Some food for thought as I asses options for another approach to squaring this wood, though I will be definitely sticking with axes

If going down the "purest route" I totally understand your perspective and more than support it...Good for ya in keeping those skills alive...

If the primary goal is efficient and effective squaring of a log bolt into a useful timber for a project but do not want or have a way to get them to a mill logistically or for fiscal constrictions...the method offered in last post is (by far) the fastest and most accurate method of bringing a bolt of any species to square or other geometric shape...in my experience with a multitude of hewing methods (historical and/or contemporary.)

Regards,

j

Yep...me too, and I like that method for expediting the process...Excellent method!

It's neither the one nor the other.
Grabbing the chainsaw, it could be any cross cut saw but ok, to speed things along is fine but it does mean flipping the stem an extra time and getting it rightly aligned, making more or less sense depending on conditions innumerable, difficult to quantify. I always think its critical to set the log fast with dogs, line out perimeters of its beam inside and then cut two vertical and parallel sides without disturbing the log's position, no simple task that. It's another way of saying, is the method ideological or are there also practical reasons.Still I do count myself among those practitioners choosing a slightly different way of working than the one calculated in conventional terms.

Hi Cecile,

Thanks for the reply, and please indulge me if you don't mind? This is a topic I don't get to explore with too many that have your skill sets with hewing or perspective.

Take my words (please) from the academic perspective, and only challenging from this view point in trying to understand more, and/or form more lucid and coherent viewpoints of my own.

Thanks again, ahead of time...



So, we are on the same page on at least that point...

You can see the benefit and expeditious effect a hand or power saw has. Almost any type of cross cut saw works well...even a battery powered circular saw with a radius jig does the trick nicely if doing this a lot...

The joggles then can be made even closer together, if one chooses, with little extra work...



Ooh...???...I don't think that is even close to accurate or true, from my perspective of what is done, but that very well could have to do with our individual approach modality to setting up a hewing station.

I imagine (from your description) your approach is of course some form of Western or European method...?

From that perspective, I would agree that "flipping the stem" may seem like a necessity and also much added labor...the way you must be thinking of it...???

However, my approach to setting up hewing is a modern adaptation of acient Middle Eastern and Asian systems and approaches of not only a hewing station, but also the general staging of a given timber for layout of joinery...not just hewing...

The bolt (aka stem) layout is a cross on the end first, then a template is used (most often) to create the given geometry on the end of the bolt. Sometimes this is even a tapered post, or has something like a spiral or related challenging geometry to the project. Once the bolt is set up and snapped, the bolt can get moved without any great issue of losing layout, orientation, or even bothering to pin down well...No more so than you would be concerned with a timber before joinery is cut in it...

Does that make sense as described?



Agreed..."no simple task" at all, and way more the standard approach of fixing the bolt to a stationary stage while the work of hewing is performed on two adjacent parallel plans of a given bolt...

That is a standard "axe method" as you find anywhere something is hewed...even in Japan, though they (and I) often do it in bare feet for a better grip of the log and/or footing when employing such methods. When a rougher axed or hewn affect is desired then this approach is often the way to go, but now with the other method combined into this the ax strictly becomes a "finishing tool" alone...



That is interesting that you view yourself between the ideological and the modified while still willing to adapt hewing to your own personal dynamic. Which, in many ways, like all the traditional wood arts, they are very much an individual expression of body dynamic and personal approach, even when under the guise or perspective of a fully traditionally ideology...

Regards,

j

Jay, it says right there under my badge, " loc: The Netherlands". Why am I going to go squaring up like I'm a Turk or working on the Nara or something? I tested those waters, walked some deviant path-ways in my crazy youth, and found them dead ends. Still, I do maintain some hard to shake remnants - No purist me, cant afford it!
When I ever get the chance to do the blades of a wind-mill I guess what you say there about lay-out and working to the lines will no doubt come in handy, though the chance is small, me lacking the proper credentials and diplomas you gotta have in your pocket to get a gig like that in a place like this.
What I mean to say is here are some results coming in as the work progresses.

Thanks for sharing your perspectives. It is most appreciated!!!

I hope you get a chance to share in a Windmill project someday...That would be awesome!

I hear ya about the methods you choose to follow being where you are. "Tested waters," are often dark and don't always yield the expect results for many who try them, for others more seems to be revelled and/or of use to them. I have found after so many years that the methods are way more similar than different in most ways, so unless doing a museum grade demonstration, replication of restoration, I can effectively draw on a multitude of skill sets and understanding...I to "can't afford" to be a purest on most projects nor do they demand it to be so...

Those photos look great, I look forward to following along further as you share your progress...

In fact, I have given up on the axes more typical for the nearest places where axes are known, results being far to harsh, and finding Swedish axes working out better for this taxing robinia.

Beautiful work Ceicle...

Is this a true "winged" head with flat bevel to left or right?

Do you use just one size for all work, or progress through several?

Much thanks for sharing...!!!

j

Thank you Jay. Probably I have lain it out that poorly from the start so your inquiries will give me a way to fill in what's got left out. To begin I approached the robinia like I would have as if it was oak or sweet chestnut, or any number of woods, lets leave it at that, with my prescribed set-up, bandhacke, bundaxt, breitbeil, but after having worked a side or two it was clear the wood was not amenable. It's what I meant by saying the robinia is an unforgiving wood, every slightest deviation in the angle of each particular chop is doubly accentuated on the wood's surface. I have never seen a thing like it, just terrible.
So I hung those axes up and went to experimenting. First I chose the axe that was closest conceptually to the Austrian breitbeil which I love so much. It may well be what you call winged head, maybe coming from another American term, goosewing. It is much smaller, lighter and more curvy which is to say, arching in the cutting edge's length and with a big old sweep, heel to toe on the back-side ie flat side. And it was an improvement, clear to see in the first two in the series of four pictures here above the cuts transverse to the grain. Still, the result was to much axe, not enough of the wood for me to accept, these sharp cuts at the termination of every chop are disturbing to my eye and somewhat unique to the wood. Not that such traces don't occur in other woods but when the wood is less hard there is more possibility of the , swing, cut, follow through action. Here the swing gets stuck in its tracks. Not impossible to follow through, you must make only the finest of shavings to do it. In that way this wood it very good for helping to build axe skills. Any way, I'm also concerned with axe progress so moved on to the sparrbila



and the outcome is there in the two pictures following and this was better on all accounts or at least more to my liking. This axe, one with a double bevel and much mass.
The last picture though is the work of another Swedish axe called Tjälyxa. It's a late and cheaper to produce version of the classic 1700 timmerbila. The wood gets worked again transverse to the grain almost a necessity on these tall sides where it can otherwise over power and have its way with you.