Hewing with a Masting Axe

O

Oxbow

Joined
Feb 5, 2015
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94
Took my recently hung masting axe out to try hewing with it. I felled this bigtooth poplar yesterday. The little stretch already hewn in this picture I did with my felling axe yesterday.
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I didn't bring a chalkline with me, I wanted to try hewing backwards and trying to eyeball things. I do plan on using this timber in a planned toolshed, but I don't really care too much if there is some major ugly axe work.
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There is definitely a big learning curve to using this axe properly. I'm going to use it some more and see if I get better. Right now the axe is biting in way too much and leaving a very hacked up surface. This is most likely due to my technique, and I was definitely forcing the cuts too much in the beginning. By the end I had loosened up a bit and was possibly getting an idea of the right rhythm, but you can see the cowboy-rough finish I ended up leaving.
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I'm a little frustrated that I couldn't figure out how to clean this up without just digging in further. It is most likely my technique, I am not the God of Hewing. But I am also wondering if the bevel angle needs to be dropped a bit as well. I pretty much left the angle the same as it was when I got the axe.

In any case, it was nice to be outside. Closest thing to a mild day we've had in a long while. Sunny, 20 degrees and calm. I am pleased that I was able to get this axe working again. Most likely the first wood it has tasted since long before I was born.
 
Oxbow said:
Right now the axe is biting in way too much and leaving a very hacked up surface. This is most likely due to my technique, and I was definitely forcing the cuts too much in the beginning.
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What does the bit of that axe look like? Is it single bevel or double bevel.
 
I don't know anything about anything when it comes to this, i have never done it, but- videos that I have seen show an almost 90 degree downward motion, cross grain. Maybe this would help as it would not sink in and follow the grain as it looks like is happening to you when you come in at 45 degrees or better. Try coming almost straight down?
 
Square_peg said:
What does the bit of that axe look like? Is it single bevel or double bevel.
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Single Bevel
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When I hew with my more standard broad axe I usually do hew more cross grain than this, but it felt very awkward to do that with the super long bit. It puts a funny leverage on the handle. It was much easier to coming down at 45-50 degrees or so. It may just be a learning to drive thing. Also, I just set this up on top of the snow with bucked ends of the log on both ends. I've always hewn before a bit higher off the ground, but I don't have the equipment to get this log out with all the snow in the hayfield. There is a lot of drifts along the field edge, most places its waist deep to knee deep. So I don't know, it was still fun. I'll keep working at it.

The log dog I made myself. There was an old board silo attached to my barn at one time and the staves are mild steel bar stock around 5/8ths or so. Did a very amateur job forging the tapers and bending it. A good log dog has nice square corners, but I don't own an anvil or a post vice so most of my forge work is super primitive.
 
Great stuff Oxbow. Appreciate the pictures and the write up. Never hewed a beam myself. In my youth I remember logdogs in corners of out-buildings and garages. Something tells me a lot of them were recycled over the years because people forgot/de-valued what they were. A lot of gear was mistreated with the advent of automation in lumber processing.

Asked my Dad if he had one from the shop full of stuff after my grandfather's passing. He said after the estate sale there were a couple (after showing him this post) that ended up being recycled/hauled off as trash. He didn't recognize what they were. Shame.

Anyway, thanks for the great post. Square_peg has a pretty neat post on hewing here someplace that is also a good read.
 
Oxbow said:
. . .
The log dog I made myself. There was an old board silo attached to my barn at one time and the staves are mild steel bar stock around 5/8ths or so. Did a very amateur job forging the tapers and bending it. A good log dog has nice square corners, but I don't own an anvil or a post vice so most of my forge work is super primitive.
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Thanks for the reply. Understand about the "nice square corners". Recently watched a video of a guy making a pair of log dogs demonstrating how to forge those corners. Of course he was an experienced smith with a dedicated shop, large forge and about every blacksmithing tool known to man ten times over.:) Like that you repurposed some metal with limited tools to make an effective log dog.
 
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Pictures that I have seen show the axmen above and centered over the timber. The log was laid between 2 planks.
 
Oxbow said:
Single Bevel
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When I hew with my more standard broad axe I usually do hew more cross grain than this, but it felt very awkward to do that with the super long bit. It puts a funny leverage on the handle.
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That might be result of the offset handle more than the long bit. The weight is off center and it applies a rotational force to the haft. It probably wants to twist counter clockwise in your hand. There are ways to combat this. First, leave the haft tall and narrow in the area before the swell. This gives your hand more leverage to counteract the rotational force. Second you can add friction tape or hockey tape to the grip to help out.

As for the digging in, it helps considerably to hew from top to bottom of the tree. This way the grain is coming to the surface. When I hew I'll work down one side of the log like this and then rotate the log 180° so I can work the other side in the same top-to-bottom fashion.
 
Thanks oxbow, for these photos as you rekindled my memories of Grandfather hewning logs of oak to build a granary. He knew how to set a dog as well.
His tools are all gone for good. DM
 
jblyttle said:
I don't know anything about anything when it comes to this, i have never done it, but- videos that I have seen show an almost 90 degree downward motion, cross grain. Maybe this would help as it would not sink in and follow the grain as it looks like is happening to you when you come in at 45 degrees or better. Try coming almost straight down?
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JB's reply strikes me as dead on. You want the log up off the ground where you can strike almost directly downward - you want to be hewing across the grain. Rough it out with the grain then clean it up across.

On a related note, was a masting axe for making masts? Or just general ship work? I mean, are masts round? Presumably the long bit had a specific function where it would be beneficial rather than cumbersome.
 
I'm going to vote for hewing at about a 45 degree angle. When you swing perfectly gross grain, you risk grain tear out at the sides of the beam, depending on the species. Think about how you use a hand plane... typically in a skew motion, where the angle of the blade is at about 45 degrees. I have done it every way imaginable, and this seems to work best for me.

Then again, I've never hewed with a masting axe.
 
Well, I read up a bit more on this type of axe. Very useful information on Mike Beaudry's Blog. I decided that either when I was cleaning up the axe to get down below the pitting, or the last guy to use this axe, the bit ended up profiled too flat and too square. Looking at Mike Beaudry's axes the bits are much more curved. And the camber on the flat cheek of my axe was very slight. So I relieved the corners slightly to increase the curve on the bit as a whole and to create a bit of a camber on the flat. Dramatically improved my results when combined with Square_peg's suggestion to hew towards the butt.

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Oxbow said:
Well, I read up a bit more on this type of axe. Very useful information on Mike Beaudry's Blog. I decided that either when I was cleaning up the axe to get down below the pitting, or the last guy to use this axe, the bit ended up profiled too flat and too square. Looking at Mike Beaudry's axes the bits are much more curved. And the camber on the flat cheek of my axe was very slight. So I relieved the corners slightly to increase the curve on the bit as a whole and to create a bit of a camber on the flat. Dramatically improved my results when combined with Square_peg's suggestion to hew towards the butt.

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Nice Job !
 
By camber on the flat side, do you mean a small bevel like the heel on a graver to keep it from slicing in too much?

Whatever you did, the results look much better! Good job sticking with it and thanks for the update!
 
BG_Farmer said:
By camber on the flat side, do you mean a small bevel like the heel on a graver to keep it from slicing in too much?

Whatever you did, the results look much better! Good job sticking with it and thanks for the update!
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I had to look up gravers, but no that is not what I mean. When I say camber, I'm trying to describe a curvature to the flat. If you lay a single bevel axe down on the flat cheek on a flat surface and look straight at the edge the center of the bit should be in contact and the rest of the bit should very gradually lift off the surface till the corners are well up above the surface at least an 1/8th of an inch or so. If you combine that with the center of the bit being forward of the corners as well, it means that when the axe is in use the corners almost never cut wood, at least when you are getting down to the finished surface.

The problem with this axe I decided was the corners were too prominent and kept digging in and hacking up the work. I pulled them back and away a bit and the axe was lots easier to control.
 
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