My first collection photo - Need advice about felling axe.

That explains it, on a good day when it's green, locust is a hard a$$ wood, it is the only one that I won't cut with an axe unless absolutely necessary. I have seen it cause the metal to throw sparks,and roll the bit of one of my dads beater axes, this is especially the case when seasoned.
 
Ya, Axe Nut it is a little on the hard side. Very drought tolerant and will grow in most places. I think it was planted here for fence posts mostly. Not so easy to drive a fencing staple into it though. I wouldn't even attempt to chop it seasoned. It's not indigenous to this state. Mountain mahogany is our hardest wood, harder than black locust even. My GB hatchets have not had a problem with it.
 
garry3 - yes, mostly woodworking. Thanks for the tips on weight and cheeks.

square_peg - thanks for the tip about using a narrow bit for hardwood

ernest, - only the broad axe is left bevel. The GB carving is right bevel and everything else is dual bevel. I use the large Swedish carving axe for precise, yet large stock removal. Mostly in log construction joints, but also in other stock removal where the GB carging axe would take too many strikes. I'm still learning how to use it, but I do like it very much. I was going to pickup a GB scanadavian felling axe, but I am not averse to north american design.

jpeeler - the broad axe is a nicely shaped/weighted bit, but I am going to replace the haft. For hewing logs, the straight, short handle means your knuckles are going to be bandaged up fairly quickly. A bent handle would work nicely for hewing logs, but not a very large bend, so it remains useful for other purposes. Perhaps a little longer handle to accommodate various double hand positions. I will experiment.

bbforst - yes, the saw back cut technique is always employed when I need a controlled fall. There is a great video on youtube about how to compensate for uneven crowns and choose your cut positions for a precise fall

Looks like the consensus is in the 3-3 1/2 lb range bit, 30-36" handle, narrow bit with some meat on the cheeks....the way I like my women ;)

I am going to pickup a vintage american bit or two, because I am also starting to create my own hafts. But I don't think I will be able to resist picking up a Scandinavian felling axe as well. I think 2-3 felling axes would cover all my felling needs. Then again, I originally said 2-3 axes would cover all my needs. Little did I know the addiction that I started :D

Thanks for the tips everyone, I will post back what I pickup.

Here is the shagbark hickory tree I fell this past spring, which is now seasoning outside. This was a remote location and I had to haul 3-4 foot 60-70lb sections out on my shoulder. My intent was to keep the log attached to the stump, so I could leap-frog saw horses underneath as I cut off each section. Dropping a large tree on the forest floor that needs to be sawed is a mistake you only make once. :confused: I took this down with the wetterlings bushcraft axe and a bow saw.
tree.jpg
 
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I will speculate on the broad axe because there is no telling what the ones who determined its form at Wetterlings had in mind. In general throughout Scandinavia hewing as we might think of it was done with a double beveled axe, sometimes hung symmetrically sometimes with the handle sweeping slightly off to one side or the other. Much off-set was not needed in the handles of these axes because the bevel angle also provided for clearance when the swinging was down low. There was a case where the primary axe used had a single bevel and fairly straight cutting edge, and that was in the production of spar rafters which was something of an industry in Sweden and the Baltic countries, Latvia, Estonia... for export mainly to Brittan and Holland. This Wetterlings axe with the basic T form probably was inspired in one way or the other by these axes known as sparrbila used in trimming these small diameter trees more or less square. The work was done with the stems laid up at a pitch and not horizontal and the cuts made from above so there was no need for the handle to be off-set.The length of the blade was always beyond the edges of the plane of the surface produced so there was only ever a portion of the cutting edge engaged in cutting on any one chop which is why the edge profile could be essentially straight even though this Wetterlings broadaxe has a fairly curved edge profile. Still, I think this could explain something about the form of this Wetterlings broadaxe.

E.DB.
 
Seasoned locust is miserable to work with. I have had 20 penny nails dance into S shapes on seasoned 1" thick boards.

Bill
 
Ernest, interesting background information. I've been browsing through the antique market here in Canada and have found many large broad axes with the type of bit you described (large/straight). The largest and straightest bits all had straight handles. Perhaps there were used in the manner which you describe. I purchased the wetterlings broad axe because I got an irresistible deal on ebay ($150). Whereas, I would like to purchase the GB broad axe with offset handle for my hewing needs. But your information has got me thinking about trying some of those large broad axes with straight bits. I am new to log construction, so my skills are still primitive, as is my knowledge of hewing techniques. Most of my construction process will use unhewed logs. But there is a need for hewed logs, such as floor joists.
 
The GB 1900 Broad axe is a great axe, and similar in dimension to the Wetterlings. I love mine, and prefer it to the larger, single bevel patterns. Likewise to you, Craft, I got my GB of the Bay for a little over $200, instead of the $300 they normally go for. Just keep looking, one will come up!
 
Ya, Axe Nut it is a little on the hard side. Very drought tolerant and will grow in most places. I think it was planted here for fence posts mostly. Not so easy to drive a fencing staple into it though. I wouldn't even attempt to chop it seasoned. It's not indigenous to this state. Mountain mahogany is our hardest wood, harder than black locust even. My GB hatchets have not had a problem with it.
Click to expand...

a friend of mine recently majorly rolled/chipped about the first half inch on his ox-head racing axe on some seasoned curl-leaf mountain mahogany in the salmon breaks.

on an aside, did you know that somewhere in the salmon river ranger district, there is a mountain mahogany with a DBH of 48"?
 
Here's a small piece of mountain mahogany I got from somebody working trees out in that general region.





I've been saving it all these yours for, I don't know, something.

E.DB.
 
that color is really rich. it would sure make some great wooden mallets, if you just wanted to take advantage of its hardness.
 
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