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Re: historic hewing questionnaire [Re: Mark Davidson] #13288 11/13/07 01:28 AM
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northern hewer Offline OP
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That is a great response Mark, I sure enjoyed your plan, and given the opportunity to lead a group I am sure that it would be a great display and one that many would enjoy immensely.

I have been retired now for a few years, but when I was active in my restoration and reconstruction role at UCV I took on many challenging projects over the years that necessitated a great deal of research and I might add head scratching. Not everything dealing with historic restoration is straight forward, solutions are found not only using research but I often called on other professionals in the field who might have knowledge or who could offer help.

I never handled or worked with logs larger than 36" in diameter so this exercise in talking about hewing logs larger than that I hope is helpful to those coming behind me.

One thing that I have found out though is that there is not much help out there when the going gets rough, Many for instance can say that they have hewn, but as you increase thesize and length of the logs then that is where the helpful information starts to dwindle.

My group at UCV put together many handson demonstrations and reconstructions, and I believe the most enjoyable ones were when we were hewing on the large 45' hemlocks and pine that ended up squaring 12" full length. Even the Amish folks would come with their families to watch, many saying that the tradition of hewing was disappearing gradually in their area.

Anyway thanks again for your reply, and I will leave you with one question:

Do you think that it would be possible to split off large planks in the order of 24 feet, and about 6" in thickness?

Maybe others could join in this chat as well

NH

Re: historic hewing questionnaire [Re: northern hewer] #13297 11/14/07 02:45 AM
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Hi NH

I have no experience riving anything longer than four feet long or ten inches diameter. Now I am curious about large riving.

Speaking of riving, I am disassembling a federal period cape and the studs used for the second floor walls were two inch planks split to 4" to 6" widths, who cares if the sides are uneven.

Back to the adzing questions. How do you stand to adz diagonally across a beam? I have never seen a skewed adz, is there such a thing? I still do not understand how to consistantly swing an adz with a sideways arc.

I look forward to visiting UCV sometime!

Thanks;
Jim



The closer you look the more you see.
"Heavy timber framing is not a lost art" Fred Hodgson, 1909
Re: historic hewing questionnaire [Re: Housewright] #13301 11/14/07 06:33 PM
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Hi Jim

Thanks for jumping in with your remarks about now being interesting in riving large planks or pieces of lumber.
Maybe we can come up with some responses that will fill that need.

It is very hard to explain how adzing is done it is alot easier to show the technique at least for me. It is also a very dangerous job, (adzing) when tried by someone that has no prior experience. One of the reasons is that you are working in between your feet. I do have some good footage of adzing that I put together for a lad out in Utah a while back and Personally I think that to see is worth a thousand words.

It was neet that you ran across the rough studs manufactured from rived material, those old timers were able to do alot of things with rough material weren't they!, and they didn't need a architect or an engineer to lead them along, just common sense and the need, and help from those gone before them.

NH




Re: historic hewing questionnaire [Re: northern hewer] #13319 11/16/07 02:07 AM
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At this time I would like to suggest my approach to riving or splitting large planks from the sides of a large tree like that above, destined to become a squared hewn timber.

I would roll this log up on good stout bed pieces at least 4-- 6"by6"'s placed about 8 feet apart, making sure that they are level, and parallel to one another.

After layout of the timber on the ends of the log, I would extend the lines to the top and after removing some bark I would snap a chalk line full length on both sides. I then would take the hewing axe and flatten as much of a surface as possible without scoring on both outside faces. After this was completed I would measure in at least 6" on both sides, and snap another line this would be the splitting line. Like Ken above I would work along this line with steel and wood oak wedges to open up a preliminary riving line.

I would then turn the log over and repeat the process on the under side. If you place the wedges carefully you should be able to turn the log easily, but the bed pieces need to be long enough.

Carful observation of the splitting lines would have to be part of the process.

Using consistently wider wedges should eventually split off the a large plank on both sides.

This completed smaller planks then could be rived on the other 2 sides.

traditional hewing would finish out the surfaces, in the end producing some lovely wide heavy planks, some narrower ones, and 1 lovely hand hewn timber.

I would welcome and invite comments on my suggestion

NH

Re: historic hewing questionnaire [Re: northern hewer] #13328 11/17/07 09:30 PM
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Hi everyone on this thread:

The suggestions above that refer to spliting large planks for various needs in the early times was necessitated by the need for flooring in barns and other areas that required stout carrying capabilities. These large planks can be seen as surviving examples and no doubt were split out at that time.

One idea that I do have pertaining to the splitting of large planks was that the tree was split right through the centre giving you (2) halves to work with, and then quartered or split in different ways, much as the splitting of rails for fencing. this would result inno hewn timber, and the tree in question would be for splitting only. Splitting would be carried out with smaller dimension timber, and would no doubt be easier to work with.

NH

Re: historic hewing questionnaire [Re: northern hewer] #13331 11/19/07 01:06 AM
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To get back to my original subject of historic or traditional hewing, many times over the last few years of chatting with various individuals, it seems that many admantly lay claim to the doctrin of hewing timber in an elevated position, or higher up than bed pieces on the ground.

I would like to pursue this line of thought for the next little while. I personally was taught to hew at or near ground level, and over the years I never was challenged by anyone that came by where I was working, and many thousands did.

As the years rolled by I was compelled to do extensive research on everything that I did, and proper hewing technique fell into this category. Many of the old texts that I had access to, described and in many cases were accompanied by descriptive plates on groups as they worked at their trades. From these various sources I could set up displays in woodworking as close to being historically accurate as I could make them.

Some of the older texts were of British origin,and \or of very early American settlement. I was portraying 1860, and I realize that techniques change in relation to the year, and the nationality of the peoples who arrived in waves of immigration from various countries. these founding people influenced these changes damatically but they in turn would adapt new ideas quickly.

Does anyone have portraits, or other knowledge of the techniques of historic hewing when it comes to the height that was used if not in this country then in other countries?. I believe that this one topic would be very interesting to those that wish to pursue hewing in their lives for whatever purpose.

NH

Re: historic hewing questionnaire [Re: northern hewer] #13338 11/21/07 02:33 AM
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Well I guess it is time to shut down this thread for now thanks to everyone that joined in and chatted, and I hope that some good ideas were put forward to help those that dropped by silently for alook

Happy hewing

NH

Re: historic hewing questionnaire [Re: northern hewer] #13379 11/29/07 01:48 AM
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NH –

I’d been meaning to plug into your thread for some while now, and hope you don’t mind my doing so, despite your having officially called it done.

This particular call for action caught my eye in a quick fly by, when you posted it and I wanted to speak to it despite the delay.

I know of a few historic images of folks hewing high, both are Continental, one medieval, one early Twentieth Century. The latter is a photo of two men engaged in the two man scoring technique I often use and which I believe I’d alluded to in an earlier hewing thread, it can be found in - The Craft of Log Building - A Handbook of Craftsmanship in Wood - by Hermann Phelps – The former is an image represented in a stained glass window in Chartres Cathredral, it also shows two men hewing, one on either side of the same waist high log. I do have a post card of this panel stowed somewhere too safe to find.

I hew high, and couldn’t do otherwise if I wanted to, my back would object too loudly to ignore. I suspect, then as now, pain and the need to avoid it, would have driven some people to do the same, perhaps even counter to what were considered the norms to their locale.

I also hew left handed, though with the ax on my left, what most consider rightie, though in my case my left hand is forward. My earliest hewing experiences were solo self teaching exercises, like hewing high, I simply did what felt natural. In everything I do my workpiece is on my left, adjacent to my dominant hand. I also suspect doing what felt natural was as common in the past. As supposed left handed axes are found in numbers far greater than the percentage of the population which is lefthanded, this is especially evident in axes with offset polls such as Goosewings.

Anyway, thanks for the thread, and for the opportunity to pipe in.


"We build too many walls and not enough bridges" - Isaac Newton

http://bridgewright.wordpress.com/

Re: historic hewing questionnaire [Re: Will Truax] #13384 11/29/07 03:21 AM
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northern hewer Offline OP
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Hi Will

Thanks for dropping by, and all that great information.

I am a thorough believer in good research and especially photos, and old drawings, wherever you find them. As I stated before I had to be able to prove the authenticity of every move and be able to back it up with historical materials both to my superiors, and the general public when they stopped by my site. I also was a good listener like the "wise old owl in the tree", and one can learn a great deal if one wants to. I for one have enjoyed the feedback and comments since this thread started, I am sure many more have too!.

I do believe that to arrive at the same point, one can take many different roads, and hewing timber is just one of those points.

People did things in many different ways, sometimes from necessity, but like in your case your back made you hew in an elevated position, as well you hewed in a fashion that you felt at ease with and that seemed to come naturally--good for you!!

At this time I welcome more visits and questions since things seem to be moving ahead once again on this thread.

NH

Re: historic hewing questionnaire [Re: northern hewer] #13402 12/01/07 01:57 AM
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Hi everyone once again:

this question is related to the style of broadaxes that seemed to be used in various areas.

Through my career I used my family heriloom axe which was referred to as a "North American" style broadaxe. this term as I see it is one that can be hung from both sides of the head depending on whether you are right or left handed, and that is what my research seemed to show up in books,papers and photos that I have looked at or found at the research facilities at my disposal.

Our museum's collection at UCV also backs up this research, but I am also aware that other types were used but none seemed to be present when our collection was put together in the 1950's. What I am asking here is there anyone out there that has had access to any information on just how wide spread the use of earlier styles of hewing axes was in the earlier years of colonization (the colonies) and just when they seemed to disappear and for what reason?.

NH


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