As for process mark, If I see a score mark anywhere on a finished timber, I am not happy. If a scoring mark of any kind is visible on any surface that is to be exposed then I will do my best to remove it -this is where my German Stossaxt comes in handy.
How do I maintain accuracy with so many axes? The key is to know your tools, and know yourself. Let your tools do the work and they will do it well. I view hewing as a progressive act, no single pass of a tool is enough to accomplish the desired result. My process has been influenced a lot by Central European traditions, especially among the High German-speaking people (South Germany, Switzerland, and Austria) I found a website once that I cannot find again, but on it were forestry skills from all over Central Europe, from Germany, Austria, Hungary, Poland, and others.
Northern Hewer, you said notching with a broadaxe is not good, have you ever seen a Central European style long handled broadaxe? It is a tool designed to notch as well as cut away the wood. It is technically a broadaxe because it is broad and single-beveled, but it is not generally used to bring the wood down to the line -a more familiar short handled broadaxe would be used for this purpose. With such a tool, notching is fine. I would not recommend trying to score a log with a a short-handled, canted-handled axe! Just to clarify that I am NOT talking about the familiar broadaxe here.
Basically my progression of tools is a progression of finesse. The tools on one particular timber might include a Notching axe (used t notch and to cut out the waste) a large broadaxe used to bring it down to the line, my Gransfors axe to work out any trouble spots, a Stossaxt to clean up any unsightly marks, and a jack plane to put a semi-smooth face on an interior face (Old Stanley #5, 14" Jack Plane) I would use a scrub plane first if I had one. The process is from very rough to very fine, the axework at its finest allows for very minimum work with the plane (at best 2 or 3 passes are all that's needed) The plane's primary function is to eliminate any irregularities and especially splinters. If the face doesn't need to be overly fine, then perhaps I will stop simply with hewing it to the line.
My 12" American broadaxe does a fine job of creating a good, straight face -it's much harder in my opinion to do that with the small Gransfors model 1900 axe. The straighter your axe work is, the easier time you are going to have with the plane. The 14" bed of the jack plane requires a very flat surface.
"The Brode-Ax seyd withouten mysse; withouten=without mysse=miss
He seyd, “The Pleyn my brother is; seyd=said Pleyn=plain
We two schall clence and make full pleyn, clence=cleanse
That no man schall us geynseyn, schall=shall geynseyn=gainsay
And gete oure mayster in a yere yere=year
More sylver than a man may bere.” bere=bear
From "The Debate of the Carpenter's Tools" (Middle English) -Medieval, unknown date or author, 15th C. or earlier.
