Hello all!
New to Timberframing, doing lots of "research" watching videos on youtube, noticed some people use the american broad axe and a felling axe and nothing else, and some (mostly germans) use a felling and or broad axe and follow with a goosewing giving a very smooth almost plane fine finish to timbers.
My question is what is better? Goosewing, or broad axe? Does it matter only if you want a super fine finish? Do you need all three (goosewing, broad and felling) or can you only use a felling and goosewing?
Thanks for any ideas and advice!

Hi Moving:

My understanding is that juggling was usually done with a felling axe and hewing with a broad axe. Broad axes can be either single bevel or double bevel each of which give you a different surface texture, the double bevel gives a scalloped surface often confused for adz marks. I think a goosewing is simply a larger broad axe.

I have seen historic photos of a large crew hewing very large logs with felling axes and then one man came along and cleaned up with a broad axe. If you have not searched this forum, their are several detailed discussions about axes and hewing.

Good luck;
Jim

So basically the broad axe for cleanup can be a regular american style or a goosewing, no difference between the two?