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