Hi Everyone;

These marks are rare in Maine; I had associated them with the use of a single bevel axe.

About hewing with a big axe, most work in Maine seems to be hewn with a 6" to 8" double bevel axe. I have seen photos of woodsmen rough hewing with felling axes and two Frenchmen cleaning up with large, single bevel axes so these trace marks of the large blades are what would show on the surviving timbers.

Jim

Is there a connection with the type or species of wood? Hardwood you see more of this close spaced scoring, Softwood you may not?

I see closer scoring marks in white oak. After hewing a bunch of it, I can see why, it puts up a good fight, especially if the grain is unruly.

Hello everyone tonight

Great dialogue--I am really enjoying the comraderie and exchange of ideas.

One thing for certain founding peoples in different areas at different periods of history worked in many different styles and with differing tool configurations and weights.

I have examined barns and homes, churches, schools, mills, drivesheds even add ons to existing early structures such as steam engine sheds, summer kitchens, enlargening of cattle barns necessary to keep abreast of new ideas, shops small and large which by the way were very interestingly constructed sometimes

Around here the founding peoples were German, French, Scotch, Irish, and Dutch the founding time 1784 with some areas a bit earlier. Sooo I have been able to see surface finishes vary with the founding peoples, but having said that there seemed to me to not be a great deal of difference in the surface texture for rough surfaces--usually ending up with a surface characterized and showing the finishing scoring marks 3 to 4 inches apart depending on the hardness of the wood being hewn, and everyonce in a while the telltale marks of the rough scoring which usually again varied in width depending on the hardness of the wood, and remaining in the surface if one looks closely nestled in among the finishing scoring marks.

I personally used a 9 inch single bevelled hewing axe, an axe that had a weight that I could manouver and work with easily, and one that I chose from quite number of hewing axes collected in this areas from families that for one reason or another chose to put them in our museum's storage at UCV for safe keeping. I might say that all of them were single bevelled and the widths of the cutting edges varied from 7 inches right up to 12 inches

On the subject of adzing I used mine to smooth down surfaces such as the interior surfaces of upper floor timbers prior to beading the corners. I always kept mine handy when I was timberframing to cut seatings and other chores. Lip adzes I only used for trough adzing or gutter adzing when one had to work with interior curved surfaces

NH

Hi NH, the lipped adze I spoke of is for cutting across the grain. I have three types the typical with the grain adze, a lipped adze, where just the sides are turned, these sever the end grain when cutting across the grain and a gutter adze you mentioned, a gouge of sorts. I use all of them for different stuff. I, for sure would not be using the lipped adze for trough or gutter work. Btw, never made a gutter with the gutter adze, yet.

Hi Timbeal and others

Just a remark for the good of the order

I surface adzed a good many surfaces and never once did I use a lipped adze to work across the surface of any project

Having said that there is no reason that a lipped adze could have been close by for those that might require it, i never did, I worked on a slight angle across the grain, in the direction that I was going using only a carpenter's adze or flat adze (flat not meaning flat)--ie -- all good adzes that I have seen are slightly bowed on the cutting edge, similar to a hewing axe, meaning that as you work along you are cutting the grain without any problem on both sides of the cut if you hold the tool properly.

Another remark on the subject if I might--it would be extremely hard to jump back and forth from one type of adze to another due to the differing characteristics of the handles in each tool.
The feel of Adzes double curved handles along with the offset broasdaxe handles grow on you and as you grasp another tool with its own characteristics it feel completely foreign to you, and could be dangerous and difficult for one to try and do good finish work

This is my own thoughts and experiences and I am well aware that people do work in many different styles sometimes due to their background

As an example back a few years ago I was demonstrating hewing to quite a group of people using my style wich is to stand along side of the log and hew downwards as I moved forward along the length on a log chopping away the rough scorings, and this fellow steps right up and told me that I wasn't doing anything right.

Needless to say I was embarrassed especially when I knew that my style followed closely along lines used by my family and others in this area.

I asked him to remain after the demonstration and we would talk a bit. It ended up that he was from sweden and evidently it was their style to stand on the log and work along their feet, with the handle of the broadaxe curving inwards or opposite to the one that was used in this area.

So all i can say is this-- use 2 adzes if you want or one lipped adze or as i do the regular flat adze-- if that seems to be your preference, just be careful.

NH

Hi Guys,

In Arkansas and Missouri Ozarks we don't have many historic timber frame buildings but we have several historic log structures. Most of our early immigrants were of Irish and German descent entering from the Ohio and Tennesee regions bringing with them the crafts of there familiarity.

Typically of our area from the 1820-1870 era log work was white oak hewn two sides with 1/2 dovetail corners. The evidence I have seen in restorations spanning the earliest of the time, had scoring marks similar to the ones pictured with only the best of the logs hewn smooth.

My favorite broadaxes are a hand forged buzzard wing and a wide bladed Pennsylvania model, used in a walk beside method. I use a TrueTemper double bit felling axe for both juggling and scoring, the knotty areas and places near the heartring more scores are needed to ease the removal of stock without gouging.

There are few examples of adzing on most of the buildings, that being limited to second story floor joist, puncheons, and some porch members(post, rails, top beam). When adzing a member myself I straddle the piece and hew between my feet, by adjusting the strike point of the adze forward or back great control over depth of cut can be achieved.

We have recently completed the latest phase in restoration of our States Crown jewels of historic log construction. And the near completion of project REACH. http://development.blackrivertech.edu/REACH.htm The Official Opening is scheduled for Oct.27-29 2011, I will be there with my crew doing demonstrations of all the mentioned tools.

With the Historic Arkansas Museum in Little Rock, The Wolf House in Norfork, The Rice-Upshaw building and Looney Tavern in Dalton, we have an excellent collection of restored 1820-1840 log buildings.

The Looney Tavern Referenced pg.26
http://www.preservearkansas.org/uploads/File/Historic%20Preservation%20Program%20DRAFT%20FINAL3.pdf




The Rice-Upshaw building Dalton Arkansas The Wolf House Norfork Ar



The Looney Tavern Dalton Arkansas

I reckon don't know how to post my photos on this site, if you'uns can help me figger it out I'll share some

In my experience you will score a bit more often on hardwoods but the harder woods finish cleaner. I have more trouble with larger growth rings than I do with harder woods, with the exception of white oak which is tough with any but the sharpest of axes due to the tangential fibers. We did a project with fast grown yellow pine that worked us over, the axes would drag in the softer layers and tend to gouge unless you changed your angle of attack. Walnut is one of the easiest woods to hew.

I find that when hewing difficult wood like oak and ash, a slight change in technique makes a world of difference.

Conventional wisdom is that when juggling, you just chop at the end of the juggles to split them off, and you notch the wood in such a way as to yield good results from this practice. This, I might point out, requires you to notch at every significant knot you come across.

However, this works really poorly for white oak, which doesn't like to split. It works poorly for ash and hickory as well, which are other two woods I have some experience with. But it works well for things like walnut and softer woods.

On these other woods, I find it is a better practice to instead of splitting from the end, chop down at them and actually cut off the chunks rather than split them off. The best tool here is an axe with a fairly wide bit, but not a great big broad axe. the gransfors 1900 is about the right size, but I prefer a longer handled axe. For this I use my long handled German rough hewing axe, which is essentially a goosewing on a 30" handle, with a narrower bit (about 8 or 9 inches I'd say) You can do it with a regular choping axe just fine, but I find the larger axe to make the whole process a little faster. When working in teams, German carpenters will do this task with their narrow notching axes.

I suppose that some day I will need to make a video to fully show and explain what all I am talking about with this...

I should explain, I do like the American method too. I think it has its own advantages. The chief advantage of it is that it requires only 2 simple tools, whereas the German method requires a few specialized tools. Not everyone has a goosewing, even fewer people have the special notching axes, and I don't know of anyone that has a rough hewing goosewing type axe like I've got (which I had to buy special from an antiques dealer in Austria, or maybe it was Hungary, and then shortly became available for about 10 times what I paid for mine)

Maybe I just need to make up a video or something to demontrate all of this...