Broad Axes--Adam and others

Re: Broad Axes--Adam and others

Todd Hughes

>Some general thoughts...A broad [or Hewing] axe is a large, normaly single bevel [like a chisel] axe used to square or shape large timbers. I would think it would have very limited use for most wood workers making furniture etc. What you would want is a Hewing Hatchet which as the name implys is a smaller tool with a head with maybe a 4 or 5 in. edge again single bevel and is designed to be used with one hand. This is the tool used to shape smaller work like roughing out chair parts , decoys, etc. I had one I used in making axe handles. Again you want a hatchet with a single bevel edge and it should have the blade off set so that one side is flat that goes up against the wood. A regular double bevel axe / hatchet is more for chopping wood then shaping it though it will work after a fashion.

Old hewing hatchets are pretty common on the old tool market even in the old tool Hell I live in , often can be picked up for $10 or less. Check to make sure that a slow head hadn't sharpened them up with a double bevel.Also since not a double bevel axe you have to worry about pitting on the back...Any old one will probably be of good quality but Plumb, Collins, Beaty, LIJ White all made nice ones ....Todd

Re: Broad Axes--Adam and others

Adam Cherubini

>Kevin,

I’m glad you posted this question here and not to me personally. Of course the broad axe article isn’t about broad axes, and I must admit I’m not a connoisseur of hatchets. I’ve never seen, let alone used a gransfors axe so I have no guidance for you whatsoever.

All of my axes are antiques- and some are better than others. A small double sided axe is fine for the sorts of cabinet work I do. Though when hewing a stick held vertically, I think the swing is more up and down if you use a broad hatchet, which can be nice. It might be a touch easier to control as well. You can sort of ride the flat face to some extent.

I don't like the bearded hatchets with the hammer head instead of a poll. I have my Dad's and I don't like it. (I use it for severing the cross-linked white oak fibers when my metal wedges are stuck inside an otherwise split log.) I like you hold the head with the poll in my hand sometimes. A sharpened piece of metal (or rock I suppose) can make a wonderfully helpful tool.

I know there are more sophiscated axe users here (sounds like an oxymoron), so I look forward to hearing what they have to say.

Adam

P.S. I enjoyed reading Leonard Lee’s story about the fine, thin headed, felling axe he remembered from his youth. Its in his “Sharpening” book and well worth the read.

I'm missing something...

Dan Moening in Cooler, Breezy Sacramento

>Are you talking about "Popular Woodworking" magazine?

If so which issue?

I've read a few threads in recent weeks discussing some of Adams' articles and they're not in my latest issue (#150); or previous issues either. Their website still shows #150 as well.

Has the December issue been distributed to all but the West Coast?

Will this change once my subscription check clears?

I feel so left out. :(

Dan.

If you had one

Jim in Burlington On

>I have a one sided broad hatchet. Bought if off of e-bay it has 2 xx on it. Very usefull when making chairs. I also have a new Gränsfors hatchet someone bought for me. The new axe holds a edge really nice. I can't really see why or how usefull a broad axe with 2 bevels would be.

Speaking of brothers...... *LINK*

Skip in Falls Church

>What tortured mind came up with this idea? :)

Skip


http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6213564964&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1

Re: It must be a conspiracy, Dan

William Duffield, on the Cohansey

>Yes, Popular Woodworking, with not one, but two rants by Adam. But, it's not the December issue, it's November, 2005, Issue # 151.

Issue 151

Steve Kubien

>I was confused for a bit as well but my copy arrived this past Friday. Issue #151, November 2005. The cover has a smug looking Lonnie Bird on the cover with a chest of drawers he appears to have created by merely waving a magic wand. Nice looking work.

The other thing you may be confused about (I know I was) is all of the congratulations to Chris Schwartz...Steve Shanesy has stepped down as editor and Chris has been named as the new Grand Pooba. Congrats Chris.

Steve Kubien

Ajax, Ontario

Re: Speaking of brothers......

Todd Hughes

>Supposedly these were made so you can plane wooden shingles and you would have a plane handy with your shingling hatchet....Sort of surprised it didn't go for more....Todd

OK... that's Spooky

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA

>

Thank you both...

Dan Moening in Cooling Sacramento.

>As my mail is a day or two behind the pertinent article discussions I often end up with preconceived notions about the content before I have even had the chance to read them. :-0

Oddly enough, I'm not so sure I would appreciate Adam's articles as much if I didn't "know" him from this forum.

I have been buying PW for the past 6 months, waiting for a different subscription to expire so that I may redirect funds; so I was fairly confident that I had not missed an issue.

Dan.

Eyeing the mailbox in Sac.

Re: Speaking of brothers......

Jack Guzman from Maine

>I don't know for sure but I'm guessing that thing was made for wooden shingles.---Jack

Re: Speaking of brothers......

Skip in Falls Church

>Hi Todd,

Well, at least there's a decent explanation - the thing looked pretty darn weird to me when I saw it.

Skip

Its Hideous!

Adam Cherubini

>I'm so glad I was outbid.

Hey has anybody ever bid (I'm thinking about a real auction, but I guess online auctions are similar) and then immediately wish you hadn't? I did that at the last NJ CRAFTS auction. I think it was a run of the mill Ohio round plane and I bid $20 then immediately regretted it. Fortunately the interior designer from TGI Fridays was there and bid it up to $45. Never been so happy to lose a bid in my life.

Adam

Re: Its Hideous!

Todd Hughes

>I have bid many times then wondering just what am I doing hope that the other guy bids just one more time.Usually they do. Often I will see something maybe I should buy but I just don't want to so am relieved when I get out bid. Few weeks ago at my weekly auction they had a table pilled up with at least 15 or so old big wood workers bench vices, along with some other vices and a tin machine which was on the bottom of them all. Some were in parts but everything looked OK if rusty and of high quality. Now this was a mound of cast iron and I was in my car and just didn't want to have to buy them but figured if they went real cheap I would have to. Luckly [maybe] they went for $70 so I didn't have to fool with them.....I did get that nice pexto stake plate and half dozen stakes for $50 though....Todd

Yeah, On an Auction Called e- something

Bob Hutchins in central Texas

>

Re: Broad Axes--Adam and others

ThomD

>I'm not sure what you want this for. A single bevel broad axe is difficult to control if you can't get it over what you want to cut. So for instance when surfacing a beam, the beam ends (termnates) on the upper edge, you can stand over it, and plane the surface by cuting down on top of it, along a line. The basic object is like scrub planing. The offset handle protects your hands. But raise that same beam up on end, and cut down into it to rough out it's shape, you need a concave cut, and the axe doesn't want to do it. I haven't really found the use for my broad hatchet. Except that a BH has a very short handle anyway. I like about 18", so the hatchet I have of german make is pretty much an axe too.

The double bevel axe is far more useful, but I don't know what the double bevel BH is for at all. It is all Lee Valley stocks, though someone told me they will order anything from Gransford. I assume it is for log work, but I don't know. You can hew with it, but it require a glancing kind of blow which is quite hard to effect. I mean you could do rough hewing wonderfully, though it would be heavy for most uses. Planing out the timber with it would be a chore though. Gransford makes a lot of different hewing paterns. Some with offset handles, but the bevel inside. That one is a contorted looking thing. Apparently there is enough demand in scandinavia to make the 7 or 9 paterns (?) popular.

I have an antique monstrosity that is huge, for pine, and the one Woodcraft stocks for hardwood. I would get a Gransford or two if they showed up at LV. The Woodcraft axe has some serious adherants. Though I never seem to get mine in the field at the right time. I did a slug of red oak hewing this summer with a swede cutting axe!

Re: Its Hideous!

Victor Parisian

>I for one will bid something up on e-bay when I feel it is going way to cheap. I have a nice tandem bicycle in the shop as proof that this isn't the smartest move sometimes:-0 But wait until early spring, when the weather begins to turn, me thinks I can double my money.

In the mean time, SWMBO complains that it is uncomfortable. I'm thinking "just shut up and pedal!! :-)

Thanks for all the advice.

Kevin Adams

>

Re: Its Hideous!

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>This message leaves me speechless. I just had to tell you.

Pam

I have to disagree- one sided bevel-

Greg Bétit, Crown Point NY

>Hi Kevin,

What you want is a "side axe", a hatchet sized broad axe. I'm not sure you got a chance to see it in action when you were up, but it's a favorite of mine. Razor sharp, and beveled on one side. I used it quite often to prepare riven material while you were outside sweating on the shaving horse. (Just prior to persuading the nastier stock with "Mr. Gazunga", the 1/4" X 13" draw knife.)

You use a broad hatchet to trim rough riven stock to roughly flat in no time. Keep those fingers out of harms way! You saw Adam's article; you can use it to chop, or choke up on the handle and use it like a plane. It's great on branchy stock, makes those knots wish they were somewhere else. It's great on riven stock when you didn't quite split it along the grain, too- you can lop off the unwanted fat side likkety-'split'. The flat side helps make the surface of the material flat.

Greg