Broad Axe Ramblings

[the-accumulator]

In a recent post I showed a Fayette Plumb broad axe (set up righty) with a long haft angled to the right. If I were standing on the ground hewing a log righty, i would want a shorter haft, and, if I were standing atop the log, I wouldn't want the haft angled to the right. So I don't understand this axe.
I also own a Peck broad axe (set up righty) with a long haft that is angled to the left. Not good if you're standing next to the log but maybe okay if you're standing atop the log. Actually, I think it was just hung by someone who didn't have a clue! Or maybe they did?!
Here are photos of the two clamped together with a 2x4 between them so you can compare the designs of the hafts:





FYI, the Plumb (bottom) haft feels as though it was shaped with a draw knife; the other feels like it's baseball bat!
In this photo, I have added a broad axe that shares space on my axe rack in the machine shed right next to the Peck:



I'm not sure that the logo shows up well in the photo. but it's branded "HUNT". Yes, I've been storing "HUNT" and "PECK" right next to each other without realizing it until now. That and $1.75 will get you a cup of coffee if you're lucky! T-A

 

[crbnSteeladdict]

In a recent post I showed a Fayette Plumb broad axe (set up righty) with a long haft angled to the right. If I were standing on the ground hewing a log righty, i would want a shorter haft, and, if I were standing atop the log, I wouldn't want the haft angled to the right. So I don't understand this axe.
I also own a Peck broad axe (set up righty) with a long haft that is angled to the left. Not good if you're standing next to the log but maybe okay if you're standing atop the log. Actually, I think it was just hung by someone who didn't have a clue! Or maybe they did?!
Here are photos of the two clamped together with a 2x4 between them so you can compare the designs of the hafts:

Broad Axe handles were offered in all kind of shapes and forms depending on technique, height of user and personal preferences. https://bladeforums.com/threads/cur...axes-with-long-handles.1648686/#post-18857453

 

[Ernest DuBois]

Man, those are crazy axes. Curiously enough axe #2 which seems so completely bassackword and a hack job to boot at least has the concept of the curved handle correct in the way the articulation occurs immediately where the handle exits the eye and then continues more or less straight as opposed to axe #1 with its continuous curve along the length, assuming it was done like that with intention, so I would say both are expressions, to one degree or the other one, of a confused worker missing a bit of informed guidance at the outset. I think it's great that you've got those examples and they are a good case for preservation rather than correction, you know, in an instructional way.

 

[jake pogg]

I also own a Peck broad axe (set up righty) with a long haft that is angled to the left. Not good if you're standing next to the log but maybe okay if you're standing atop the log.

NOT speaking from experience.
It seems like it's set up to work Over the log,with log between you and the face being hewn.
(maybe not a huge stick,but 8-10-12" i can see bending over...(maybe even comfortable...).

 

[the-accumulator]

This one was definitely hafted to be used right-handed standing next to the log:





BLOOD GOFFE & CO CAST STEEL WARRANTED BLOODSTON N.Y. (early 1850s) Thirteen inches of exposed haft with good knuckle clearance. And it comes with a whole hardware store jammed into the top of the haft!

 

[Old Axeman]

What I see in the two handles -- the fawns foot with the eye bolt in the butt I think is just a warped single bit that someone put in the head so they could hang it on a wall; the other I think has a real broad axe handle (probably a factory reversible- full length with no butt swell so it could be cut off to fit the axeman) that was installed wrong. I do not think either of these were ever used to hew with these hafts.

 

[Ernest DuBois]

This one was definitely hafted to be used right-handed standing next to the log:

There you have an axe hung in a more informed way, set up for timber framing or stacked construction work at a decent working height, as opposed to squaring-up rail road ties.

Mine has passed review here before this but here it is anyway for current purposes, it's m' baby for sure, no matter the others at hand I always come back to it, without thinking.

This one which has been refurbished since the picture has more off-set in the handle and sometimes I will take it up and work well with it all day long, another time not liking it at all. There you have it for subjectivity.

And this one, so massive and me so inexperienced early on when I had,it, truly kicked my ass and so I got rid of it to my unyielding regret.

 

[the-accumulator]

Mine has passed review here before this but here it is anyway for current purposes

My first broad axe, a German goose wing, in as-found condition. A friend of mine, a Stanley tool collector, paid $2.50 for it at an auction! He and I did some trading, and we both were very happy. My friend said that old tools never have their original handles, but he thought this one probably did!?




Ochsenkopf...I love the mark! But it lacks all the decorations that yours has. T-A

 

[Ernest DuBois]

My friend said that old tools never have their original handles, but he thought this one probably did!?

I don't know if the handles of my axes are exceptions, expressions of a regional tradition only. They are all from the Southern part out of the Alps and in particular Austria and consistently made from Beech wood, the tung always with a reduction leaving it shouldered, (always with a few millimeters gap to accommodate fluctuation in the wood from changing air conditions), with collar and below a stylized transition again to a reduction through the grip so there's no abruptness where the socket begins.

It's logical since Ochsenkopf was more widespread through the whole country that more variation in mounting the handle would occur and that your axe's handler has put it on nicely with considerable skill.

I can't help wonder about the mounting on the Blood Goffe. Do you see indication that at some point - prior to all the hardware getting attached - the handle might have been made so it could be easily reversed? Such a disparity between where it exits on the top and enters at the bottom, though it could be more a matter of perception on my part.

 

[the-accumulator]

the handle might have been made so it could be easily reversed?

I see no indication that the handle was made to be reversed. Comparing it to the handle in the Underhill pictured below, there are several differences.





Yes, I know that the Underhill is missing the wedge needed to hold the handle in place during use, but, as you can see by the gap, there is plenty of room for the handle to be temporarily wedged in place.
The handle in th err Blood doesn't stick up through the eye far enough (although it may have at one time) to facilitate tapping the handle out for reversing handedness. I'm not sure what was the plan when this handle was originally installed. Thanks for staying with me on this one! T-A

 

[Ernest DuBois]

My pleasure and thanks for raising the topic.

Guess I'd rather have two appropriate dedicateds for switching direction rather than a single universal, personally. Can't imagine anything nicer on the wall of the workshop than two opposing twin axes hung up there. Still I've never encountered an occasion where there was a need, it would only be for the challenge of hewing ambidextrously.

Oh, now I get it, Underhill axe. At first I thought you meant that goofy tv figure. That's an attractive handle that one.

This one's been wedged and held for years with much use. Well I can see an advantage if you want to pack it up for travel or something.

 

[the-accumulator]

Still I've never encountered an occasion where there was a need

I watched a YouTube video a while back that showed a craftsman with a broad axe flattening walls built of stacked squared timbers. The craftsman used a righty until he came to an inside corner and had to smooth the wall to the right of the corner. He switched to a lefty just for that small section of wall. Not a situation I will likely ever encounter. T-A

 

[the-accumulator]

Check out how long the haft is on this guy's broad axe. He's a very talented hewer. Imagine the muscles it takes to do that for a few hours! T-A

 

[Old Axeman]

What this guy is doing is not hewing, it is surfacing a sawn cant to resemble a hewn log. The finished product does not even come close to resembling a real hewn log. To qualify for a broad axe hewn log it must start as a log, direct from the tree, bark and all. You have to understand layout and all the steps to turn a tree into a hewn house log. This is a joke to me and makes me both sad and mad about what the internet, and clowns like this guy, have done to a traditional, professional, craft. And the haft is too long also.

 

[Ernest DuBois]

Check out how long the haft is on this guy's broad axe. He's a very talented hewer. Imagine the muscles it takes to do that for a few hours! T-A

That's a very sensible strategy around the knots, skip and return. Working one time with a group of Japanese carpenters I watched how they did something similar when planing around the knots.
I've also worked with German carpenters who use an extra long handle mounted on an undersized breitbeil kopf - so to say it - work positioned up high like that. Maybe the two go together somehow but I found it difficult to make the adjustment and glad to get back to my mid-range set-up, somewhere between knee and thigh height where I've never had a problem with excessive back pain or stressed muscles.
Please compare the body postures and grip between this shot of Hannes Schnelle going at it

and the other one. Which appears more relaxed and effortless and aligned with the physical actions and desired result involved?

 

[the-accumulator]

Yes, I've been storing "HUNT" and "PECK" right next to each other without realizing it until now.

I'm not especially good at swinging any edge tool, although I get by out of necessity. And the same is true of my keyboarding skills; I can't type very well under normal circumstances, and, blindfolded, not at all! So imagine how much effort I put into telling my story of the two axes, stored side-by-side. And, for all my effort, my story seems to have gone completely unnoticed! Oh, well...

This one's been wedged and held for years with much use. Well I can see an advantage if you want to pack it up for travel or something

Ernest, yours is permanently hung and is tight. I can't imagine that a handle held in place by a temporary wedge, and, for that matter, shaped to fit into the eye from two different directions, could possibly stay rock-solid tight. The only advantage I can see would be only having to carry one 9lb axe around that could serve two purposes. Definitely a compromise, don't you think? T-A

 

[Ernest DuBois]

Oh yeah, a compromise for sure. The question is what is lost and what is gained and who's the beneficiary and who the looser? I'd say the producers benefit in only having to tool-up for a single production, the user suffers because of the limitations you hint at in the sufficiency of the mounting. Makes me think about the differences between a compression fit - wedged - and the friction - socketed. I'm poorly positioned by way of experience which is only with the latter, though certain conclusions are possible even at the theoretical level.

 

[the-accumulator]

COOPER'S BROAD AXE: I watched:

and one or two other videos about coopering. I'm amazed at what an experienced cooper can do almost completely by eye, almost no measuring.
I wanted to see how a cooper used a broad axe and an adze. I also learned how they used draw knives and spoke shaves.
Here's my copper's broad axe:






I think the mark reads MCCOY ST LOUIS MO. I found no references to that name anywhere. Is anyone familiar with that mark? I'm also wondering why my axe is in such poor condition. I'm guessing that it got rode hard and put away wet doing things for which it wasn't intended.
In more than one video I learned that coopers trimmed/shaped staves with their axe. Why did they need a broad axe for that? Does anyone have any coopering experience? Inquiring minds need to know! Thanks, T-A

 

[Ernest DuBois]

The axe used by a cooper was an efficient way of shaping staves from rather bulky, riven billets in preparation for jointing . The crucial element is a flattened side facing the edge of the work piece as an aide guiding the cut, not that a broadaxe was necessary it just happens to have been broadly accepted. I have a tool nothing like that used in the same way called a duigenhouwer or coutre.

Also an excessively curved-back single beveled axe which I guess was for forming the inside face for some very large barrel staves.

Coopering means nothing more than curved work. I didn't ever make a bucket or whiskey barrel but have done some coopering though I have immense respect for the old-time barrel making tradesmen .
You could also look into the tonnilier for more information, there's tons of it to find.

 

[the-accumulator]

the tonnilier for more information, there's tons of it to find.

I'm not familiar with the tonnilier. Where do I find it? Might I find more about MCCOY there as well? Thanks, T-A