Hello again Will and others:
Its been a delight to discuss this subject with all of you, and now especially with you Will.
I enjoy your input into the height of the log for the hewing process. There is no doubt that there have been many variations in this regard. Once when I was demonstrating "broadaxing" to quite a large group one fellow stepped right up to me and in no uncertain terms told me that i was doing nothing right. I quietly said that according to our research department, my personal family background, and many thousands of senior visitors who reassured me that I in fact was hewing in exactly the way that had been practiced by our\their ancestors. i did ask him to remain behind that I was quite interested in talking at length with him. To make a long story short this fello was from Sweden, and according to him the hewers in his country stood on top of the log on the opposite side of the line, and hewed beside their feet. this meant that the bowed handle had to curve the opposite way ie: inward, to componsate for the different position of the hewer. I took from his conversation that the log was not placed high but lower or nearer the ground. i have run across tradesmen hewing logs a quite a bit higher than I do, and as I watch them work it seemed to me that there was more of a chance of cutting themselves, but then that is only my observation. they also seemed to be working ahead through the grain of the timber rather than down . It is an intriguing subject though, and When I began to demonstrate the art of hewing many years ago it was very necessary to back up what ever we did on site with historic refernce. material. Actually this is very interesting and in many cases no matter what you attempt to do you can feel reassured that you are attempting to be as historically accurate as possible, and not relying on hersay or family traditions.
The Northern Hewer