Hewing Axe Restore

[Joe A Faulkner]

A few years ago while on vacation in Western Maryland, I came across an old, rusty 13" hewing axe head at an antique store. It made the trip home, and has been sitting in my shop until recently. A few months ago, my youngest son asked if we could restore an old handsaw, so we gave it a shot. After that project he asked if I had any rusty axe heads, and I remembered the hewing axe.

We soaked the axe head in white vinegar. I made the handle out of a piece of 5/4 white oak I had laying around the shop. This project prompted me to tune up an old 51 Stanley Spoke Shave. The axe handle was my first project using a spoke shave. Traced the handle of a chopping axe, made a couple of control buts on the bandsaw, and then hacked out the handle with a framing axe, then finished the rest of the shaping with chisels, rasps, spoke shave and some work with the the jack plane. I'm now contemplating a shaving horse build. I really enjoyed shapping the axe handle. The project also promted me to buy some leather working tools. I want to try my hand at an sheath for the axe. That little project is a work in progress. Might post some pics of it after the holidays, assuming I get it done.

I have a few down logs around the property, so I plan on putting the hewing axe to work in the weeks ahead. Did a little sharpening of the blade, and managed to cut myself twice, so it should shave some wood. Finished the handle with some walnut stain, followed by a few coats of BLO thinned with mineral spirits.
IMG_1637.jpg

[Jim Koepke]

Looks like a fun axe to swing.

Someone posted a link to a log being hewn not too long ago. There are probably a lot of them on Youtube.

jtk

[Tom M King]

That looks like a really nice one! The hewing axe is really a finishing tool, and not really any swinging involved, unless maybe you're using a really soft log. Most of the wood is removed with a regular axe, and the hewing axe makes it less rugged.

The bend (offset) in the handle is really important. A long time ago, I thought I'd found the perfect Hickory limb for a handle. It had an S curve that I thought would give the perfect clearance for knuckles. It turned out to be very difficult to control. After that, I ordered one. The commercial one has a bend in it that keeps your knuckles clear, but goes straight into the head. It works like it should.

Here's a picture of mine in use. We cheated on the preceding steps by using a chainsaw. Leaving the chunks/noggins on the ground protects the edge of the hewing axe from hitting the ground

[Pete Taran]

Excellent work and excellent taste in Chainsaws with that magnificent Stihl waiting in the background. No entry level saw there!

[Tom M King]

That's an 036 that, if I'm remembering correctly, was bought new in 1999. I let the guys that work for me cut their firewood with it, so it's on its third cylinder kit.
That whole project is on the Structural page on my website. The log is a dry Silver Maple, so not like hewing green White Pine. My stumping saw is a ported, and muffler modded 066.

There was only one place to drop that tree in the yard without hitting anything, so they called me. It had been dead for enough years that most of the limbs had fallen off of it, and they were worried about it hitting their house. Once we had it on the ground, it was in great shape in the log, and I figured out it was the perfect size to get some replacement beams that we needed in a 1798 house that we work on periodically.

[Joe A Faulkner]

.. The hewing axe is really a finishing tool, and not really any swinging involved...

+1 That's one of the reasons I kept the handle relatively short. For those interested, here's a video of John Foreman demonstrating his hand hewing technique.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2R_ZyPqwfo