Hello everyone tonight:
Good discussion indeed:
DL-- just a point of interest and for discussion purposes, in the very first photo showing the hewing axe along the log seemingy working in the direction of the axe, I notice the scoring marks angled in the wrong direction. The scoring marks should be angled in the opposite direction so that as work progresses the chips will fall away and not hang up this is important, and will leave a nicer smoother surface.
Nice photos for sure, and I give you an A+ for effort especially for working with hard wood like hickory not an easy feat to say the least.
I can't say that I agree with scoring using the 12" broadaxe this is certainly new to me, and your comment about "using any old axe for scoring", a chopping axe is usually very rounded in the cutting edge--(the nature of the beast) and if you were to use it during the scoring process the centre of the cutting edge will penetrate too deeply in the finished surface and really leave an undesirable surface, ideally the scoring axe should be fairly flat on the cutting edge so this doesn't happen.
My scoring axe is a special tool with a longer handle, and a head filed and sharpened with a fairly sraight edge, not perfectly straight!
On the subject of tear out at the bottom of the cut I realize that the problem varies from tree to tree, and in special cases where the problem was intense, I only worried about the finishing passes on the final side, what I usually did was to hew only half way down and then turn the log over and finish it from the opposite side, this will ensure a lovely square true corner.
These are my views only, and I respect all the different views put forth in this thread, for sure I can learn, and I enjoy your posts
NH
