Hi,

I'm looking for a supplier, new or used, in the next months for a good right handed broad axe, and possibly a limbing and felling axe.
Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks a lot,
Zach

if you are knowledgable in these tools, know what your looking for and know what questions to ask, you can find great deals on such at EBAY. Wait until after X-mas though; prices are artifically high right now.

Shaun

If you want new axes, I recommend Gransfors Bruks from Sweden. I have their right handed broad axe and I love it. They aren't cheap, but they are lovely tools.

I have bought several axes on ebay, and agree with Shaun that it is a good source. Be prepared to make a handle and it certainly helps to know what size and shape axe you are looking for.

In my opinion, you can use pretty much any felling axe provided it is thick enough right behind the bit to pop the chips off instead of sticking. For scoring, it also helps to have a long handle.

As valuable a source as eBay is, I personally would not buy an antique broad ax which I intended to use, sight unseen. It is far too personal a choice and too many things can be wrong with one, often requiring a huge investment in time to return it to a useable state.

Gransfors axes are amazingly well crafted and well worth the coin, and the way I would lean if I found myself in a part of the world with few antique shops – And I say this as a long time hewer who does not yet own one.

Felling axes are all important. Perhaps 85% of your swing time is done with them. You want both a three and a five. I’m partial to Jersey patterns, the little beard saves handle wear. Most currently being manufactured are far too soft to hold the kind of edge you need to maintain. Woodings Verona is an exception to that rule or older bits the eBay way, Kelley being just one name to look for.

Be your best

You need advice from Richard Casselman (aka Northern Hewer):

i don't see a broadaxe on the gransfors website that i would use to hew with....just the double bevel style axe.
Does gransfors make a single bevel broadaxe? and do they make a goosewing broadaxe?
I have an antique austrian goose wing which i've hewn many timbers with, and i've always dreamed of finding a left-handed version. Working on both sides is easier on the muscles, after all.

ooops!
I missed the fine print.
gransfors does carry both right and left handed single bevel broadaxes:
http://www.gransfors.com/htm_eng/index.html
-mark.

Mark –

Now this is a side topic often discussed and one in which I find myself in a distinct minority, this of which side is which. I am lefty, and obviously would have strong feelings as to what side of my body I prefer to hew on and it isn’t what some folks insist it should be…
That aside

Pardon the little puns there.

I own a goose wing also, that I use on and which is hung on the side opposite of my primary axes, both for body mechanics – equalizing the wear and tear on myself and simply because as always, wood grain needs to be approached directionally and having an ax hung the opposite way, whether it has an offset poll or is simply a symmetrical bit hung that way, is I believe, a needed part of a hewers kit.

Interestingly historical goosewings are found in almost equal proportions, not in the percentages of the population that are right verses left handed.

The Gransfors-Bruks broadaxes can be purchased online at Highland Hardware:

http://www.tools-for-woodworking.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=1113

It's one of the better online woodworking supply houses.

I've bought two on ebay. One works very well and the other turned out to be a mast axe, one that that has a rounded back for hewing round shipmasts, or so I've been told.

I would add that working on "both sides" with broadaxes or the adze or reversing hands while chiselling or, especially, shooting your round of arrows from both sides, not only eases the muscles but improves the technique(and, as Will writes, gives an advantage over the grain of the timber).
Using the opposing grip most often feels awkward, but I suggest trying it (maybe not on that 1000 dollar timber, though), see if you don't feel stronger coming back to your natural side.....

As far as left-handed goosewings go, I have finally discovered ebay, but still have not seen a left-handed goosewing, though i bought a right-handed one the other day almost as a joke, the price seemed very low, perhaps the steel will be bad?