The shape of the wedges remind me of a bayonet. I didn't pick up on it until the top of the handle was shown as a finished product. Not just a sharpened stick. He took some time shaping those wedges.
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Finnish/Earlier Scandi axes - Kirves
- Thread starter Agent_H
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The shape of the wedges remind me of a bayonet. I didn't pick up on it until the top of the handle was shown as a finished product. Not just a sharpened stick. He took some time shaping those wedges.
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Those wedges were my favorite part.
Bob
How does it look like this?
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Softwood wedge. It compressed against the "points" that were carved.
You would have to prove that to me...
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See the X shape that was carved? The wedge was driven with each of the flats against one of those points. I would bet money on the hollowing you see being from compression rather than from it having been carved with hollows.
I don't think you you can get that much compression with out some help.
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I've used poplar wedges that compressed by about 200% when driven in.
What convinced me was those two snake heads. Play hell getting my my wedges that deep on a hickory handle. No saw kerfs cut either. I wonder what wood the wedges and handle are made from.
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Chances are good it's a birch handle, but I bet the wedges are some kind of aspen/poplar.
"Alas, the bucksaw made its exit too soon. That video seemed to end rather abruptly. Was there originally more?"
At the end of the video the narrator said that the saw would be in the next episode.
There are 5 videos to this series but the only ones i could find online were this axe video and a video about sharpening a chainsaw.
At the end of the video the narrator said that the saw would be in the next episode.
There are 5 videos to this series but the only ones i could find online were this axe video and a video about sharpening a chainsaw.
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Those wedges were my favorite part.
I wonder how that would work out with a hickory handle?
Bob
I wonder that as well. Not sure if I could bring myself to do that to one made from hickory- maybe I guess. Now that I am thinking about it I will probably have to try it but maybe not completely dried hickory. I have some maple that might work for the attempt.
As I watch this video (and the other classic), I keep thinking that the dried wood I am using doesn't peel off with a knife at all like theirs. The dried hickory and ash I am using is too hard (or dry?) to just peel away like that - at least with anything edged that I own. Also, I noticed that before driving the wedges, the old meister had the handle sitting head down in a tub water? To soften it some? Since I dont speak Finnish (working at it lol) I missed the nuance of his instructions.
*Screen shot added:
That head he is hanging in your screenshots really does has a pretty good-sized conventional eye that can handle two of those snakehead wedges. Wouldnt that be a lot of hickory to fill that if that was the intended handle material? Cant picture two of those going into the eye of the traditional socket style axes one yes but two seems like it would end up a mess.
The pattern being more Americanized reminds me some of the axe at Olli's cabin:
So i went to our familys summer cottage today and took pictures of the Billnäs made American felling axe. Its called the Ohio pattern by Billnäs but since im not quite familiar with American style axes i dont know if this was something invented by Billnäs or if there really is such thing as Ohio pattern axe.
I would think his was an American axe if I wasnt told different at least compared to that one being hung in the video.
Also, Im curious about whether the epoxy can help date the axe more or less?
Thank you Olli! I was curious if there was more to that video or another episode. It plays a little like the late 50s or 60s public education videos here in the US. We have to keep in mind that you are 10hrs ahead of us if Im not mistaken.
Would a good translation of the title, Tehoa ja Terävyyttä be Efficacy and Sharpness or Efficiency and Sharpness?
I also noted that the title screen background had sawtooth patterns as a backdrop.
Another view of the wedges:
*Screenshot added
We also see him haft a Kemi. He bangs the ears/flanges down some before seating it:
and then again after seating it:
What we don't see is him wedging it - that doesn't mean he didn't of course but we never see that end of it clearly enough. There might be something in the Finnish narration that Olli can help us with
That Kemi handle also looks like there is maybe something stamped on it?
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I don't know if that is water or not, but it must of been hot because he sure got his fingers out of it in a big quick hurry.
I would think that soaking the handle in very hot water would soften the fibers so that they would bend as the wedge is driven in. Maybe similar to steaming a board prior to bending it.
Bob
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I tend to believe that also. It looks like he holds the wedge at the bottom of the eye then marks the wedge at the top of the handle before it is driven in. Of course I wouldn't know if he drives the wedge into the handle to the mark.
Bob
The narrator tells that the handle is softened by boiling hot water or by roasting it with pine tar.
That part got me thinking too about what problems making the handle wet could cause?
Other things to note that he told.
The wedges are made from dry and hard pine.
To American style axes there goes two wedges and to Finnish socketed axe just one.
The wedge that is nearest to the cutting edge should be allways put in first.
The grain orientation has to be the same in the wedges and the handle.
Good Degree for the bevel is 30. This is also pointed out in a traditional log building series on youtube by an old master.
Feel free to ask for any other translations.
That part got me thinking too about what problems making the handle wet could cause?
Other things to note that he told.
The wedges are made from dry and hard pine.
To American style axes there goes two wedges and to Finnish socketed axe just one.
The wedge that is nearest to the cutting edge should be allways put in first.
The grain orientation has to be the same in the wedges and the handle.
Good Degree for the bevel is 30. This is also pointed out in a traditional log building series on youtube by an old master.
Feel free to ask for any other translations.
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