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".

Wait, wait, wait Don't tell us. I say it's a bridge construction.

Greetings,

Don Wagstaff

Dave,
That depends on what pioneers you are talking about.

For you in Massachusetts the pioneers are a whole different set of people and a totally different time period then it would be for me in Indiana. The pioneers here came by in the 1830's, with maybe a very few earlier. Here, these pioneers used the big 12" axes. In Mass. they would probably not have done so. However, my experience is with what is local to me, so I can't speak beyond that. Brad is in Illinois, so I am assuming that the history is similar to that of my area, and also assuming the picture.

I do have plenty of evidence that my pioneers did things with the big axe, including the fact that many of their very axes are still to be found in the barns of their descendents.Also, the timbers they cut show distinct evidence of this.

The only buildings we have of these pioneers are the cabins they built. And most of this are disguised. It was customary in Indiana for log houses to be boarded as soon as they were built, though not near universal. These cabins show signs of the big axe in many cases -some hewn so smooth that you can't even see the axe marks.

Interestingly enough, cabin building in most of Indiana was a professional trade. The cabins weren't built by the settlers themselves. I have heard it said, and observation supports this, that all of the original cabins in central IN were built by one man. Trademarks of this man are very smooth timbers and an unusual v-notch at the corners.

Past the cabins, the oldest buildings around are typically barns from the 1870's and later. The barns built before this time were small, and were all torn down and replaced. However you can find their timbers reused in the newer barns. There are a few older barns around, mostly forebay barns built by the early Amish settlers in the 1850s and 60s (the Amish community here was founded in 1849)

as a result of the late settlement and late dates of our buildings, there are few barns that are totally hewn. The most common setup is for most of the timbers to be sawn, with the long timbers that wouldn't fit on the saw carriage hand hewn. After about 1915 or so they switch to all sawn.

So that is the historical background of my statement, Dave. In you are thinking of pioneers of the early 1700s, then you may have a much different picture...

DLB

What I wanted to know was there evidence in actual hewn timbers, which you say there is. Too often the prevalence of large axes suggests that they must have been used on barn timbers. I think they were more often used for roughing out ship masts or railroad ties. These large axes often have long handles on them, way too long to be used while kneeling over a timber.

Dave,

No ship masts around here!

Railroad ties, yes. However, often times a sleeper axe would have been a different profile.

The long handled axes do indeed work for hewing barn timbers. You just don't kneel when using them. These are to be used standing mostly upright working a timber at maybe waist height or lower.

We know this was in fact the case, because there are a few contemporaries who bothered to write it down.

But like I said earlier, you can tell when examining the timbers many times that these big single beveled axes were used. You can also at times find timbers that were hewn out with just the narrow axe. The finish is a lot different. To date I have yet to see an authentic timber that was at all hewn with an adze.

What, I wonder, did you think may have been used in stead?

I'm not saying there was anything else used, I was just looking for clarification that you had indeed found actual evidence on your timbers of those large axes, not just that a large axe had been found in the area. Too often I hear statements, like the one we all hear about adzing, that are not founded on actual research, but on urban legend. (Not sure if that's an oxymoron, considering the subject matter.) I'd be interested to see some rubbings of timbers in your area. That will tell a lot about the hewing, like direction of travel, probable location of the hewer, size of axe, etc.

The only adzing I have seen on timbers is typically confined to reductions on floor joists, or specific shaping necessities, not for hewing the surfaces of timbers.

OK, I understand.

Rubbings is a good idea, one that I had not thought of. I think this will reveal a lot about the work that can't be seen by the naked eye.

However, I have hewn timbers entirely with a narrow axe, I have hewn them with a big 12" American style broadaxe, I have hewn with a little Gransfors 1900, and I have hewn with a great big 14" German goosewing. All of these methods leave distinctly different finishes, and the one left by the 12" American pattern matches that found on local barn timbers.

The adzing of floor joists I have seen, as with the adzing of the ends of square ruled timbers. I know that the adze was used for cutting joints, though I have not observed this with my own eyes. But, I am very confident that an adze was never used to surface or finish a whole length of timber. That would be a painfully slow process! In my opinion, the slightly scalloped surface of some timbers that many associate with adzing is probably actually the result of finish hewing with a narrow axe, which leaves this same finish.

"That would be a painfully slow process! In my opinion, the slightly scalloped surface of some timbers that many associate with adzing is probably actually the result of finish hewing with a narrow axe, which leaves this same finish."

No, it is not the same finish. Some people to mistake it for adzing, though. It would be real easy to see the difference. The narrow axe will leave a skewed track where the adze would be in line with the length of the timber. I don't think even a lipped adze cutting across the grain could be mistaken for axe tracks.

@TIMBEAL, I copied the pic from an ebay auction. That picture is actually not level. Here's a shot of the same joint, further back and level.

Hello,

An adze could also be swung at angle to the axis of the log between the feet with the shoulders and stance also at an angle, from above the log, along with parallel to the length direction. In the book, De vakleu en et vak: Boederijbouw in Oost-Gelderland vanaf de eeuwwisseling tot ca,1940 Vaktermermen en werkwijze L,A. van Prooije,There are a number of personal accounts by carpenters who surfaced timbers with an adze. They also say it was one of the most difficult things to do well and only the best carpenters were good at it.


I'm just re-reading through the hewing questionnaire tab and Richard writes quite a bit on the subject. Funny enough his descriptions are the same as what I have come across in here. There's plenty of information to be found aside from physical examples that lets us know that adzing was a regular and common part of the building process, even if we can't do it.

Greetings,

Don Wagstaff

Don,

around here, it was never used. that I can say with confidence. I don't debate whether or not it was used in Holland or elsewhere, but never in Indiana for this purpose. I also know that it is not ever used for this purpose in the German traditions that I have studied.

And I have to wonder, if we can achieve a smooth clean face with a broadaxe, why worry about the adze at all? Certainly it does not save time or effort. I wonder if this was perhaps a technique that may have been used at times when the large broadaxes might not have been available, and the technique was then passed down as 'another way you can do it'. Just a thought, no real evidence to support this so it's just a musing I suppose...

DLB

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...

Hi DL, chopping downward onto the joggled section is how I now prefer to remove that chunk of wood. I believe it is safer, too.

I used the end chopping method only briefly, and quickly decided it ain't so great. Now I always chop down at the wood, and frequently hear that I'm 'doing it all wrong'!
I find that when chopping down from the top, it is not critical to remove all of your knots. Knots can be easily chopped through (though with great care) from above, but cannot be split through from the ends.

If I ever find the time to work on my timbers here soon, maybe I will try and catalog some of my techniques. My style I am calling 'South Germanic', but really I don't know exactly where it actually comes from.