Well N H : I assume that you have all your body parts and this is some measure of success as a hewer. Your poor axe must suffer with the log only inches from the ground and your toes. How do you see the line on the bottom of the log? Will the timber benefit from working only one side and from both directions? How do you deal with irregularities in the wood and the inevitable release of tension from one side of the log at a time? With only minor hewing experience I have seen quite a bit of release on the saw carriage and would never presume I could do other than cooperate with the wood, and it does not just lay there.
Just wondering,
Curtis