Hewing with a Masting Axe

Oxbow said:
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Think of the money and time you're saving:)! Nice work.
 
I was going to recommend cambering the bit, but you already did it! Some people faint at the idea of a camber, especially on plane irons-- it's kind of funny. But on a timber dressing tool, a camber is pretty much a must, and is a big part of a hewing axe that is a joy to use and not a drudgery.
 
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BG_Farmer said:
Think of the money and time you're saving:)! Nice work.
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Well, I am saving cash. But I would have a hard time saying this saves time over using dimensional lumber :) It's a great way to get out and really use your axes, and get a feel for them. After all of this, I don't love using this masting axe. I do love my masting axe, and I will not part with it, but it isn't my favorite axe to hew with. I doubt it will ever be.
 
Oxbow said:
Well, I am saving cash. But I would have a hard time saying this saves time over using dimensional lumber :) It's a great way to get out and really use your axes, and get a feel for them. After all of this, I don't love using this masting axe. I do love my masting axe, and I will not part with it, but it isn't my favorite axe to hew with. I doubt it will ever be.
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Tongue in cheek! Half the year, I spend about 10 or so hours a week with axes doing things a chainsaw could do in small percentage of the time. Worse, I make my son help... We enjoy ourselves immensely :). The other half of the year, we make hay with scythes for fun. No need to explain yourself to me!
 
Have finally gotten some of these beams out of the woods, my Dad and I are slowly getting the joinery done. I guess we are more are less using "scribe rule" although I've not been able to find a lot of information about the exact process. Most of the modern timber framing books assume sawn timbers to dimension and layout the joinery using square rule or mill rule. We've ended up building the frame and assembling it on the ground to measure for the braces. There is probably a good way to do this without horsing the timbers around so much but having so much live edge on the horizontal timbers complicates the brace joinery. For us it seemed like the only way to do it and get them to fit was to make the braces and then mark the locations for the brace mortices or lay-out the mortices and then measure for the length braces they'd need. We are doing a little of both.
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this is very interesting thread. glad to see progress on the structure.
thanks for the blog link.
buzz
 
We have been making some more progress getting the braces fit. More and more, it seems like the best procedure is to decide on the brace position, lay out and cut the brace mortices, and then measure for the brace length and make the braces last. This seems to result in the least amount of fiddling around after the fact trimming the braces over and over.

When a timber is curved and/or the brace mortice has to fit into live edge, we've been snapping a parallel chalk line on the morticed timber and then running a 45 degree string-line from the opposite mortice location to find the approximate location for the mortice. Then we cut down into the live edge to establish a flat for cutting the mortice. It ends up being partially housing the brace, which at least looks like it gives additional surface area for the brace when its in compression. Its really unlikely that this would actually matter since the braces we are putting in are way oversized for the size of this shed. The braces are all made from limbs etc that were too small to make timbers out of from the trees the timbers came from, so they didn't cost anything.

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Oxbow, I always found it easy to do layout if everything was set level (and plumb). Then you can lay down your joint lines using a level. When replacing bad logs in a historic log cabin, I level the new replacement log on the trestles before cutting the notches for the same reason.
Your project looks very good. I can't wait to see the finished building.

I think this forum should have a thread that members can show not only their axes and other tools but, like you, what they are making with the tools.--WHAT DID YOU HEW TODAY ?
 
My dad and I finally have gotten around to raising this shed. This past week I dug holes and poured the little pads for support beneath the posts. I dug down about 36 inches and filled them with field gravel. Then I poured little square foot pads. I built the forms out of scrap 2x6 and I should have cut them shallower. The forms ended up taking 5 bags of concrete and coming up just a bit shy on the last form, so shallower pads would have saved me some money and aggravation.
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The actual raising went extremely smoothly to Dad and my surprise. We were able to get the entire project done in about 4 hours even with all the help from my daughters. I decided to bolt the joints together with 3/8ths hex head bolts rather than tree nail pegs because I am likely to move this shed from this location in the next decade or so, and I wanted an easier way to disassemble it than the pegs.
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The only bit of difficulty came when we were putting on the top plates. The tenons on the tops of the posts were splayed out longer than the mortices on the top plates. We had to use a ratchet strap to pull them in together. This exposed some wonkyness in our construction because the act of pulling the southeastern corner post in to get the plate on lifted the bottom of the post off the pad. With everything bolted together that post is still a bit over an inch off the pad.
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I am not going to worry about it. I plan on putting in duckbill type anchors on the four corners and attaching the cable to the posts with a turnbuckle. This should suck that floating post back to earth I expect.

All in all, a very satisfying raising day for this shed project. I hope you guys like the pics.
 
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