Small broad axes/hatchets

[thunderstick]

Do you have any?
What do you use them for?
I recently found an old one in a trip to Florida when we stopped off at a flea market in Georgia. Later on the same trip we stopped at Epcot Center and in the World showcase section I saw a very similar broad axe/hatchet in the Norwegian sector. The lighting was very poor at Epcot so I apologize for the grainy photo. However, I noted the similarities in design. I was wondering if the this old design might be a combination of both the Viking battle axe and the Norwegian woodworker.
Here are some pics beginning with the flea market find, the Epcot Norwegian, and the finished product.

 

[thunderstick]

The axe is a right hand single bevel. It took a significant amount of grinding to lay back the bevel before I could start using the file and stone to finish it.

 

[thunderstick]

 

[Yankee Josh]

I've been incorporating them into my log processing prior to making a haft. Once quartered and riven I de-bark with a half hatchet and then use my single bevel hewing hatchet as well as another one for roughing out the shape. Seen here;

I steam bent the haft prior to hanging it. It's not necessary and a straight haft would've worked just fine for what I wish to accomplish with it.

I find them quite fun to use. I'm curious as to how they used to use them in the past as well. They're must've been a bunch of uses for them!
How was the steel on your hatchet? Reasonably hard?

 

[Square_peg]

I use one for various carving projects.

In the old days these were called a "stump axe" because there were used on a tall stump which served as a chopping block. I use a tall chopping block or two short rounds stack to get to a convenient height.

I have several American broad hatchets but I find myself most often reaching for my Stubai. It's similar but not exactly like the models shown here.
https://wisementrading.com/wood-working/stubai/stubai-carpenters-axes/
Mueller makes a very similar stump axe. My Stubai is a little lighter than those, about 800 grams. I find the thin profile more efficient for my work.

Yesterday I was using mine to trim down some short splits of black locust for pegs to insert through tenon & mortise joints.

 

[thunderstick]

I could not discern any hatchet brand marking, but the steel is very good. No lesser files than my Sandvicks would cut that steel. I'm assuming in the old days these tools were used quite a bit in timber framing for the lighter and finer work. I'm still wondering if this design goes way back to the Norse era.

 

[jake pogg]

Speaking Very generally axes can be divided into those that cut across the wood grain,and those that cut With,or along the direction of the grain.
Carpenter's hatchet is of course the latter sort.
These,the Hewing tools, can further be divided into ones for coarser/earlier stages of work,and ones for the finer/finishing/more Exact work.
Hewing hatchets are again of this second sort,for reason of their back(unbeveled)surface being straight.
That straight back roughly corresponds to the sole of a wood plane,it's a reference and a guide that causes the edge to travel in a straight plane;it has very limited capacity for jumping over any bumps or uneven sections,it's job is to shave those off if encountered.

Conversely,axes and chisels that are meant for earlier,more preliminary stages of work have a curved,radiused kind of a back reference plane-it allows the edge to contact only a protruding high spot,and not digging into surrounding wood.

In regards to Norse usage,well,the my first wish is that more studies were made of the kind of work they did,and the kind of tools they used to do it with.
Speaking again VERY generally their work tended to be more complex and "organic",going With the curves and undulations of natural wood grain,rather than attempting to conform a round and curved log to plane geometry,straight lines,square corners,et c.
I'm thinking of their iconic Stav work,their ship-building,some of the older log-building methods.
So their purposes would more likely require a tool that,if of a single-bevel sort,then the back of it would be fairly deeply parabolic vs straight...
That's my (once again-VERY general) view of history of wooden architecture,the closer to Industrial Age the straighter and squarer the work,and so correspondingly the tools.
And hewing hatchet is very strictly straight,and square.
(a lovely tool,i use mine a lot,for tasks many and sundry).

 

[Ernest DuBois]

I recall others writing about sensing that the steel on similar hatchets seemed exceptionally hard. Probably there is a relation between the character of the steel and the primary intended use. I think there is no evidence that such a hatchet was particularly important in timber framing. In the kind of timber framing you probably are thinking of, those olden golden days, we are talking of mortise and tenon work done primarily with saw, chisel, auger. Axes that may have been involved would certainly have been on the same scale as the work and not something as small as a hatchet except incidentally as in a case like square peg making up his square or hexagonal pegs, some will use their hatchet for this work. Being a bit familiar with Norwegian axes, in the way Mr Pogg's laid it out even as I was typing, I see no particular physical relationship of this or the Disney Land axe to anything Norwegian in spite of what may be the claims of the exhibit. If anything both forms fall within a range of typical English axes.

 

[jake pogg]

Yes,Ernest makes some Really good points.
And both he and Square_peg(listen to Them,i'm only kinda mumbling...)
indicate the carpenter's hatchet is more of a Bench tool.
(indeed one of it's common names).
Somehow in timber-framing such small axe-like tool is skipped,chisels and slicks taking it's place for finer work of actual fitting,and broadaxes for primary shaping of the timbers.

 

[Agent_H]

 

[thunderstick]

The reason I mention Norse history and usage is from watching some Scandinavian timber framing trying to utilize historical methodology. I'm seeing them use these small broad hatchets for finer framing work.
Here is a You Tube clip demonstrating how a vintage hatchet may have been used. For clarification ... I'm not primarily taking a position on how it was historically used I'm primarily making observations and asking questions to learn about the potentially varied usages.

 

[thunderstick]

another interesting one

 

[Ernest DuBois]

It seems like it's primarily log building or stacked construction that interests you.A building stile supremely suited to axe work.
Here are some more shows, some familiar some maybe not, for your enjoyment.

 

[thunderstick]

That link is quite a collection.

 

[Ernest DuBois]

Yes.

 

[jake pogg]

I'm seeing them use these small broad hatchets for finer framing work.
Here is a You Tube clip demonstrating how a vintage hatchet may have been used.

Ah,i see what you meant now.
I'm running around and haven't had a chance to look at your linked video,or Ernest's material.
But,what it looks like,(and it makes sense that it's what will be used)is what is known as Laftebile.
That is a quite a different class of axes from the Kent-pattern carpenter's,or bench axe.
Laftebile is unbelievably thin in the blade,and of course broad,it developed around those particular types of joinery.Norwegian scribe.
If you were looking for a tool that'd do it's job i personally would sooner look to a large slick.
Very controlled paring,with an occasional Very exact chopping,all requiring a thinnest possible profile.

 

[jake pogg]

(that's some Cool stuff following that link of Ernest's...).

Here's an old video that i'm sure you've seen before:

The reason i post this is that the axe Lars and Ulrika forge looks fairly "conventional",like any "normal" axe.But if you look very closely at several junctures where the view is from top or bottom you may notice just how unusually thin that blade is...
That angle of bevels converging is probably less than most chisels,and that is what makes this particular tool a rather specialized one,there's not another quite like it.
So in it's Action it is a Laftebile,in spite of looking more conventional.

Later in the video we see it used,of course.The guy using it is Very good,those techniques are not easy to duplicate.
He of course demonstrates the way it was done long ago,that is where and why both the joinery and the tool evolved.

If you tried using that thick-bladed,single-bevel carpenter's hatchet to accomplish similar tasks i think it'd work rather poorly.
Josh,up above,demonstrates the classic work with one,hand-held,smallish stave-work on the stump or bench,that is where your hatchet would perform beautifully.

 

[Ernest DuBois]

There is along with the thin blade, which I agree with Jake is very helpful in doing this kind of joinery work, I love my thin bladed carpenters axe,

the big distinction to be made between single and double bevelds. All the axes in the videos are double beveleds and these by far outnumber single beveleds of all Finnish and Scandinavian carpentry axes. You will see single beveleds in slöjd work and shoe making but in carpentry and boat making the double bevel is dominant. Not until you get down lower in Europe and another kind of construction technique does the single bevel catch up.

 

[Hairy Clipper]

I have a Plumb (an escapee from an online auction site) single bevel (on the right side) hewing hatchet that I am working on getting cleaned up. Not that it is bad, but, it had years of dried sap on both sides that I was able to wash off and the edge needed work and less work now. It is in pretty good shape although the toe is rounded off some otherwise it has a nice straight edge. I would have to remove 1/8" or so of metal to get it all squared up and I think I will remove that metal as the need to sharpen comes along. Is it correct to say that this construction uses freshly cut trees or is a there a kiln or air drying process before use?

I am following this tread because the building techniques have always interested me and the video records of Richard Proenneke have been my only teacher thus far. I appreciate the videos that have been posted here and if there are more there is at least one watchful student here on the Minnesota Prairie. I have always wondered what modern man would do if suddenly all the power equipment and tools became useless and few knew how to build the ways of our predecessors built things?

Ernest: I like that hatchet! It has the look of experience to it and seems to say, "back up son, men are working here." I am curious how long the edge is what it weighs?

For what it is worth: I have no idea why this computer started doing bold type?

 

[crbnSteeladdict]

I am following this tread because the building techniques have always interested me and the video records of Richard Proenneke have been my only teacher thus far. I appreciate the videos that have been posted here and if there are more there is at least one watchful student here on the Minnesota Prairie. I have always wondered what modern man would do if suddenly all the power equipment and tools became useless and few knew how to build the ways of our predecessors built things?

If SHTF my new dream location would be wooded property in close proximity to landfill. Have you heard about this as...hole?? https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/16/us/fugitive-hiding-bunker-wisconsin-trnd/index.html
But seriously, I like the idea of south facing energy efficient houses buried into the side of the hill.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthship