Which type do jacks use more often for felling trees,

hank_rearden

hank_rearden

Joined
Jun 7, 2002
Messages
3,410
broad axe or two-edged cruiser?
broad_axe.jpg

Double-bit-Throwing-Axe.png
 
Lumberjacks never used broad axes for felling. Those are for hewing. And that little double bit looks like it's made for throwing.

Lumberjacks used a felling axe - either single or double bit. And they were more concerned with how it worked than with how it looked or who made it.
 
The double bit he is showing is common in Europe. I have a friend in the U.K. He has a nice collection of axes. I sent him a Kelly Perfect double bit about a year ago. He was thrilled with it and did a photo and story about it on a U.K. Bushcraft forum. He titled it "An American Axe in British Hands". Our common double bits are very rare in Europe. The only double bit he had, before the Kelly was very similar to the one posted above.

Tom
 
Us "Jacks" use an American style double bit for felling and single bits.

KellyDoublebits4lbers006.jpg


Plumb5LbDayton005.jpg


A Puget Sound was used for BIG pines and redwoods.

KellyBeforeAfterwirecupbrush012.jpg


Tom
 
"Used" rather than "use." Falling trees with an axe came to an end for the pros back in the early 1950's. Chains saws rule the woods.
 
I was led to believe that two man saws made felling axes obsolete already in the late 1800s. Much faster to use and much less waste. The feller-bunchers (huge diesel powered tree harvesting machines) and harvest operations I witnessed in British Columbia 35 years ago didn't even feature axes anywhere except maybe as emergency kit to force a door or window or to untangle things.
 
300Six said:
I was led to believe that two man saws made felling axes obsolete already in the late 1800s. Much faster to use and much less waste. The feller-bunchers (huge diesel powered tree harvesting machines) and harvest operations I witnessed in British Columbia 35 years ago didn't even feature axes anywhere except maybe as emergency kit to force a door or window or to untangle things.
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Not in the least, no. Even with the crosscuts doing the undercut and the felling cut, the axe was still used to knock out the chips in the directional notch. When saws came into the woods, bucking was no longer done with axes, so maybe that's what you were thinking of.
 
For what it's worth, my local loggers supply stocks primarily Council tool Dayton patterns up to 6 pounds with mostly straight handles.
 
Alocksly said:
For what it's worth, my local loggers supply stocks primarily Council tool Dayton patterns up to 6 pounds with mostly straight handles.
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Same with my local loggers supply. I can't imagine swinging one of those 6-pounders for long. I suspect guys just buy them as a macho thing. Or as splitters.
 
Square_peg said:
Same with my local loggers supply. I can't imagine swinging one of those 6-pounders for long. I suspect guys just buy them as a macho thing. Or as splitters.
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I think they usually use them for driving wedges more than anything else.
 
As a side note "cruiser" axes were made for timber cruisers. A cruiser was basically a surveyor who would "cruise" an area of timber and estimate the value. He had to cut through branches and also needed an axe to test trunks for soundness or rot. Since he was hiking through brush most of his day and he didn't need an axe for felling he carried an one with a shorter handle that was easier to carry hence the shorter "cruiser axe". There's a company in Seattle that still makes waxed canvas "cruiser" jackets that wear like armor and are not lightweight or breathable but are just the thing if you spend your day shoving through brush and thorns. After 100 years they're still popular among forestry workers and land surveyors.

edit: Double Ott is spot on with his examples (though he would be hard pressed to locate a redwood or large pine around Puget Sound, might have better luck with a doug fir or cedar.)
 
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Alocksly said:
As a side note "cruiser" axes were made for timber cruisers. A cruiser was basically a surveyor who would "cruise" an area of timber and estimate the value. He had to cut through branches and also needed an axe to test trunks for soundness or rot. Since he was hiking through brush most of his day and he didn't need an axe for felling he carried an one with a shorter handle that was easier to carry hence the shorter "cruiser axe". There's a company in Seattle that still makes waxed canvas "cruiser" jackets that wear like armor and are not lightweight or breathable but are just the thing if you spend your day shoving through brush and thorns. After 100 years they're still popular among forestry workers and land surveyors.

edit: Double Ott is spot on with his examples (though he would be hard pressed to locate a redwood or large pine around Puget Sound, might have better luck with a doug fir or cedar.)
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There is a fair amount of natural Ponderosa down around Ft. Lewis and redwoods have been planted in many lawns and parks. R.A. Long planted large areas of his tree farm west of Vader to redwood and Port Orford cedar back in the 20's that didn't do too bad. I think it has all been logged now.
 
Sidehill Gouger said:
There is a fair amount of natural Ponderosa down around Ft. Lewis and redwoods have been planted in many lawns and parks. R.A. Long planted large areas of his tree farm west of Vader to redwood and Port Orford cedar back in the 20's that didn't do too bad. I think it has all been logged now.
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All true, but the thousands year old boles around the sound that the axe was made for and named for were the dougs and western reds with 15ft+ dia. trunks.
 
I'd like to find a decent six pound the axe. That council sixpounder is awfully unbalanced. And why have that heavy a head with such a short cutting edge?
 
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