Timber Framers Guild Forums General General Forum Questions historic hewing questionnaire

I went back and looked at the picture of your carriage, now I understand

The rounded sections, I suppose, would by necessity be the same piece of wood as the square sections, correct? This creating a static axle, where only the wheels turn. At any rate, that seems like it would be the strongest way to make it to me.

I suppose my method would probably be something along the lines of This: I would first make the ends octagonal by cutting away at the corners, to lines marked in from them to create 8 similar faces. I would then repeat the process on each of the new corners making a somewhat more circular section with 16 faces. From this point, I would probably take the drawknife and shave away at it and smooth it down to round. To ensure it is truly circular and the proper diameter, I would maybe make a simple jig consisting of 2 pieces of wood held at a certain distance apart, and then use this something like calipers to check the diameter all around.

This could all be accomplished with tools as simple as chisels, drawknives, and perhaps a good carving axe. A hand saw might be handy to make good shoulders.

this is just off the top of my head how I would do it, there may be a better way but this makes sense to me.

Hello everyone tonight

Hi DL thanks for coming back with a good constructing scenario I am sure that many will enjoy it.

I hope that someone else now will come on board with their version or technique

My dad always said there was more than one way to do everything and through my career working with many carpenters I found this to be very true. I personally was always learning new tricks just by good observation watching other good tradesmen carry difficult jobs through to the finish.

This is much the same thing so lets have fun and learn



NH

Hello everyone tonight


Well I am still waiting for someone else to come on board

Lets try and put a new twist to this construction project

Lets have fun

NH

Hello everyone tonight

Well for those that are waiting here is how I accomplished this task---

1)--I cut out 5" diameter discs from 1/2" ply and
2)--I positioned these discs on the ends of the timbers
3)--I then scribed shoulder lines around the square timbers 13" from the ends
4)--placing my skilsaw on the top of the timber I dropped the blade to the depth of the top of the plywood disc
5)--I made multiple cuts approx spaced .5" starting at the end of the timber and working back to the shoulder lines
6)--after that I took my small adze and with the poll i quickly knocked away all the material
7)--I then smoothed up the surface with the adze

I repeated this on each surface and in the end what was left was a 5" square protruding from the end of the timber 13"long

8)--I then took the adze and roughly removed the corners on the protruding square
9)--I made up a half round from plywood of a 5" circle and used it as a guide to smooth up the surface using a wood rasp

10)--very quickly i ended up with a nice round axle of 5" in diameter and 13" long

Thanks for looking in

I hope that this exercise will be useful to someone at sometime in their life--just store it away

NH

HELLO everyone tonight

please note that I have a new Email address for those that might want to contact me---check my profile

Hello,

A peculiar and different sort of axe just came my way. This one is intended to perform a very specific and limited function. The specialization is what makes this particular axe intresting I think. There are larger versions used for rough hewing, though the one here, about half a meter long, is used to maintain interior walls of log buildings in Finland. In that sense not really a hewing axe at all but something more like a carving axe. Actually, difficult to say how one would characterize it as these axes and their function are unique.





This last picture is looking down the belly of the heft at the heel side of the beard, if I can use a little axe jargon.
(I've got more over there on the web site for anyone interested.)
Greetings,

Don Wagstaff

Don, nice axe! Certainly unique to us, though I am sure in its particular region it is not all that unusual.

I have a particular interest in 'odd' axes.

I made a revision this past week to my own hewing setup, the setup for when I am working by myself.

Previously, I had my timbers set up higher, at a height that is comfortable for cleaning up with the broadaxe, but I changed my whole method.

Typically in the past I have done all of my hewing in the woods, but with my new setup I am altering that a little bit.

I have switched to doing only the rough squaring off in the woods, hewing them about a half inch over size, and with a bit of a rhombus shape since I am not leveling out the sides yet.

This work, notching and juggling, is done with my big Austrian rough hewing axe

to work with this axe, I set the logs low to the ground. A general guideline might be putting the center of the log about 4 to 6 inches below knee height. I notch while standing on the log, and cut out the waste from beside the log.

It's then that I take the now squared off timbers up out of the woods and haul them off to my shop.

For this next step, I use my nice Breitbeil


What I do here is I set the timbers up fairly high, maybe about waste height or a little lower. I mark 2 faces at once to be cleaned up, with lines snapped on top and below and shave away at the face until it matches both lines fairly closely. Doing it this way, I don't have to worry if the timber is perfectly level when I finish it off. The Germans would use a board with a plumb bob attached to check the straightness of hewn faces. here all I need is a straightedge to line up the two snapped lines.

working this high, I have a lot more control over my axe and it is easy to keep it from breaking out the lower edge. It is also very important to work the axe in a circular motion, pulling it toward you when cutting. This means you are doing more cutting than chopping, which leaves a nicer finish and won't tear out edges.

Hello,
A few first impressions after a go with the Finnish axe... No set-up involved here, just went at it to have a little fun.






Greetings,

Don Wagstaff

Hi Don,

Check out :-

http://www.kfhume.freeserve.co.uk/pages/publicationspages/finland2001pages/finland2001frame.htm

where you will see a Finnish hewer with his favourite axe.

The surface finish produced by him is identical to that which you have achieved shown above.

Regards

Ken Hume

Hello everyone tonight

Thanks ken and others for the technical information that you have posted for everyone to enjoy

NH