Fine Axe Woodworking


Accept the invitation to consider your pre-determined limitations in any work with wood done with axes. Some members may have been impressed by the film once posted up here of a wooden house being built by Russian carpenters in some remote region. It seemed for every aspect of the construction there was some direct involvement of an axe, inclusive the by no means frugal finish carpentry.
 
Just trying to fit in with the younger crowd, sorry.

Parker

I won't be holding against you anyway.
On the other thread you're going on and on about getting handle wood from the lumber yard. Is it unusual to get wood like that from such a place? After scrounging, salvaging, perhaps even poaching:rolleyes:, going to the lumber yard or sawmill would be my choice even before the hardware store and definitely the box store for something ready made. I do guess maybe for some though such a source could be intimidating.
Thinking about it some, these methods are probably an anachronism when it's all on-line now.
Keep up the adventurous pursuits.
 
It’s not all online yet, a few of us anachronites still doing it analog, or even dinosaur style.

This is a wood broker for the custom cabinet and furniture trades, not just your average lumberyard. Most of their stock is high class stuff at high class prices, some exotics. It moves pretty fast, so if something there catches your eye, hammer down on it. Won’t be there next time.

Parker
 
So, in a return to Fine Axe Woodworking😙, on the last of the panels I caught a bit of the process going in. The object is of course to waste wood fast while at the same time reducing the amount of plane work required in order to maintain as sharp an edge as possible for as long as possible. Once the parameter gets extablished by kerfing the boundaries of the panel's field the first work is to reduce the wood of the bevels at both ends across the grain so any blowout at the far reaches gets taken care of in subsequent material removal. It's a standard rule of thumb to work first across grain and then parallel with it. Difficult grain can be brought under control with scoring when needed.
Of course axe work is generally rough work
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For refinement we turn to our planes, well tuned card scrapers and very light sanding.
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OK DO, thanks for that, though the final outcome remains to be seen and who knows what pitfalls lay ahead to increase the risks of successful finalization . So far in the installation, so good🤞and with the molded trim and deck pieces yet to come, ( or better to say, underway😉), no doubt more axe action's a comin' before all is said and done.
 
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Fine looking work.
Are you raising your panels with a plow plane or a router?

I wouldn't advise this process as a structural approach for doing this type of job. It's fine in a pinch, say when your full array of tools is spread out and not accessible, for example, or, on the other hand, when you just want a bit of fun.
A router is conventional and does a great job but then you are looking at a bit of around 200€, not to mention that then,of course, you're obligated to use your router.
I prefer this little skew angle block rabbit plane, it's even got a neat nicker for the cross-grain.
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Plus I've also got some very handy self-made planes suitable for making the work most enjoyable.
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I prefer this little skew angle block rabbit plane, it's even got a neat nicker for the cross-grain
Thanks. I recently acquired a full set of blades for my old wooden plow plane. It doesn't have a nicker. I'm concerned about working cross grain and am planning to buy a scribing gauge.
 
Yes, the skewed angle, effectively lowering the bevel angle, makes a smoother cut when working across the grain.
One way or the other way you'll have to score your cross grain cuts.
 
Yes, the skewed angle, effectively lowering the bevel angle, makes a smoother cut when working across the grain.
It has bearing on another aspect more common in axe work, namely squaring up timbers or hewing. It seems to me there are a number of techniques incorporating various anglings of the cutting edge when doing the final hewing passes. For example, on the one hand the typical Japanese way, to hew straight on and parallel with the grain. Maybe even more extreme is the archaic Scandinavian method of glepphogging - or is it sletthogging, I forget which one alters direction - since in this way direction alters either side of the pith, (what are the insights actuating this method).While at the same time in a typical German fashion almost the complete opposite approach is used, that is to say, the cutting edge and striking action perpendicular to the dominant grain direction, or, cutting across the grain. Well, anyway the relation of the edge angle to the dominant grain direction being the relevant variable, we could ask why such disparate approaches. We have so, | so, / and so __ .
 
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