That Fish Look

Hello,

This is the top side of the door jam for the walls I'm erecting so the hewing pattern has nothing really to do with the encompassing work going on but was just a bit of practice in the meantime. My idea is that the effect is enhanced through the photography and that it isn't so obvious in reality. I notice the triple elements of the tangentially cut flame figure of the wood itself, with the fish scale pattern of the individual cuts and the wave pattern of each series of cuts across the grain.

Will work on it to refine things for sure maybe altering the direction of the fish scale from one wave to the next but for sure try tightening it up. Third picture very blurry but giving a wider view of the piece. The axe used is the Finnish axe called piilukirves.

Greetings,

Don Wagstaff

Don, do you have a picture of the axe? Thanks.

THAT is an elegant tool! How old is it?

hello everyone tonight

Don:

I am interested in knowing if you are just reworking the face of a plank for an effect?--ie:just taking off a very small amount of material to get rid of saw cut marks as an example

Also how does the balance of the axe in your hand seem, and by that I mean do you have to fight gravity to keep the axe's cutting edge landing effortlessly where you want it to go.

I have never had the opportunity to use such an old tool I suspect it predates the oldest tools in this region by a few generations for sure.

The later offset or flat sides hewing axes must have evolved alittle later and probably were used alongside other older types such as your fine example--localized traditional types of tools continued to be used in localities until the generations and newer technology moved slowly ahead I supect

Would you like to comment on any of my suggested chronological statements --quite interesting

NH

Hello,

The axe itself is not even that old, less than 100 years. The company that made it, Billnas, out of Helsinki, existed in one form or another from 1641 to 1984 though I doubt large scale production of this axe went beyond early in the last century, certainly by the 1930's I don't see it in the catalog, but they are still being made of high quality by interested blacksmiths on an individual basis.

Better to think of this as a specialty axe existing along side a range of axes rather than in linear terms as a precursor to more advanced ones. To be clear it is used in Finland in log construction, and what is interesting is that from the outset the decorative effect has been valued along side of the functional use of flattening two sides of the logs. So it's maybe interesting to see what kind of effect can be had on the wood surface. I believe there is plenty of space for experimentation and refinement and wonder if anyone knows of any efforts to embellish timbers used in construction along these lines beyond efforts at historical reproductions.

Greetings,

Don Wagstaff