Turning a tree into lumber/timber

[Derek Cohen]

Who needs the gym :)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8DD5NQ1L7c

Regards from Perth

Derek

[William Fretwell]

This hewing to the line method was very common in Canada over 200 years ago. The trees were much larger however!
They used wedges to split off the sides. The first cut trees here were so plentiful they ignored the fact that method wastes over 1/3 of the tree. After a while the wastefulness of that method forced them to find a better way.
His hewing to the line skills are very well developed. Two simple axes and some string, ideal for the back woods!
The log cabin approach saves the wood on the sides for insulation.

[Malcolm McLeod]

Who needs the gym :)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8DD5NQ1L7c

Regards from Perth

Derek

Poor guy. Parking lot is running over with Land Rovers and the boss won't buy him a Wood-Miser!?! At least get him a cross-cut saw.

[Warren Mickley]

When you watch Paul Sellers use a rip saw, it is obvious that he has not been using a hand saw in a serious way for fifty years. This fellow hewing is very different. The way he paces himself, the way he uses his body, and his efficiency all speak of strong experience in hand work. Thanks for posting this.

[Derek Cohen]

Warren, he paced himself amazingly well. Just kept going. And his accuracy and ability to work to the line was wonderful to watch.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[David Ryle]

Warren, seriously, youre comparing a man in his late fifties with a hand saw against a guy in his mid thirties with an axe!!! Apples to oranges my friend.

[Bob Leistner]

Sellers will be 69 in January.

[Tom M King]

I'll be 69 in June. The first time I ever hewed a beam, I learned several things that I hadn't thought of before. All the 18th, and early to mid 19th Century houses I work on have hewed timbers in the frames.

First, they would have hewed them in the woods, where they dropped the tree probably. It makes a big mess, and the scraps and chunks left on the ground are not something anyone would bother to pick up for anything if they didn't have to. Left in the woods, it can just lay there and rot, and no more handling required.

Second, Joists around here in 18th and most 19th Century houses built before sawmills, were hewed with on side, and sawn in a pit on one side only. I thought that the beam, hewed in the woods, would be lighter to move out of the woods once squared, than a whole log. Once they had spent several hours squaring one up, it would not be worth the risk to try to split it, so it got carried to a pit.

I did run into one 1850 house, when they first started to downsize house parts, that had joists about 2-5/8" thick, whereas the typical ones sawn on one side were 4" thick. Two thirds of them were hewn on one side, and sawn on the other. The other third were sawn on two opposite sides. So, they were now getting three pieces out of the same beam that they used to only get two out of.

[Jim Koepke]

That's the guy from whom you want to learn sharpening. Those axes gotta be hecka sharp for that kind of work to not kill the hewer.

jtk

[Doug Hepler]

It's very interesting. The hewer is a master. Thank you, Derek.

[Andrew Joiner]

Thanks great video.
My dad was born in a hewn log house with dovetailed corners like the video. My grandfather immigrated from Finland and built it around 1895. Many immigrants from Finland built that way.
When I was a kid my dad showed me the hewn details on the buildings my grandfather made. He explained the process. The hewing axe was in the tool shed and he pointed at it and said" they were dangerous, and obsolete now". He spent many hours doing axe work as a child so he had a different view point from my teenage brain. I wish I would have grabbed the axe and saved it. I am lucky to have my grandpa's draw knife hanging in my shop.