Hello,

Those Romanian brothers from Carpenters of Europe are hewing pole stock right on the ground. I am guessing that this has a lot to do with this deflection problem Ken Hume has alluded to up there. Now that I think of it there is a kind of axe known in Sweden as "sparrbila" which could, in a stretch of imagination be called a double bearded axe as the one depicted on the tapestry there. A sparr in one sense is the sometimes rounded and sometimes, (partly), hewn, small diameter poles taken from the fir tree and used as rafters. These were something of a mass produced and widely exported product of the Swedish forest industry of earlier times. It would be interesting to know something of the technique used by these Swedish hewers. Was it the inclined technique or was it more like what the Romanians do, down there low on the ground?

Greetings,

Don Wagstaff