Experience with hewing a log

[FrankLad]

Was out visiting with my parents this weekend and decided to hew a log.  Good thing we carry most all our tools in the back of our Toyota Camry.    (In this case felling axe, tape measure, pencil, level, square, and chalk line)

As mentioned in a previous posting, I had plans to make some hickory handles and find a broad axe head.  Well, come to find out, dad had an old broad axe hiding out in their shed.  Handle and all.  I was delighted.

It was badly pitted so I took a wire brush to it.  Then I hit it a few times with a grinder (careful not to get it too hot) and worked it with a file.  Certainly not as sharp as it could have been - and I'm no expert on sharpening to begin with - but it was in better shape, cutting-wise, than when I had found it.

This wasn't a very large log.  Was looking for something just enough to get a 6x6 out of.

After reading sections from three different books on the subject, I decided it was OK to do layout and hewing with the bark on.  I figured since we didn't drag it out of the woods (was carried) I didn't have to worry about the axe-dulling-on-embedded-dirt problem, and hewing with the bark would eliminate the peeling step altogether.  I was curious as to the accuracy of with-bark vs. without-bark, but the way it turned out, I think I'll want to hew with the bark on whenever possible.

Anyhow, I set it up on a couple of blocks and "chocked" it.  No log dogs...  Just kept it stable enough that I could do layout without it moving.  Marked plumb/level lines (starting on smallest end), and snapped longitude lines, connecting the two ends.

Once that was done, I picked a side and started scoring to the line.  That part didn't take too terribly long.  What did eat up a bunch of time is when I started work with the broad axe.  For one thing, I didn't have the log fastened down sufficiently and kept fighting against it, (which got even harder when I finished one side and flipped it over - with the sappy side being down... even more sliding) not to mention the broad axe was probably in mediocre cutting condition at best.

Regardless, it turned out pretty well for my first hewn timber.  I really like the "character" of a hewn piece of wood - the score lines and markings, etc.

Hewing a log wasn't necessarily harder than I thought it would be - because I KNEW it would be work, and I'm certainly not afraid of that, and getting a few new blisters on unexpected parts of my hand.

What it did make me do is better appreciate the work of fellas like my great grandpa, who hand-hewed multiple railroad ties per day, for small amounts of money (.25 each in some cases).  Now that was the kind of work you could do and sleep good at night.

[Dave Shepard]

Thanks for sharing!

I tried some hewing here before I started working at a sawmill. I used a chainsaw,  : , to put a flat on a pair of 18" pine logs, and in the middle of the flat I cut a vee notch, which held the logs very well. I would advise against freshly killed pine. You won't need to hold the square of level on the end of the log, and probably won't be able to let go of the axe when you are done. :D I mistakenly tried using a coopers broad axe, which worked, but was too light. I have two heads to sharpen and make handles for, a 7" and a 9".


Dave

[Raphael]

I've got one half resuscitated as well.
Any idea's on what to charge for hewn red oak timbers?
I've been asked about providing 3 or 4, ~13ft. timbers hewn on three sides and milled flat on the fourth.

[Jim_Rogers]

By the hour based on your hourly rate would be the most fair way to do it....

[ely]

my hats off to you gentlemen, i happen to like those little lines my sawmill leaves on the timbers. ;D.

all jokes aside, i have a buddy whose grandpa used to hack ties when he was just a boy. a boy i guess in those days he was a man. i believe he was 12 when he started at the mill hacking ties. in just a couple years he was running the show. the man told me at 2 bits apiece he could make 2.50 to 3.50 a day when he got going good. apparently that is alot of work cause the older men that worked there threatened to whoop him several times though none ever tried him on for size.
i do know they were hacking ties for the smaller narrow gage railroad that brought the logs out of the countryside. i am guessing maybe 5 footers, but i really know nothing on the specs.

anyway the old fella passed on a few years back and i always miss sitting and listening to him talk. he told me one day after i met him the first time, "son you ain't got much to say do ye" i told him my grandpa told me i would learn more if i just shut up and listen to the older folks. i figured he was gonna die laughing at me. after that i would see him at least twice a month sometimes every week but defiantly i would see him every time i drove up that highway.

he sat on his porch and waved at every vehicle that went by whether you looked or not. people thought he was off in the head but i swear he was sharp as a tack. he told me one time if his family tried to take him to the nursing home in town he wanted me to come over and shoot him dead. i was uncertain of him then but i really understand him now that i am older and he is gone.
he had one toe missing on a foot, everyone assumed it was from a tie hacking accident. he told me when he was 11 he was standing in the yard in front of the porch and had a shotgun resting on the toe of his new boot. the first pair of work boots he ever had. well he accidently shot the gun off and it took the best part of the next to the last toe off. his mother was snapping beans and she went to holleren at his sisters to hitch the wagon to go to town.  the nearest town with a doctor was 2 or 3 days ride in a wagon. he took his boot off and surveyed the damage, took out his jack knife bent down and cut the toe off and threw it out to the yard dogs. said his mother liked to have beat him sense less for that. but he had to work the next day so he didn't have time for going to doctor.

he was the youngest child of 8 or so kids and was the only male. it was his place to provide for the family, and according to the family he was a stand up guy his whole life. the man lived way up in his 80s or early 90s he could not tell me his age exactly as there was no records of him. i wished i could remember half the stuff he told me, i really wish he was still here in good health.

sorry for the hijack but the thread made me think of him and i wanted to share that with y'all.

[Brad_bb]

I wonder if your customer would want to pay the hewn timbers by the time you figure what it really costs(by the hour).  Do one so you know the time before telling them a price.  Don't get stuck having to do all three until you know they'll pay...and get a deposit.   Compare your cost with what reclaim hewn timbers are going for just for kicks...

[FrankLad]

ely: my hats off to you gentlemen, i happen to like those little lines my sawmill leaves on the timbers.

I do like circular-saw marks.  I still think our timbers would have looked nice cut that way.  But they were done on bandsaw and then planed.  Not bad looking, but still... I like the more rough-ish look.

Thanks for sharing, ely!  I enjoy hearing and reading about the older folks.

[Raphael]

My Logosol gives a real nice look to the wood as well...
The old parts of our frame were planed (once upon a time).
I left the rest pretty much the way it came off the mills.
So I've got big circles on some and lines on the rest.

[krusty]

Ely,

That was an awesome story and I love meeting old timers like that. No wonder I hate TV...there is no substance to it.

As for the question on what to charge for hewing red oak.. I could hew a 13' out in a coulple hours as described. Maybe quicker but depends on the size of timber you start with. Back in the old days trees were so plentyful they could pick and choose and I would suggest you get the smalles logs possible to waste little and hew faster.

[thecfarm]

ely,at $2.50-3.50 a day that probaly was alot of money than.Some was probaly only making a buck a day.My Father would tell me of a loading a dump truck,more like a pick up truck size,for a dollar a day.There would be 4-5 men with shovels in a gravel pit all day long.

[metalspinner]

What about "roughing" it down on the mill, then finishing it off with the hand tools?  Will you end up with the same look and fewer blisters?

[ely]

c-farm you are correct on that, that fella told me the men at the mill were angry with him because he would be on his second tie when they showed up at 6 in the morning. most of the men thought they were well off bringing home 25 bucks a week and by all rights they were in those days. but when a kid came in and surrpassed their work by that much it had to tick a man off.

i do know the man kept his family in clothes and food with the sweat of his brow, and his mother felt a little guilty living so high on the hog so to speak. he was proud to have worked so his family was above the norm. a trait that is lost in many people these days.imo.
probably just a changing of the times.

[Dave Shepard]

What about "roughing" it down on the mill, then finishing it off with the hand tools?  Will you end up with the same look and fewer blisters?

Sawing an over size cant and hewing it down is a common approach to getting a hand hewn look. It would certainly make for a nicely dimensioned timber.

During the workshop I took in '06 Jack Sobon mentioned that there is a point when a hand hewn timber is cheaper to pay a laborer than have one milled. I don't remember the exact size, it may have been something like 9"x12" by 18' I would have to do the math, but I know I can turn out a lot of 8"x8" by 12' timbers in an hour, especially if the logs are around 14". ;)



Dave