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Re: historic hewing questionnaire [Re: northern hewer] #33108 09/01/15 12:40 AM
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Dave Shepard Offline
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Welcome, D McBride!


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Re: historic hewing questionnaire [Re: northern hewer] #33109 09/01/15 06:35 AM
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D Wagstaff Offline
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From how you describe the tear-out and busting through at the bottom it seems like the wood you are working is quite dry but in your overview as I read it, you are using freshly cut trees. Some wood is inherently weak between the rings and prone to separate. It's the case with a stack of sweet chestnut I am working right now and it means paying particular attention down low like that, lightening up on the cuts, extra scoring and like you say altering the angle of the cut, you can try either direction, so if you are hewing but end to top in a forward moving direction, angle your cut forward for example. It's definitely a problem that can be overcome. Around the whorled sections you can make use of the axes' sharpened toe to slice or pare the unruly fibers cutting perpendicular to the axis all the time but moving forward at the cusp of each cut as if you are pushing the cut forward out in front as you move through the difficult sections. I always like to think, if I am hewing along at 60 and come to a knot, I slow it down to 30.

Last edited by D Wagstaff; 09/01/15 06:39 AM.
Re: historic hewing questionnaire [Re: northern hewer] #33111 09/01/15 05:32 PM
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You know Don, I bet you're right about the whorls. When I come to a knot, if I'm going at 60 I speed up to 90 on the knot. Green or dry, I take a good full swing at the knots. Maybe I better slow down, go back to pecking. At least on each side of the knot.

One more question, you hew from butt to tip?

When I've tried that on the finishing pass, the results have always been sort of splintery. Don't have that problem when I hew from tip to butt. Not sure why. But that's me, and I'm hewing fairly young plantation white pine.

Like you said, everybody's different. It's just a matter of what works. Thanks for the response.

Re: historic hewing questionnaire [Re: northern hewer] #33118 09/02/15 06:41 AM
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D Wagstaff Offline
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Funny but I thought to reconsider what I wrote about those knots because it's not just a matter of going slower, that's putting it a bit simple, and what you write makes sense as well. Actually increasing the speed and force can give you a smooth finish around the knots but you just want to reduce the amount of wood you are taking off with those power chops.

I work up one side and come back the opposite direction on the other side. If you are working always in the same direction it means you're either ambidextrous, or you work from the same spot and flip the stem for each side. Which is it for you?

At the end of the film I am working a knot with success. https://vimeo.com/115405907

I don't know if I am so casual, taking an anything goes, if it feels right do it attitude. I do think certain principles can be applied taking all the variables involved into consideration.

Last edited by D Wagstaff; 09/02/15 06:45 AM.
Re: historic hewing questionnaire [Re: northern hewer] #33121 09/03/15 12:35 AM
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When I'm hewing, I'm sitting on the log. The log is sitting on a trestle about a foot off the ground. That's all the higher I can conveniently lift it. As I begin finishing an already roughed out log, I am sitting clear out on the tip, the butt to my rear. I hew, and then I scoot back, hew and scoot back. As I move backward, the finished hewn face stretches out in front of me. When I get to the butt of the log, I scoot right off the log onto a five gallon bucket. I sit on it and hew the very end of the log. Actually, I use the broadaxe more like a slick on the ends. I pare down to the line with it. I have a hard time hewing the ends as perfectly as I would like. OK, done with side number one. Back to the tip. No rolling the log. I sit on the bucket again, hewing (and paring) to the line at the tip. I'm facing the other direction now, toward the butt of the log. As I hew down the log, I scoot off the bucket onto the log and again start hewing and scooting, hewing and scooting, toward the butt of the log. Now my finished hewn face is behind me as I work down the log. I don't like the second side as much, I like to use the hewn face as a guide as I hew. Can't on the second side, always working into fresh unhewn material. I would prefer to roll the log, that way I could always be working backward with the hewn face ahead of me. But cabin logs are more exposed to the weather than other timbers. You have to worry about tool marks catching rain, allowing dampness a chance to get in the log. I always work the log crown side down, opposite the way it will sit on the structure. If I rolled the log, one side would have tool marks facing up, they could catch rain. In an ideal world, you could just determine, on this particular log, this face will be outside, and that face will be inside. But it gets too complicated, especially when you have to start figuring which butt will go over which tip in the structure.

Re: historic hewing questionnaire [Re: northern hewer] #33122 09/03/15 07:27 AM
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D Wagstaff Offline
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So rather than switching from side to side , you are pivoting around the center. As a consequence then you switch from working backward to working forward, or the other way round but in any case, always changing direction from side to side which effectively means you make an exact copy on both sides where I am always working in a consistent direction whether I choose to go forward or backward but creating something like mirror images on the two sides. Not that it has consequence for shedding the water because the escarpment of the cuts are facing up in either case so long as you hew with the bottom of the log facing up the water will always shed when placed in the wall.
I wonder why go to great effort to keep the axe pattern consistent when this is not going to ever be apparent because the two sides will never be seen at once. Only the direction of the escarpment is consequential and that is a question of having the bottom always facing up when you hew. Is this because you always want to hew but end to top? In theory it makes sense because you are not cutting into the overlapping growth rings instead cutting out of the ends where each consecutive ring stops. The other way to work like that is simply change the angle of the cut to what fibers at that particular spot are telling you, in other words being aware of and reading the wood as opposed to adhering to the principle, but I'm sure you do that already.
Do you try keeping the cuts more perpendicular or angled?
When you rely on a pairing action it's, understandable, the amount of time it is taking.

Re: historic hewing questionnaire [Re: northern hewer] #33125 09/04/15 02:05 AM
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The axe pattern doesn't really matter to me, like you say, no one will ever notice it anyway. I've just seemed to have more problems when I hew from butt to tip. You posted some pictures here recently. It looked like you were having problems with your hewn face getting splintery. It always seems that's what happens to me when I go butt to tip, I'm not sure why. And honestly, I've only went butt to tip on 3 or 4 logs, not enough to really test it. Maybe I wrote it off too fast. I really prefer hewing backwards, it seems easier to me. I don't like the finishing pass I make from tip to butt on that one side of the log. You asked whether I keep my cuts perpendicular or angled them, I cut straight down. I angle some at the very bottom, to help with the tear out problem I have there. But I'm pretty much cutting straight up and down. My tool marks show that the axe is tilted some as it strikes, with the toe of the blade hitting first, at least on tip to butt hewing. No, didn't write that correctly, at least as I BACK up and hew. When I'm hewing the other side, facing the butt, the heel of the blade is hitting first. But still, my blows are perpendicular to the log, starting at the top and going straight down. One last thing, I only pare right at the ends. The last 1/16" to the line. I hold my hand right up against the blade and shave that last little bit off to the line. The very ends of the logs are where I want to be precise. That's where the notch will be. The rest of the log, if I'm a little proud of the line, or a hair behind it, no one will ever know. On the sort of structures I'm making, the logs are a couple inches or more apart, with chinking in between them. Where the corners intersect, error is a lot more apparent. I want to thank you for the video link too, Don. The log you're hewing there looks a lot like the logs I'm working on. I don't imagine it's eastern white pine, though. But it sure would make a good cabin log. One last thing, it may be a few days before I get back on here. I'm sitting with my aunt, I think she's in her final decline. I hope she rallies, but that's selfishness on my part. She's lived a good long life, and she'll soon be in a lot better place. Instantly. That's the way it works.

Re: historic hewing questionnaire [Re: northern hewer] #33126 09/05/15 01:34 AM
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northern hewer Offline OP
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hello everyone tonight

Thanks everyone for the good conversation, I am sure that many looking in are really enjoying the friendly exchanges of technical hewing information

Personally I always hewed from the butt to the top on the rough pass, quickly knocking away about 75% of the wood from the face of the cut, Then I apply finish scoring every 4" to the rough hewn face, and work backwards as I finish the surface with my single beveled broad axe-- to the line or splitting it!

One thing that is important is to apply the scoring at an acute angle away from the direction you are hewing, so that the chips fall away and don't hang up--this seems to be a minor detail but will aid dramatically your efforts to leave a good surface

As I finish the first side, I roll the flat surface up (and level it), secure it, and line the second side on the flat surface from end to end.

Now as you hew the second side you will have a good flat surface to stand on and score between your feet as you ready yourself for the hewing process to begin

Another thing I always did was as I finished each side I would stand directly at the end and visually cast my eye from end to end and see if by chance I needed to correct the vertical face near the centre of the new hewn side, at that point I would go back and touch up if necessary

As a closing remark, I would like to say that in all my years of hewing I never sat down to hew, but if it works for you be my guest

Another thing that I might add is that I do believe that you are placing too much emphasis on the exterior face, just do a good job and be satisfied

Many of the log homes I have examined show clearly the axe marks in the finished surface, and I might add pretty well all the logs used for this purpose are red cedar

Enjoy

NH

Re: historic hewing questionnaire [Re: northern hewer] #33127 09/05/15 01:39 AM
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northern hewer Offline OP
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hello D.

By the way I forgot to say that I am sorry to hear of you Aunt's condition, I went through a similar thing with my mother

She is lucky to have you by her side



NH

Re: historic hewing questionnaire [Re: northern hewer] #33128 09/05/15 08:33 AM
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I will ask both of you about the wood(s) you are working. For McBride, would you call your wood fresh, seasoned, or dry, (we can discuss the distinction between the last two but I just am after an idea if the wood's condition as it's worked up)? And Richard I wonder if your red cedar was very splintery? Or was it only in buildings you have taken a good look at? I found with red cedar, busting out the bottom was a problem, also very resilient wood at the but end, but then mine was grown up in Germany.

Last edited by Cecile en Don Wa; 09/05/15 08:34 AM.
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