Best felling/splitting axe crosscut saw questions

[alleyyooper]

Farm auction sales at old long time farms is an exellant place to pick up some great old cross cuts and axes. Many farms like that in Northeren Mi, Wi. and Mn used to cut saw logs and pulp in the winter time so had those things on hand.
I have several old plumb brand axes both single edge dad liked and the double bit we boys liked from my child hood days on the farm. We used cross cuts to fall timber sell the logs to a local saw mill. We used the cross cuts & axes to cut the tops up to be cut on a buzz saw in fire wood sizes.
Our family used to come together and cut all week end on one farm and then another till all the fire wood for the season was buzzed up. Our mother and aunts would fix feast of chicken, pork beef and wild game for the meals.
My dad taught us bos how to sharpen a cross cut and buzz saw. we boys taught him in the 70's finally how to sharpen a chain saw.

Al

 

[zogger]

Try a bowsaw (name brand, sandvik or bahco) over a crosscut unless you are in huge wood. It cuts a lot faster with less fatigue (my real world usage cutting all my firewood years ago using both) and replacement blades are not very expensive.

Very narrow kerf over a crosscut, plus lighter in your hand, needing much less horsepower to make the cut.

Back in the day I did all my wood with a sandvik, but the bahcos seem to get better reviews today. I have no personal experience with one but looking at their designs they look well built.

Axes, good luck there! Used refurb yourself, modern expensive as mentioned above, modern good enough and relatively cheap are fiskars or the gerber clones. (same company)

There are thousands of guys who are bladesmiths today, you might could get a custom one made to your specs.

 

[LumberjkChamp]

My granddad had the vise and whole kit to sharpen and set a crosscut saw, I think my older brother wound up with all that and his 2 6' saws.I have a 4' that I use from time to time.I think it is a cut down 6'.We used them a good bit growing up.We took a glass coke bottle full of kerosene, stuffed the mouth of it with pine straw and used that for our oiler.

Good idea for an oiler. It may seem odd, but I have never required oil while in the cut. Maybe in green, sappy White Pine, but I don't saw too much of that. I spray my saw down after every use with WD-40 or some other rust preventative I have laying around (high carbon steel rusts really nice). Pay attention to the set of the teeth. 0.012"- 0.015" is good in hardwood, you need a little more for the softer woods. If you cut both frequently, then it may be advantageous to have two saws.

 

[redheadwoodshed]

Good idea for an oiler. It may seem odd, but I have never required oil while in the cut. Maybe in green, sappy White Pine, but I don't saw too much of that. I spray my saw down after every use with WD-40 or some other rust preventative I have laying around (high carbon steel rusts really nice). Pay attention to the set of the teeth. 0.012"- 0.015" is good in hardwood, you need a little more for the softer woods. If you cut both frequently, then it may be advantageous to have two saws.

Yep, the oiler is mainly for pine.I'm not sure if the whole country has what we call rich lighter pine stumps, old yellow pine stumps, mostly cut with a crosscut up high.Well, the ones cut when the sap was down turn to rich lighter over the years.Makes the best kindling ever.That's mainly what I use my little crosscut for now.That stuffs hard on a chainsaw, really gums up the clutch and all.
And when cutting with the old timers, I learned the expression and meaning of "rideing the saw".

 

[harms]

Thanks for all the replies.

 

[ArtB]

I have a couple of old Disston #95 docking saw I got at garage sales. Favorite crosscut hand saw for anything less than a foot in diameter for hand sawing. Big crosscut: as others have said, find a good old one for crosscut.

Axes: Swap meets/garage sales probably few and far between in the 'woolies' of parts of Alaska, but as mentioned before, the only place to get a good axe without paying the price of an old used car.