I haven't tried Hewing myself yet, but I've watched a bunch of vids with other people doing it and seen it done in person. All that I've seen, they chop notches every 12-16 inches and then remove in between, and possibly finish with a broad axe or leave rough. So I don't understand why the chop marks are so close together in this pic? Can someone explain?

Certainly.

After juggling, joggling, notching, or whatever you choose to call it, the timber is still very very rough, and needs to be flattened to a certain degree.

To accomplish this, you take your axe and score the face of the timber with shallow cuts about 3" apart, like you see here. You then take your axe and lightly chop at the face, removing the wood between the scores. This can be done with a broadaxe, or with a felling axe if you don't need an overly nice timber. This scoring and shaving should ideally remove any of the notches left over from juggling.

So a simple procedure is that you juggle to about 1/4" from the line (if you indeed snap lines at all. Something I find myself doing less and less as I work with irregular timbers) The you score the resulting rough and splintery face down to the line. You then take the broadaxe and shave off the wood right to the line. The scoring makes it easier to remove this last bit of wood, and removes the risk of the cut wondering where it shouldn't, and creating splinters. The scoring interrupts the grain, so that it does not pull your cut into the wood.

If you are making a timber that needs to have a smooth finish, you need to be careful that the scores don't go too deep. On a good timber you don't want to see the score marks like you do here. but on a barn that's OK.

When using the Central European method (Swiss, Austrian, and Hungarian mostly) then this notching is unnecessary, since the 'rough' face yielded by this method is smooth enough that you can shave it clean with a broadaxe without the need of scoring. I am not sure about the German method, but I believe it would be the same here as well.

Hope this helps!

DLB

I call this back-scoring, it's done to keep the finish cut from diving as you pare away with the broad axe.

The idea is to have the penetration stop just short of depth which will be the finish surface. But over penetration such as is seen here is not uncommon.

Yeah, this is the classic look I am used to seeing. I guess the demos I saw were the rough juggling and facing. When using the broad axe, I don't remember seeing them score first with the felling axe before broad axe'ing.

All of the hewn timbers I've worked with have the scoring marks from the scoring axe, and often you can still find the juggle marks. When hewing shorter timbers, you have a better chance of finding a log that has little taper, and is just the right size for that timber. One of the barns I'm working on has 45' plates that are only 5"x7". I suspect even with minimal taper that there was plenty to hew off of the butt end of that log. I think I've watched just about every hewing YouTube I can find, and there are some extremely labor intensive interpretations of hewing out there. I find with the right tools and technique, it isn't as hard as most people think it is.

The hewing varies widely on the two Dutch barns in the shop right now. The outsides of wall posts and purlin posts are scored much deeper, whereas the exposed sides of same are not over scored, and the hewing is much better.

I see many people skip out altogether on scoring these days. I think the necessity of this step is dependent on the tools you are using. If you want to do an authentic finish, say you are replacing damaged timbers on an old structure or something like that it is definitely necessary, as it is certainly a trait of the old hewn timbers. And again, if you are using the same tools they did, that is a regular felling axe and a classic American style broadaxe, you are best off to use those same methods that they did. They used those methods because generations of experience taught them that was the best way to use their tools.

If, however, you are hewing in a different style and using different tools the scoring might be forgotten. The Gransfors 1900 that lots of folk use these days doesn't require scoring. However, it leaves a much different finish on the timber and really is slower than the big 12" axes used by the pioneers.

And like I said earlier, if you are doing one of the two 'Germanic' methods, these tools do not require you to score the wood. These people wanted their timbers to be as smooth as they could make them, so scoring was avoided. The goosewing axe, if used properly, works a whole lot different than the American style broadaxe. However, ideally to get the best results from it you should only be shaving off a wee little bit of wood

I usually use the south Germanic/central European method to hew my wood, because of a combination of heritage and the fact that it works really well for me by myself. Also the fact that I happen to have the right tools for it helps a lot! With this method, I juggle with a great big axe, it is sort of like a broadaxe with a really long straight handle, and is indeed single beveled. With this, I get a very smooth face just from 'rough' hewing. I try to hew this as close to the line as I can reasonably get, maybe even right to the line. But this face is not very accurate. It tends to be out of square, and a bit wavy. So I then clean up the faces with my 250+ year old goosewing axe. This leaves a really smooth face, but one that is not accurate for American timber frames of the past. This way, it is possible to hew perfectly dimensioned timbers, which is important if you have a good Swiss mind like me!

If I hew in an American style, which I have not done nearly as much of, then I certainly score. It's just necessary. I might have an opportunity to do some restoration and historical reenactment type work this fall/winter, and get to break out my old American broadaxe again. however, I will have to replace its handle because, under the influence of my German tools and methods, I put a short handle on it...

DLB

Hi,

I wonder if the shallow scoring was used as a method of helping to prevent chunk removal with consequential damage to the lower aris when hewing spiral material. Shallow scoring would certainly help limit the propagation of a spiral tear during finish hewing.

Regards

Ken Hume

Ken, That's what I mean when I am talking about preventing the cut from wandering. Scoring interrupts the grain, lessening its ability to do so. If you study closely the faces of these timbers, you will find the spaces between the marks are not always flush, this is evidence that the grain can indeed still draw the cut to a small degree. However, since it only has 3" to work with it will not cause any problems.

You will also notice in the picture above that some of the faces of the timbers are a lot smoother.

You can also see this type of marking on new frames, where the timber was sawn over size and then scored followed, up by axe. This is suppose to give the frame a "traditional" hewn look. But fails in that the result is far to uniform.

I am still trying to figure out what/where in a frame the above picture is taken, Brad?

DLB, do you have evidence that the pioneers were using 12" axes on house and barn timbers? My examination of hewn timbers here indicates that the axes were more like 7-8".