Check out this notch

[Al Smith]

Those PNW giants presented all kinds of problems .The standard cross cut wasn't long enough .The circle sawmill blades weren't large enough and it goes on and on .

Yankee ingenuity came through .Blacksmiths forge welded a couple of cross cuts together .They came up with the double cut circle mill being one blade over and one under .Finally they got the bright idea to make a band saw .

It was either Holt or Best ,the principles of what became Caterpilar tractor built an empire making an early form of a log arch called "big wheels " pulled by oxen or draft horses .Very interesting part of history of not only the PNW but also east coast and great lakes logging back 150 odd years ago .

Most interesting being that most common practices in use back then are still being used today .Gravity and physics are one thing that never change .The methods might but the principles are the same .

 

[gf beranek]

You hardly ever see any fat people in those old logging pics.

I knew a few old timers who hand chopped in the day. They told me when the first chain saws came on the scene most fallers stuck with the cross cut and axe because the early saws were just too heavy to manage on the steep ground.

Their all gone now. but many of their stories about the days of steam stick in my memory very vividly.

 

[flushcut]

My great grandpa was a axe man in the teens and twenties up in the U.P. and Canada.

 

[woodworkingboy]

Wonder if folks used company axes, or had their own? Could you stop and sharpen, it seems like a good excuse to take a break.

 

[flushcut]

I have his axe so it was a personal axe, and the steel is so hard a file just skates off of it with barely leaving a mark.

 

[gf beranek]

So the need for a stone.

 

[Al Smith]

It was claimed those old axe men carried a round sharpening stone in their back pocket and were fussy as the dickens about the axes .As soon as it left a "nick " in the cut they laid the stone to it .

So now days as soon as the chain stops pulling big chips most lay the file to it .What's changed ,just the method .

 

[Al Smith]

On that stone deal .My 5 pound splitter which is hard forged and over 100 years old plus my departed fathers double bit cruiser are so hard a file is just about worthless .The old man always used a stone that was really designed to sharpen a sythe .

I have no idea how old my dads axe is but it's been around as long as I have been .

 

[flushcut]

I am the same way. There is no such thing as dull in my book, aside from damage, a chain is either sharp or slightly less sharp never dull.

 

[woodworkingboy]

I've been thinking about buying an axe after watching Jerry's videos. Up to now I always carry my short heavy framing hammer to pound wedges, more like a baby sledge. Wonder how good the steel is in the axes sold now? Blacksmiths don't seem to make them in these parts, not a popular item. Most of what I see is imported.

 

[flushcut]

I think most axes made today don't hold an edge unless you are willing to spend some $$. As for The Working Climber series 3 I just got them and WOW just plain awesome. For wedging I use a 3lb Collins with a 26" straight handle.

 

[gf beranek]

The last good woods falling axe that was ever made, IMO, was the Stroheaxe from Sweden. I still have a 4.5 pounder for keepsake. Sent Burnam my old 5 pounder a year or so back. The steel in those axe heads have a ring that when pounding wedges you can hear it a mile away. they quit making them over 20 years ago.

highly sought after today.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Lucky Burnham!!!

 

[flushcut]

Sounds like the Gransfor Burks (sp) very spendy but very nice.

 

[Jed]

Rajan: A double-bit axe?

Yeah, few of them boys got all that big in the muscle department. What Butch and Al said. I've read a ton of books that said that the key factor to keeping the boys in your logging camp was having the right cook! Apparently, if the cook wasn't excellent, the boys would drag-up in a heartbeat, and go find another camp!

 

[woodworkingboy]

He who complains about the food becomes the next cook. Better to change camps.

 

[squisher]

Lol, I've changed camps before for the food. Once, there were two camps not that far from each other. The one I opted over to was much better, in fact it was the best camp for food I ever stayed at Chamis Bay.

 

[Underwor]

The cook was a "Gut Robber"?????

 

[flushcut]

Rajan: A double-bit axe?

Yeah, few of them boys got all that big in the muscle department. What Butch and Al said. I've read a ton of books that said that the key factor to keeping the boys in your logging camp was having the right cook! Apparently, if the cook wasn't excellent, the boys would drag-up in a heartbeat, and go find another camp!

Single bit and it looked like a competition chopping axe used in timber sports.

 

[MasterBlaster]

The cook was a "Gut Robber"?????

Just ponder on it. The cook was a good 'un.

 

[stig]

Jay, if you want a good modern axe, get one from Gränsfors bruk.

And for those who want oldtime redwood logging pictures.

Lywood Carranco & John T Labbe*s " Logging the redwoods" is a fantastic book, full of oldtime pictures.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_n...field-keywords=logging+the+redwoods&x=15&y=20

 

[Burnham]

Here's a pic some will recall...my old reliable felling axe I've been using for nearly 30 years, and the magnificent Stroh that Jerry was kind enough to pass on to me.

I'm pretty sure I caught sight of it in some parts of Jerry's new video series . That shorty handle is just right in tight, brushy conditions.

 

[Underwor]

Just ponder on it. The cook was a good 'un.

I was referring to the camp he left!!! Sorry for the mix-up.

 

[woodworkingboy]

Thanks for the link, Stig. I was Googleing Scandinavian axes. Japan still makes some beautiful hand forged forestry tools, but axes not much.

 

[treebogan]

They make Axes in New Zealand http://www.tuatahiaxes.com/

I have heard of these but never seen one,most Fallers use Kenetic Hammers.

Had a look around the site and saw that you can get tips for "Spring Boards" also you can learn what they are called in New Zealand.