though.
 
Great video! I think it likely that the old pros probably used both techniques as made most sense for the situation at hand.
 
You're getting a very nice surface with that broad axe. Great video.

When juggling I like to stand on top of the log make my blows impact lengthwise on the juggle rather than from top to bottom. Top to bottom blows will sometimes chip out the bottom of the timber. End blows stop that from happening.
 
Square_peg said:
You're getting a very nice surface with that broad axe. Great video.

When juggling I like to stand on top of the log make my blows impact lengthwise on the juggle rather than from top to bottom. Top to bottom blows will sometimes chip out the bottom of the timber. End blows stop that from happening.
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In some of the videos of scoring, you might noticed that I don't clean out the bottom if the juggle to try to get it down to the line. Thats because there is no line in the bottom. I lay out the box, snap a line for the two planes I will be hewing before turning the log, and intentionally hew them angled outward away from the log to prevent over hewing on the bottom. I cant see the bottom chalk line from on top of the log anyway, so it does nothing to prevent over scoring or hewing until I flip the log, which is exactly the next step. one its flipped, I snap lines and cut to them on the opposite side, and hew the wood between the top and bottom which projects further out because of the angled cutting (you'll notice most of the waste coming from the middle due to the convex shape from top to bottom). on this last beam, I only cut over the line more than a centimeter or two in a couple of spots.

By under scoring the bottom, it prevents tearing out past the line as well. if things start splitting, I stop and sever the fibers on each side before it gets out of hand. A certain amount isn't of much concern because of the extra margin of error I give myself.

Weird technique, but it works pretty well for me to make regular timbers.
 
G-pig said:
...... and intentionally hew them angled outward away from the log to prevent over hewing on the bottom.

By under scoring the bottom, it prevents tearing out past the line as well. if things start splitting, I stop and sever the fibers on each side before it gets out of hand. A certain amount isn't of much concern because of the extra margin of error I give myself.

Weird technique, but it works pretty well for me to make regular timbers.
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Makes perfect sense. Interesting technique. I'll have to give it a try.
 
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