I have started to hew the logs that I have harvested in last winter for the walls of our home. I need to hew 60 logs. Each log is 21 feet long. I am hewing a pine at the moment. I am using Gransfors Bruks 1900 broad axe for squaring and joggling and for the finishing I am using very special axe for me - the one that I bought a year ago from one old man. The finishing broad axe is approx. 200 years old (that can be determined from the ornaments on it) and have not been used a lot. It weights about 12 kilos.
I have made all posts, sills and knee braces. After hewing I will be continuing working on the frame.

I some times wish I had pine for hewing like you have. If I had an abundance of pine available to me locally, I am sure I would be a lot further along on my own project.

Good work, once again. I especially enjoy watching you work on your project, as it is very similar in some ways to my own. My own project involves building a traditional structure (though a different tradition) all by hand, using hand tools and traditional processes.

I love goosewings. Mine is over 200 years old as well (probably over 250 or even more, going by the markings and the way it is made) I have never found an axe that leaves a finish as nice as the goosewing.

On another topic a while back, we had talked about cutting notches along the length of a timber. You mentioned cutting them with a circular saw and cleaning out with a chisel, and also mentioned were boring out and cleaning, or using a rabbet plane. I would like to show you another means, which is by means of axe-work.



Here the grooves were cut for a different reason, but the same process still applies. These grooves are cut in a rough log with less-than-perfect grain to control the split (next, a saw kerf will be cut on both ends to help instruct the split where to start, a necessary first step in white oak, which hates to split)

The means used here is to take an axe and cut down along both sides of a marked line (you may want to mark 2 boundary lines instead of a single middle line for a more finished looking notch). It is important that you don't try to get everything cut down at once, or the grain will fight you and cause bad things to happen. Instead, cut out a little at a time, in long strips. Eventually long strips of wood fiber will work loose and you call pull them right out.

Here I cut v-notches, in order to direct the split. It would actually almost be easier to cut notches with a flat or rounded bottom, and it would not be any harder to cut a square notch.

I used the standard Gransfors axe like everyone has, but I think it would work better to use an axe with a narrower bit.

It should be noted that I did not take any time to make these notches very 'perfect' since they won't show on any finished product. This log section will be quarted, and each quarter will be squared. This is what I do, since I have an abundance of very large white oak. Unfortunately, I won't have the opportunity to hew very much from full round logs.

DLB

Yes the pine is the best softwood to woork with. It is very friendly to the tools. The heart wood of the pine is very long lasting. But the weaker part of the pine is pine's sapwood. I have mentioned in some old buildings that the sapwood has rotten and the heartwood was still very hard and fresh.

I beleive it is very, very hard job to work with white oak. And hats off at your work. I have made some stairs for the exterior of the house from old dry oak - it was quite hard - but it was easier to make perfect shaped mortices with chisel if we compare to softwoods.

Hand work and hand tools give to the structures always much more value and historical evidence and story of the carpenter that has made it.

Goosewing gives perfect finishing to the timber. I also like it very much. I have discovered that this axe is like your college and teacher in one person.

I think that Gransfors Mortice Axe with a narrower bit would be the right one to use for the making of your grooves.

Good luck in your project

Jacob