Never having done it for that very reason Richard, I can make no offer to explain. Sometimes securing a particular piece for hewing is not that straightfoward especially those smaller pieces, but, the laying on the ground total support method does seem to be the way the gentleman in this film clip is going about his business, no doubt after a lot of experience.
The coming time I'll be having a go at squaring up short lengths with the axe to pretty small dimensions for making rain gutter sections. My plan at the outset is to leave plenty of extra length over, of what would otherwise be unusable waste where the stem is kinked, for the hewing, and supporting the blank over a relatively shortened span, then easing slowly towards the dimensions of the rain gutters as I want them. So far it seems to be going good even without first scoring due to nice fresh wet wood, the minimal moisture evaporation at this time of year in this particularly wet and soggy winter, along with the axe sharpened good like it should be.
