Finnish/Earlier Scandi axes - Kirves

Why not learn from one who knows? The process s fascinating to watch and you get better results when you can stand there watching so it comes out the way you want. I can guarantee you there is a capable smid not too far from you there. On my first time in Finland even, I met a good one standing on the fish market in Helsinki, got a garlic cutter from him except to me it's a carving knife, he goes by the nameRoselli, maybe you know.
 
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Put the regular axe and hewing axe to work today, practicing on a short piece of stock, cutting to 6½" wide

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I could have done more refining but I think it's best to quit for the night while I am ahead, will do the other side and then the tops as well until I get a rectangular beam.
 
Ernest DuBois said:
Why not learn from one who knows? The process s fascinating to watch and you get better results when you can stand there watching so it comes out the way you want. I can guarantee you there is a capable smid not too far from you there. On my first time in Finland even, I met a good one standing on the fish market in Helsinki, got a garlic cutter from him except to me it's a carving knife, he goes by the nameRoselli, maybe you know.
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I know an amateur smith who might know how to do it. There are also some courses held nearby once or twice a year. If I need it I suppose I will have to attend, but if possible I prefer to work on my own with nobody around. I've never met Roselli, only knew it was a brand of axes.
 
I am not sure if everyone did the final scalloping with a piilu to be honest, I have looked at a lot of timbered buildings lately including one next to my parents place which is from the 1800s and not seen that. This area of Finland might be more swedish influenced than most though so maybe that is the reason.

I wanted to mention this is the video I have watched a dozen times by now, keep going back to it to watch specifics. It's what I base my own hewing process on

It is the hewing of a log using medieval methods and tools, for the renovation of a very old church.
 
There is the characteristic Finnish finish strictly made with piilukirves with the particular pattern. Even the newly constructed national cathedral in Helsinki center is entirely done in this way on the interior, officially staking a claim establishing the technique as part of Finnish identity, all politics aside. I doubt the French go so far in elevating their technique on the Norte Dame reconstruction, unfortunately.
 
Square_peg said:
Do you think this is from people striking it with steel hammers?
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I have my own suspicion, not backed up by a thing but there was a time of absolute rejection of these tools and techniques as anachronistic and backwards. Then in another time these curiosities were around but their purposes and value lost to general consciousness, only a suggestion remaining. It looks like a thing you might be able to split your firewood with, an odd sort of maul, but the mechanics are all wrong. To cave in the socket like that wouldn't even take a hammer, though the signs say some were subject to just such treatment, a wooden club would as easily do a number.
 
...the consequence of the resumption is clear to see, as I wrote earlier, in its use to create the effect on already machined timbers. I see it as a bit tragic in fact.
 
Some followup photos, I hewed three logs as planned. This was the last one:

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Every log was faster to hew than the one before it. I was starting to get the proper swing and aiming accuracy more and more. Eventually I started getting the proper hewing pattern (not the piilu pattern however, to achieve that I need another axe with a different grind ideally) with a relatively smooth surface and diagonal cut lines running along the hewn face. Part of the trick was to, as I swung the axe downwards, to pull it towards me as well to create a slicing motion.

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I've seen this pattern a lot, more than I see the piilu scallopping, but I did find examples of that here and there during this summer when I was in Kristinestad, which is a city with lots of old houses.

It also got a lot easier physically speaking, as your skill improves you stop tensing and stop using your muscles to guide your swing, which is very tiring, when your skill level improves you throw the axe knowing it will hit where you intend to (8 out of 10 for me at the moment) then you remain more relaxed and become much less fatiqued.

This is how to move a log easily, put this dolly near the middle and you can easily wheel it to whereever you want it
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I used a pair of strap winches to get the beams in place, all the beams are now in place
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And using my small billnäs axe, suitable for fitting the rafters where they stood proud, in the picture I had the opposite issue though:
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I always say, from conviction, rafters are the most sensible contemporary use for hewn work. Purlins would be the second most sensible.
 
Wow,Dennis,you're getting Really good...love those marks,they're some quality finish for wood on the interior of the place...

I won't be using many beams on present construction,only the main cross-beam,and a handful of loft supports,and certainly won't be able to hand-hew them...

Dennis,if you've ever considered a (working)vacation in Alaska,let me know!:)

https://imgur.com/vga3Zgg
 
DennisCA said:
Hewn the first log on all sides
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Nice job, but just in case you are not aware, this type of thick blade Piilu-axe is not actually meant for squaring logs even though it can be done with it like you show. Better suited Piilu is long thin blade and often with asymmetric sharpening. For example Billnäs 30.1-30.3
 
tiikeri1 said:
Nice job, but just in case you are not aware, this type of thick blade Piilu-axe is not actually meant for squaring logs even though it can be done with it like you show. Better suited Piilu is long thin blade and often with asymmetric sharpening. For example Billnäs 30.1-30.3
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Ernest DuBois said:
Seeing these photos reminds me that I never saw an exhibition of piiluing from logs, only veneering processed timbers for the effect. So odd.
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Thanks for your conformation tiikeri.
 
Wonderful axe,Veeteetee,thanks for those pictures.

A funky question for you (and any other Suomi correspondents we may have on here): Is there in Finland a "standard" of any sort for an acceptable degree of wear of an axe blade?

Not for the Piiluja,or any other specialized tool,but say your regular household Kirves,as in at which point the axe was to be taken to be re-bladed?

I'm thinking in terms of that tin pattern plate that square-peg has kindly posted in the past of a general profile on an American felling axes,was there a more/less universal idea of even the approx. angle of convergence of bevels?

The reason i'm asking is that many older Kirveita available in the US,coming from Finnish ebay or other sources),are pretty badly worn. Many will not function as a chopping tool any longer,one can tell that if the available photos are explicit enough. (Toe wear in particular).

So was there maybe a simple,ubiquitous template sort of a tool,in the past,to offer up the blade to?
 
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