"Rafting Axe"

No doubt that those gentlemen in that photo (and their fore bearers) are rafting. And I am assured that they did use axes all the way. I think "rafting" as a pattern was meant more as of a means of harvest transport than transportation. Is that what they are doing in your photo?

The overbuilt polls were to hammer in eyed spikes/grapples that chains or rope were attached to drive large numbers of logs downstream. One of many examples:
wood_log_dog_400_591.jpg

http://www.bentoncountymuseum.org/index.php/exhibitions/past-exhibitions/2014-exhibitions/cool-tools



I like where this is going and that looks like a wild time though!
 
Jon, you have a different interpretation of the term "rafting axe". A poll less axe would be unsuitable for use as a rafting axe as the term is used in North America. A poll less axe would quickly become damaged and useless if put under that sort of stress. The heavy poll and thick eye walls of a North American style rafting axe were designed to be a sort of axe and sledge hammer combined. Even an ordinary American poll axe will not hold up to this kind of use.
 
Square_peg what I have said is not my interpretation but the type of axe rafters used here. There have been different types of rafting (and rafting axes) in different places and different times, what I say is we can't talk about the rafting axe. The axe explained there is concretely the North American type rafting axe.

Agent_H I'm talking about the rafting axe those people in the photo, their parents and their grandparents used. Rafters used a specific axe type different to loggers. Rafter axes were a bit broader, cheekless and the bit was "straightish". Here rafting was made in other ways compared to North America and it needed different tools.

Here you can see a video were former west Pyrenaic rafters show how did they work in their youth,

 
I'm not able to see the video on my mobile device. Are your rafters taking a load of logs downstream to a mill or just building a raft to navigate the river?
 
I'm not able to see the video on my mobile device. Are your rafters taking a load of logs downstream to a mill or just building a raft to navigate the river?

This appears to be another link to the same video:


The rough translation of the video description, below, mentions that in the past, this was how wood from the forests reached its destination.

Recorded the years 1996/97/98. In Burgui, Roncal Valley (Navarra), the Cultural Association of Almadieros organizes, one day a year, the Day of Almadía, recreating the old craft of almadiero. They construct three canyons and descend a section of the River Esca, recalling past times in which, through the river, the wood of the Navarrese forests reached its destination. It has now been declared a National Tourist Interest Festival.
Almadieros in Roncal follows the whole process of construction of the sheds and the descent by the river Esca.
 
Thanks, Steve. So it's the same work achieved by different methods. The difference in the axes is that the North American rafting axe was used to drive 'log dogs' like the picture Agent H posted. By these log dogs and chains a perimeter was constructed to contain a large volume of logs.
log_raft.jpg
 
I know this is an old thread but it brought me to this site.
https://oregonhistoryproject.org/articles/historical-records/log-rafts-1902/#.XNMigrdlDqs
Log-Raft-Troutdale-1902-FSDM2_3.jpg

I love reading stuff like this.

This photograph of men posing atop a “Benson raft” was originally sold as a stereograph by Underwood & Underwood, a stereographic distributing company, established in 1882. Stereographic cards contained two identical images side by side and were looked at through special spectacles, creating a three-dimensional effect for viewers. According to the accompanying text, the photograph dates to 1902. However, the photograph is likely misdated, since rafts of this size were not yet built until 1906. Log rafts like the one pictured here were first developed in 1906 by Simon Benson, a Portland-based timber magnate. Although Benson was not the first timberman to transport his company’s logs to market by rafting them together, he was the first to develop an ocean-worthy raft that could dependably transport “millions of feet” at a time.

Determined to find a way to profit from the high demand for lumber in the booming city of San Diego, California, Benson developed his log rafts so that he could circumvent the high costs of railroad and/or ocean barge transportation along the Pacific Coast. After working out his own design, he hired John A. Festabend to supervise construction of the cigar-shaped rafts, which were assembled in the calm waters of the Wallace Slough, near Clatskanie.

Raft construction began with the building of a floating wooden “cradle,” which slightly resembled the wooden frame of a large sailing ship. A floating derrick then lifted logs into the cradle over a period of four to seven weeks. Although logs of all sizes were transported, a large volume of tree-length logs were included in the raft to give it strength and stability in its voyage across the Columbia River bar and in the open ocean. Enormous chains were also used to lash the raft together, with one running lengthwise through the center, some encircling the raft approximately every fifteen to twenty feet, and still more attaching the chains to each other at strategic points throughout the raft.

When a raft was complete, one side of the cradle was removed and the raft was “kicked out.” Once free-floating, rafts would “flatten out” in the water, further tightening the circle chains and making them even stronger. Most rafts hauled approximately 4 to 6 million feet of logs and were typically about 800 to 1000 feet long, 55 feet wide, and 35 feet thick from top to bottom—usually drafting 26 to 28 feet deep. Holding them together was anywhere from 175 to 250 tons of chain.

Benson’s rafts were transported the 1,100 miles to San Diego during the summer, arriving at his saw mill roughly 15 days after leaving Clatskanie. The rafts were a huge success. Between 1906 and 1941, 120 Benson rafts were sent to San Diego from the Columbia River, with only 4 being lost by ocean storm or fire. More than half the time, the rafts were “deck loaded” with processed lumber like shingles, fence posts, poles and spurs to maximize profits. Even so, Simon Benson quickly outgrew the business venture and sold all of his holdings in Clatskanie and San Diego between 1909 and 1911.
 
I know this is an old thread but it brought me to this site.
https://oregonhistoryproject.org/articles/historical-records/log-rafts-1902/#.XNMigrdlDqs
Log-Raft-Troutdale-1902-FSDM2_3.jpg

I love reading stuff like this.

This photograph of men posing atop a “Benson raft” was originally sold as a stereograph by Underwood & Underwood, a stereographic distributing company, established in 1882. Stereographic cards contained two identical images side by side and were looked at through special spectacles, creating a three-dimensional effect for viewers. According to the accompanying text, the photograph dates to 1902. However, the photograph is likely misdated, since rafts of this size were not yet built until 1906. Log rafts like the one pictured here were first developed in 1906 by Simon Benson, a Portland-based timber magnate. Although Benson was not the first timberman to transport his company’s logs to market by rafting them together, he was the first to develop an ocean-worthy raft that could dependably transport “millions of feet” at a time.

Determined to find a way to profit from the high demand for lumber in the booming city of San Diego, California, Benson developed his log rafts so that he could circumvent the high costs of railroad and/or ocean barge transportation along the Pacific Coast. After working out his own design, he hired John A. Festabend to supervise construction of the cigar-shaped rafts, which were assembled in the calm waters of the Wallace Slough, near Clatskanie.

Raft construction began with the building of a floating wooden “cradle,” which slightly resembled the wooden frame of a large sailing ship. A floating derrick then lifted logs into the cradle over a period of four to seven weeks. Although logs of all sizes were transported, a large volume of tree-length logs were included in the raft to give it strength and stability in its voyage across the Columbia River bar and in the open ocean. Enormous chains were also used to lash the raft together, with one running lengthwise through the center, some encircling the raft approximately every fifteen to twenty feet, and still more attaching the chains to each other at strategic points throughout the raft.

When a raft was complete, one side of the cradle was removed and the raft was “kicked out.” Once free-floating, rafts would “flatten out” in the water, further tightening the circle chains and making them even stronger. Most rafts hauled approximately 4 to 6 million feet of logs and were typically about 800 to 1000 feet long, 55 feet wide, and 35 feet thick from top to bottom—usually drafting 26 to 28 feet deep. Holding them together was anywhere from 175 to 250 tons of chain.

Benson’s rafts were transported the 1,100 miles to San Diego during the summer, arriving at his saw mill roughly 15 days after leaving Clatskanie. The rafts were a huge success. Between 1906 and 1941, 120 Benson rafts were sent to San Diego from the Columbia River, with only 4 being lost by ocean storm or fire. More than half the time, the rafts were “deck loaded” with processed lumber like shingles, fence posts, poles and spurs to maximize profits. Even so, Simon Benson quickly outgrew the business venture and sold all of his holdings in Clatskanie and San Diego between 1909 and 1911.
I'm in agreement as this being one of the finest axe threads available. History that's been lost!
 
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