tales of the mad wood chopper... about three years ago on the property i am working on two large pine trees were struck by lightening and fell to the ground. At the time I looked at the huge girth of the trunk with dismay, and when attempting to cut it up with a chainsaw, found the task difficult and generally very unpleasant. The chainsaw jammed and was difficult to start, it required oil and petrol, and most unpleasant of all was the gleeful micromanagement over my shoulder from the chainsaws owner, over the next few months i began to research old hand tools for the job, and began to acquire them, cross cut saw, felling axe, broad axe and adze. The cross cut saw was found on gumtree for the princely sum of 100 dollars. It sliced through the 18 inch log in about eight minutes.. which though slow was quicker than my attempts with the chainsaw. 3 years passed and the logs lay, condemned as shit wood which would rot in a year by my outspoken supervisor, yet after 3 wet years in the bracken on the ground in termite heartland they were still sound. counting over 50 growth rings, I was reminded of reading once that old pine trees are much better timber than young trees, like the ones that are harvested in plantation timber and devoured at speed by termites. This week after much waiting and biding my time, the absence of my supervisor afforded me an opportunity to work unsupervised and do things my way striding out to the logs, axe and adze in hand and a mission to turn round logs into square beams like the old time timber framers and cabin builders of earlier eras. following the instructions of my amazon acquired books and youtube clips,i began the task of what is known as hewing Cutting V shaped notches into the side of the log every 10 or so inches , I then proceeded to take my very hard to acquire Broadaxe to side chop along the notches intending to create a clean flat surface. The blade bounced and skittered along the side but did not perform like i had seen in youtube clips. I was a little discouraged. Taking my felling axe (30bucks at yandina markets!) I tried again and to my delight the chunks of wood came free exposing the pretty yellow of old pine, still wet after 3 years, growth ring patterns tickling my eyes and i became enthused. Turing the log over I continued the same process, becoming less systematic and more intuitive as I went. It was going well and in 20 minutes a huge square hewn beam lay exposed in a bed of wood chips, at a guess id say it was 8x8 and over 6 ft long. I could barely lift it. Cleaning the flat surface with the adze the job was complete I spent the rest of the day chopping, and improving my new found skill, and reflected with pleasure that with one good axe a man could build a cabin stronger and more durable than any modern building. My hands blistered and wrists ached but chopping in silence all that I was experiencing was joy. My next task will be a 6 meter 7x7 beam, which will be created from a lightening struck fallen tree (the american indians attributed special properties to wood felled that way) using no fossil fuels, create no pollution, most importantly not fill the air with the hellish racket of a two stroke motor, and even not involve cutting a tree down.
Posted on: Wed, 06 Aug 2014 06:35:54 +0000
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