anybody around here still chop?

[svk]

I don't "chop" wood , but I split my firewood with an axe.

I have 3 axes, this one is the only one that splits oak and beech unlike anything I have ever encountered.
The handle is 42-44" long, allows for a forceful swing with little effort.

I have forbidden anyone in my family to use it threatening that I would no longer chop our firewood if it gets misused.
I buck and chop 7 cubic meters of oak logs a year!
The rounds are cut anywhere between 10-14" long.

My "splitter" , powered by a single bull!

View attachment 496381 View attachment 496382 View attachment 496383 View attachment 496384 View attachment 496385

I need a new handle!

Very unique! Was that hand forged, or where did you obtain it?

 

[bikemike]

I love to split with the Fiscars x27, but no interest in chopping on a normal basis, although every now and then can be fun.
If I had to camp in an area with no engines allowed I would use a pruning saw or one of these, been looking for an excuse to buy one, anyone try one yet.
It would be nice for those late night scrounges
They say one battery is equivalent to a tank of fuel, that should cut a lot of wood, shows it speced out with a 3/8 chain, must have great torque.
http://www.husqvarna.com/us/products/chainsaws/t536li-xp/966729272/

Here you go uncle couple definitions out there lol.
Butt-clown: One (or more) males in a group who always think they are funny, but instead embarrass their friends,
or this one fits into it's own category as well as the first definition.

Yeah if I had to camp where no engines are alowed I'd use my fiskars and I'd still bring a saw

 

[troutbum]

We do a job each year doing "preventative maintenance" on an irrigation ditch on a national forrest wilderness area. No motors allowed.

The hoa marks about 300 trees to drop each year so we hike into the woods with an axe, 6ft cross cut saw, bull rope, and a couple come alongs. We don't make any promises, some days we drop 15 trees, others get close to 40, just depends. It wasn't uncommon to hike past the elk herd on the way out

 

[wde_1978]

Very unique! Was that hand forged, or where did you obtain it?

I got it handed when I was fairly young, teenage years - thus I don't really know the history of that axe head.

It sure looks like a forged head, although it might be factory forged as both sides look fairly equal.
Then again, it might have been hand forged as small blacksmith forgeries were extremely common around here. Unfortunately cheap factory products rendered them all obsolete resulting the next generation not to follow the family trade of their for fathers.

That axe is awesome, it will go through most oak knots and not knotty stuff splits with very little force (from my point of view).
The blade itself has a "crack", I guess either from forging or from hardening.
The defect is rather visual as it doesn't affect functionality.
The axe head gets touched up with a Stihl flat file and feels like filing a chain tooth or depth gauge/raker. An angle grinder comes into play when I need to take off more material, usually to re-shape the blades edge.

Without that, or a similarly good axe, I would seriously reconsider my firewood buying practices as bucking up logs is only the smaller part of the work involved when turning entire logs into firewood.

 

[svk]

We do a job each year doing "preventative maintenance" on an irrigation ditch on a national forrest wilderness area. No motors allowed.

The hoa marks about 300 trees to drop each year so we hike into the woods with an axe, 6ft cross cut saw, bull rope, and a couple come alongs. We don't make any promises, some days we drop 15 trees, others get close to 40, just depends. It wasn't uncommon to hike past the elk herd on the way outView attachment 496509 View attachment 496510

This is awesome! Certainly hard work, but very rewarding as well I am sure.

Kind of cool to see old tech like the crosscut saw along with the newer axe and wedges.

 

[troutbum]

It's really rewarding! I really look forward to it each season. And its awsome slowing down the felling process and strategically placing trees to avoid having to buck a log or cut trees to make a gap. Making a couple horizontal cuts with the cross cut wil burn some energy.

It's just me and one other guy, actually two guys rotate, but I'm pretty impressed how much our productivity increases each year, honestly we kinda sucked the first year.
But now we sharpen the saw at least every two days, which really helps. And ive actually gotten pretty goot at setting the teeth, filing, and swaging rakers.

 

[7sleeper]

I have sharpened my bow saw with a ceramic stone. It is very sharp an cuts very well! In smaller wood I wouldn't be suprised if it would equal a smaller chainsaw in speed.

And I chop ALL my wood by hand. Although I have a few axes, I prefer the more modern designs like fiskars or similar. As a whole they are more "energy" friendly.

7

 

[AT sawyer]

When I do logouts on local trails I carry a crosscut saw and an axe. I saw the hardwoods and chop the softwoods to keep up my skills with both tools. Oops, forgot to cut off my sleeves.......

 

[svk]

When I do logouts on local trails I carry a crosscut saw and an axe. I saw the hardwoods and chop the softwoods to keep up my skills with both tools. Oops, forgot to cut off my sleeves.......

View attachment 503414

Non motorized area or do you just like doing it by hand?

 

[AT sawyer]

Both. I could use a chainsaw on the Appalachian Trail, but unless we have a hurricane or ice storm with lots of blowdowns, it's easier to carry the axe and crosscut. More fun for me. Wilderness trails require hand tools.

 

[GrizzlyAdams86]

There's always an ax in the front box on the 4 wheeler. Comes in handy when you need to lop off a few branches poking in along the trails. Or when I forget my wedges when cutting with the chainsaw...

 

[Woos31]

A mans gotta do what a mans gotta do. I've had many a tshirt missing the bottom 4-5", guess why I did that out in the woods lol.

Same reason shirts are missing pockets, long sleeves become short short sleeves, and knee high boot socks become boot top boot socks! I won't need a guess and you won't have to guess how I know either LOL

 

[Woos31]

When I do logouts on local trails I carry a crosscut saw and an axe. I saw the hardwoods and chop the softwoods to keep up my skills with both tools. Oops, forgot to cut off my sleeves.......

View attachment 503414

You're the man! That's very cool to see guys still employing this technique and tradition, thanks for sharing sir!

 

[troutbum]

AT, thanks for your work on the trail....ive spent many months on the trail, and hope that I will have the opportunity to give back one day.

 

[wde_1978]

Yeah, I went a bit overboard!
I actually just wanted the big 2Kg ax but shipping was a bit steep, so I justified the shipping price by buying more articles.

 

[chuckwood]

A mans gotta do what a mans gotta do. I've had many a tshirt missing the bottom 4-5", guess why I did that out in the woods lol.

Must have been winter time and no leaves around?

 

[chipper1]

Must have been winter time and no leaves around?

I may not chop wood by hand often, but I'm not a wimpy guy either,
I just like the finer things in life(no leaves, except lambs wool).

 

[Homeowner]

We do a job each year doing "preventative maintenance" on an irrigation ditch on a national forrest wilderness area. No motors allowed.

The hoa marks about 300 trees to drop each year so we hike into the woods with an axe, 6ft cross cut saw, bull rope, and a couple come alongs. We don't make any promises, some days we drop 15 trees, others get close to 40, just depends. It wasn't uncommon to hike past the elk herd on the way out

This is how men here did it old times, footage is from 1946 competition, same methods were used in their daily logging work. Competition was such that they were given random section of forest for each competitor and they had to make wood piles called motti, like they did normally in their work as fast as possible, it took several days to complete that competition.
Might be interesting for you to see how once it was done without motors as there were none available, not even oranges or bananas back then, but those trees cut and split quickly on that film!
http://yle.fi/aihe/artikkeli/2006/12/08/metsurit-kilpasilla#media=16814


Splitting with axe is only option for me, but then again I do like to split wood, I don't have truck or tractor either, so I do human power transport logs from nearby woods. Only issue is that steel of carts seem to fail ever so often as other tools I use for lifting and moving logs. At least I do have a chainsaw, surely I do have saws without engine too, just not enough good eyesight to sharpen them.

 

[chipper1]

That's awesome Homeowner.
It's looks as though they were actually valued. Now the same work probably pay less when you calculate everything into it.
Thanks for sharing.

 

[Homeowner]

That's awesome Homeowner.
It's looks as though they were actually valued. Now the same work probably pay less when you calculate everything into it.
Thanks for sharing.

Yep, they were heroes, after WW2 nation needed lot of wood, all heating, cooking etc. was done by wood, emerging industries required lots of wood and that supported rebuilding.

It was hard and dangerous work, guys left their girls and kids to house and left for months to do that work.

From that time we got also some stories, our own Paul Bunyan, he was real logger, born as an invalid with twisted leg, great story teller and despite his poor leg he did the job too for long years.

Sadly most here don't remember or haven't even heard from those heroes or their sacrifices and services to nation, but such is the life, people forget and move on, but some are still interested from old logger culture.

I can't imagine what kind of steel those guys were made from, my axe or saw is not working even nearly that well and I know I have exact same model axes and saws from those years, so it is perhaps not the tools that are the issue