Finnish/Earlier Scandi axes - Kirves

Old Axeman said:
The axeman in the above video (with the beard and hat) is VERY good at hewing with his goosewing broadaxe.
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Yes, no doubt about it, and who could deny it. Then again, consider the exceptional quality of the stem he works, young spruce, coming out of a wooded parcel particularly well managed for harvesting good lumber. Again not to discredit the work of the hewer in this instance, especially in his absence, but here is this same man's work, using the same axe on a stem of very different character, kind on wanky oak, just for some perspective, you know.

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As far as technique, I notice how he takes the nice emphatic blows, so he gets the most out of his axe. At the same time his swing comes from across his body at an angle and that seems less than ideal. Were he to change up his grip with the inner hand up high and the outer hand down low on the handle this would bring the swinging acton in-line with the vertical side of the beam. Now, with all that nonsense put out here, his results make the final argument at the end of the day. Really though what I like so much is the beautiful axe, so iconic of a particular form of Swedish hewing axe, its form and how it's weighted, it must be a pleasure to use - especially when the wood is fine.
 
Thanks,Ernest,for all this interesting and valuable information.
It's curious how the goose-wing,as it was spreading northward into Scandinavia,begins to loose it's long,deep socket-eye at some point...
I'd guess that is connected to the advance of the Industrial Age,and more confident,mono-steel construction?(Seems like the Swedish hewing axes did have a long socket in not too distant past...and suddenly-in their factory reincarnation-they do so no longer....).

Here's a curious hewing axe that i got to examine recently in the collections of the museum of U.of Alaska (Fairbanks).
It was forged by a local smith,possibly a Scandinavian,in the late 1890-ies(in the town of Barrow,Alaska,the northern-most point of the United States).
https://imgur.com/a/kOOtF

https://imgur.com/a/rkUTL

https://imgur.com/a/BTlx6

The last photo with my arm in it kinda gives an idea of the size and heft....it isn't small,probably 7-8 lbs...(and a lefty...).
The smith was obviously short-handed in his forge,judging by the difficulty he'd had with closing the welds completely...But the tool has served long,and has a lot of wear...
In shape it seems more robust,it's mass more concentrated,and i wonder if that too had to do with the difficulty of forging something this heavy under less than ideal shop circumstances.
 
What a mut that is, a mix of No.Am./E. N. C. and So. Europe even somethings about it being not unrecognizable to the Japanese wood choppers. Surely belongs in the circus and not in the museum - in fact it belongs in the hands of someone who could make use of it. Actually it is a great museum piece where you have been able to get your hands on it for a true picture. I could and should and will go on and on about it even more but for now want to take advantage of a break in the bleakness that has blanketed my place since September and get to some outdoor chores while the getting's good.
 
jake pogg said:
Thanks,Ernest,for all this interesting and valuable information.
It's curious how the goose-wing,as it was spreading northward into Scandinavia,begins to loose it's long,deep socket-eye at some point...
I'd guess that is connected to the advance of the Industrial Age,and more confident,mono-steel construction?(Seems like the Swedish hewing axes did have a long socket in not too distant past...and suddenly-in their factory reincarnation-they do so no longer....).

Here's a curious hewing axe that i got to examine recently in the collections of the museum of U.of Alaska (Fairbanks).
It was forged by a local smith,possibly a Scandinavian,in the late 1890-ies(in the town of Barrow,Alaska,the northern-most point of the United States).
https://imgur.com/a/kOOtF

https://imgur.com/a/rkUTL

https://imgur.com/a/BTlx6

The last photo with my arm in it kinda gives an idea of the size and heft....it isn't small,probably 7-8 lbs...(and a lefty...).
The smith was obviously short-handed in his forge,judging by the difficulty he'd had with closing the welds completely...But the tool has served long,and has a lot of wear...
In shape it seems more robust,it's mass more concentrated,and i wonder if that too had to do with the difficulty of forging something this heavy under less than ideal shop circumstances.
Click to expand...

Jake, I have no words of wisdom. I just wanted to see your pictures in line as the discussion unfolds :thumbsup:

Jake Pogg's pictures:
zkvfeMU.jpg


qxIjZb7.jpg


mOzuYPk.jpg
 
The hewer made a couple of good choices before he ever started. First of all he's hewing from top to bottom which makes for cleaner hewing because your axe isn't drawn under the grain. The second thing is that he's hewing clear, nearly knot free wood, a testament to the growing conditions Ernest mentioned above. The tree was harvested during winter while the sap was down and there was less resin to deal with.

The tandem juggling act makes a great show. However, it looks less efficient than what one man could do standing atop the log with a full size axe. And the final cut of each notch looks downright scary with the axe breaking through the wood and swinging down at the axeman.
 
jake pogg said:
Thanks,Ernest,for all this interesting and valuable information.
It's curious how the goose-wing,as it was spreading northward into Scandinavia,begins to loose it's long,deep socket-eye at some point...
I'd guess that is connected to the advance of the Industrial Age,and more confident,mono-steel construction?(Seems like the Swedish hewing axes did have a long socket in not too distant past...and suddenly-in their factory reincarnation-they do so no longer....).
Click to expand...

Mr Anderson, in his commentary at the source of the squaring-up video, mentions that he is working in the tradition of the local area in Southern Sweden just adjacent to Denmark where, from what I have seen, buildings of a certain time share the characteristics of that section to include most of Denmark and the northern costs, using Hamburg just as a reference, in Germany. If I were to call the kind of building I'm going on about, timber frame, it might bring some kind of rough or general visualizations. The materials used in the stacked construction seen more outside this small southern corner, a corner I always try and get through as fast as possible, are prepared with a different intention more representative or distinctive of Sweden.

François Calame has made an interview with Nils-Eric Anderson talking some about these axes.

http://www.en.charpentiers.culture....ls/specificcollections/nilsericanderson?media

The long socket axes are the ones with the thickened bit. Here is one a friend has had reconditioned, (the poll renewed) by a very good French smid. This particular one is a fine axe, better than the Gransfors remake of it with a significant difference in weight distribution.
dsc02891.jpeg


Does the eye of this Alaska axe, Jake, have a top and a bottom, leaving aside all the rest?
 
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I don't know if there is a direct correlation between factory production, lets use Hults Bruk from a certain time forward as an example, and the decline of the long sockets. It could be so but I have a few collard in place of socketed, all from small forges. In fact I would say that while HB was shifting into mass production mode, there were at the same time many many small forges still selling, just not so much axes with sockets. Still, the pressure of the factory may have something to do with the general decline.
 
Square_peg said:
I suppose they would have had to float in logs from down south. I don't think there's a stick of wood growing anywhere near Barrow.
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You're entirely right,of course.I'm not sure why they needed a broadaxe in Barrow:)...Driftwood from the Yukon gets north to the tip of Seward penninsula,and there's timber up some of the arctic drainages such as the Noatak...(then again,that provenancing by the museum may be arbitrary,too...an older tool off of a whaling ship reforged/-purposed...?)
 
Does the eye of this Alaska axe, Jake, have a top and a bottom, leaving aside all the rest?[/QUOTE]

Ernest,no,i haven't measured the eye...Assuming(never a good thing),that the longer part would be the toe...

Thank you for all that wonderful data on the scradbilar,very interesting.
Lars Enander,in his book on axe-forging uses just such a socketed version as an example of the older,multi-component welded construction.
In that video you posted above one can see that transition,from the earlier socket to the shorter,though still welded one,and on to the Hjartum-looking slit and drifted solid.
Interesting how the blade differed from the thin,to the piilu-like thickened bit.
That right there surely have must separated these tools by their purposing?(with the thickly built-up bit being for finishing?).
 
Square_peg said:
The tandem juggling act makes a great show. However, it looks less efficient than what one man could do standing atop the log with a full size axe. And the final cut of each notch looks downright scary with the axe breaking through the wood and swinging down at the axeman.
Click to expand...

Notching, or as you put it juggling, from the side is much easier on the back than doing it from on top.
 
The man in the video with the beard, looks like he might be the same man in an early posted video of hewing a log on all four sides for a church restoration somewhere in Sweden. Same type shirt, buttoned all the way up with a high waisted pair of trousers and equally skillful in the use of an axe. John
 
The beginning point to start off the thinking when making the very pertinent comparison of the two recent squaring-up videos is the height at which the stems are set up, everything else flows in a logical progression from there, the axes used, axing techniques, character of the finished surface, that sort of thing.... So when going on about hewing it is important to have it straight whether it is hewing low or hewing high. Generally the low hewing is where it all began, all those years ago, with the higher-up hewing coming later onto the scene.

Jeez, here I am, again, going on and on about a completely different subject topic.
 
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Square_peg said:
The tandem juggling act makes a great show. However, it looks less efficient than what one man could do standing atop the log with a full size axe. And the final cut of each notch looks downright scary with the axe breaking through the wood and swinging down at the axeman.
Click to expand...

Ernest DuBois said:
Notching, or as you put it juggling, from the side is much easier on the back than doing it from on top.
Click to expand...

It's not bad from the top if you use a long handled axe so you're not so stooped over. That fellow in the 2nd video is using an axe much smaller, shorter and lighter than I like for that work. For me smaller axes feel like toys for this work. A 3-1/2 pound axe on a 34" haft fits my size and style better.

Hewing_7.jpg


The one on the left was my favorite for this work.
 
For low work, you want to be up high I agree. Square, what is your wood sort there and do you have any pictures of the hart wood, such as the fully hewn side? It reminds me of some wood I was asked to square up recently but never could figure out exactly what it was.
The last time I worked like that it was with a small old French axe. It worked out real well.
p8010807.jpg

I really am murdering this topic. Going off on the French axe and chopping in and all that.
 
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