Some old axes a saw and a peavy

[TraditionalTool]

Nice old axe TT, how old you reckon it is.

I suspect mid 1800s. Quite decent shape for such an old tool, heh?

Here's what really makes the axe a decent one, look at the other side of the blade, where the chisel edge resides:

Notice there's a line that extends across the length of the blade's edge, about a 1/8" - 1/4" up from the edge. That is because the blade is laminated with different types of steel. Blacksmiths/Bladesmiths do this as a way to get a durable edge that will stay sharp for longer periods, as well as holding up in use. The softer steel on top acts as a dampener so that the blade doesn't chip when you use it, yet the bottom layer is a much harder and higher carbon steel that will retain a sharp edge well. If you used all higher carbon steel for the entire axe head, it would be brittle, and would chip easier in use. It is the higher carbon steel that gets tempered in the forge, so that it will retain an edge, but it is the softer steel with less carbon that acts as the dampener.

I had another DR Barton, so knew that this is a good quality axe, I didn't expect to get it so cheaply, honestly...

:agree2: very cool It really makes you think about how easy we have it these days. (Not really better, just easier).

I agree we have it easier, but you would be surprised at what can be done with a sharp axe. In freshly cut green timber, it doesn't take as much to slice through some of it as you would think. It is possible to build a home using only hand tools, but that would be extreme, even today.

Often Dik Proenneke's (mispelled on purpose for forum software) name will come up, as he built a home in Alaska that a DVD was made out of, Alone in the Wilderness. Don't take this the wrong way, but what he built was nothing like what I'm attempting to build, that home he built up by twin lakes is like a dog house in comparison, but he did build it with only a few hand tools. And he was a very talented craftsman, not only on the small home he built, but the tools, cache, and other stuff he build up there as well...

So, in short we do have it easier these days, but a lot can be done with a few similar hand tools given a strong will.

That said, it's a ***LOT*** of work to build a log home...EVEN with a chainsaw...at least the way I'm doing it...

 

[jra1100]

Thanks TT

Great info, some of those old tools were of very high quality, not like some of the chicom stuff that is on the market today. Good quality tools are available of course, but boy are they pricey. JR

 

[rtrsam]

Well, now this is fascinating.

When I was a kid (@ 1973-ish) my mom and dad bought a house in Johnsonville, New York. The house had been built about 1900.

There was an old round stone in the front yard that served as a base/pedestal for a hand pump that drew from a well (the modern plumbing for the house was supplied by a pressure pump that drew from a cistern containing rain water collected from the roof).

Anyhow, this round rock was storied to be a grindstone from an old axe company that had been there in Johnsonville.

The house had a cellar, of course, with steps going down from inside, normal wood steps. There were also steps going down into the cellar from outside, with a wooden enclosure built around them. These steps were solid chunks of rock, old axe grindstones (spilt in half) from the axe factory.

Looking at this American Axe and Tool company catalog, there are several logos and emblems of different brands of axes built by the Johnsonville Axe Company.

Cool! I used to walk up and down steps made from the stones that ground some of the axes depicted in this catalog. I remember there were some gnarly huge old toads that lived in those steps…

Many thanks to woodbooga for posting those links!

 

[TraditionalTool]

sam,

Pretty cool stuff. That would be some great stuff to have...

You get any of the old axes by chance?

Cheers,
TT

 

[TraditionalTool]

Great info, some of those old tools were of very high quality, not like some of the chicom stuff that is on the market today. Good quality tools are available of course, but boy are they pricey. JR

JR,

Those sure were good tools, and yes, there are good tools available today or one can make their own as well. I do some blacksmithing, it's not easy, but it sure if a lot of fun!

I just don't have the time to make all of my tools, I spend way too much time making the ones I do...

Cheers,
TT

 

[rtrsam]

sam,

Pretty cool stuff. That would be some great stuff to have...

You get any of the old axes by chance?

Cheers,
TT

My brother just e-mailed and said the old grindstone is still in the yard (he lives in the same area, I left over thirty years ago).

I never did get any tools (axes or cool stuff like that) from back there, but I did get and still have and use a very functional fireplace poker.

Funny thing was, when we lived there we didn't have a woodstove of any sort...

 

[TraditionalTool]

My brother just e-mailed and said the old grindstone is still in the yard (he lives in the same area, I left over thirty years ago).

I never did get any tools (axes or cool stuff like that) from back there, but I did get and still have and use a very functional fireplace poker.

Funny thing was, when we lived there we didn't have a woodstove of any sort...

Must have been plenty of that stuff around the town I would imagine, if you folks had the grinding wheels for steps...

Ah, a fireplace poker...made one as my first blacksmith project...forged out of an old coil spring from a car...

Cheers,
TT

 

[pioneerguy600]

Just came across this thread so a little late for the party, that`s nothing unusual for me.LOL There was a lot of hewing used on building construction and even more used to build wooden ships where most of the framework was hand hewn, very little straight line work on them. The keel, stem post and ribs took a lot of skill and hand control to cut them out and shape them up.The deck support knees utilized the trunk and root of the tree , some parts were hand sawn but a lot of hewing was done by hand. Good to see some of the old tools again and thanks for posting this thread, I think its great that some men are keeping this type of construction alive and would like to see more input added to this thread.
Pioneerguy600

 

[Turkeyslayer]

The deck support knees utilized the trunk and root of the tree , some parts were hand sawn but a lot of hewing was done by hand.
Pioneerguy600

Does the wood from the root of the tree have the same working characteristics as the rest of the tree, or is there an advantage of using the root?

 

[TraditionalTool]

Pioneerguy,

For the work on boats where the timber is not straight, what type of axe is used to do that work? I would imagine a smaller chopping axe, rather than broad, but aren't ship timbers flat on the sides that are not contoured?

I love to sail, and love wood, just that wooden boats are really a LOT of maintenance...kinda like log homes...*lol*

Certainly ship building is one of the oldest timber crafts to date, AFAIK.

Someday when I have more time, maybe I'll build a boat...

Cheers,
TT

 

[xtm]

I found this book on early American tools in the local library - then bought one cheap at abebooks for myself. It is a great source of basic information on old hand tools and their uses. It's illustrated - no photos, but nicely done.

BTW TT, there are some shipbuilding specific tools illustrated.

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/Sea...tn=A+Museum+of+Early+American+Tools&x=60&y=14

xtm

 

[woodbooga]

I found this book on early American tools in the local library - then bought one cheap at abebooks for myself. It is a great source of basic information on old hand tools and their uses. It's illustrated - no photos, but nicely done.

BTW TT, there are some shipbuilding specific tools illustrated.

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/Sea...tn=A+Museum+of+Early+American+Tools&x=60&y=14

xtm

I was perusing my copy last night.

Came acrosst this site a while ago. The link is to a pg with several sample articles - but the whole site is worth exploring.

http://www.mwtca.org/the-gristmill/sample-articles.html

Don't remember if I mentioned this earlier, but I live in a house that was home to one of the leading edge tool mfgrs in NH back in the 1800s, so this is of especial interest to me. (the millpond dam and the factory foundation are still there - and occasionally a spade in the dirt turns up a bit of history too.)

 

[jra1100]

Ya hooked me

I ordered the book, thanks for the link. For a buck ya can't go wrong. JR

 

[Turkeyslayer]

Just thought I would give this thread a bump. Still interested to know if the wood from the root of the tree have the same working characteristics as the rest of the tree, or is there an advantage of using the root wood?

 

[clearance]

Just thought I would give this thread a bump. Still interested to know if the wood from the root of the tree have the same working characteristics as the rest of the tree, or is there an advantage of using the root wood?

The root has a big curve, from the butt into and below the ground [root]. so they used it, pretty hard to bend something that big. I think it was on the bow, like the mainpeice.

 

[Turkeyslayer]

The root has a big curve, from the butt into and below the ground [root]. so they used it, pretty hard to bend something that big. I think it was on the bow, like the mainpeice.

Makes sense to me! Thanks

 

[jra1100]

xtm, woodbuga

Thanks so much for the Museum reference. I got my copy a few days ago and have not had a lot of time to read it, but the drawings and descriptions that I have read are GREAT. I have been working as some of you know on a log cabin from 1851, and this gives us an idea of how much of it was done. FYI we have stabilized three of the four corners, and need to await a decision on where the fireplace is to be located. Because of remuddling there is no clear indication of where the fireplace was originally located, but we are going to put one in regardless. I will try to take some pictures and show what we have done and what remains. JR

 

[woodbooga]

Just thought I would give this thread a bump. Still interested to know if the wood from the root of the tree have the same working characteristics as the rest of the tree, or is there an advantage of using the root wood?

Don't know about woodworking, but mention of the root makes me think of these Native American artifacts. Pictured below is an image from the Maine Memory Network. The Penobscot Indians are a branch of the Eastern Abenaki. The Abenaki peoples inhabited much of pre-contact Northern New England. The NH-Maine border is a rough boundary between the Eastern and Western branches.

(After the English gained hegemony, the remnants of the Abanaki fled and resettled in St. Francis, from which many raids in the 1700s originated. Anyone who has read or seen the movie "Northwest Passage" by Kenneth Roberts will be familiar.)

http://www.mainememory.net/bin/Detail?ln=6650

Description
Native American carvers believed they were releasing the spirits of animals and birds from the wood they were working. Root clubs, which were made from the root bundles of immature gray birch trees, were used ceremonially. They were carried in dances and religious ceremonies, but became objects for tourist trade by the late nineteenth century.

This club has moose, birds, a war-bonneted Indian head, and "Poland Spring, Me." carved on it.



Other Information
Title: Penobscot Root Club
Creation Date: circa 1900
Subject Date: circa 1900
Town: Poland Spring
County: Androscoggin
State: ME
Media: Birch, paint
Dimensions (cm): 60 x
Local Code: 1999.38
Object Type: Physical Object
For more information about this item, contact:
Maine Historical Society
489 Congress Street, Portland, ME 04101
(207) 774-1822
http://www.mainehistory.org

 

[xtm]

Just thought I would give this thread a bump. Still interested to know if the wood from the root of the tree have the same working characteristics as the rest of the tree, or is there an advantage of using the root wood?

Glad you bumped this thread...

Last week, I drove my 93 year-old Pop down to the Pensacola NAS for a gathering, and when that was over, we drove over the bay to the Naval Live Oaks Reserve:
http://www.nps.gov/archive/guis/extended/FLA/History/ShipBld.htm

The live oak groves along the southern Atlantic and Gulf coasts were being rapidly depleted by shipbuilding demands, so Pres. John Q. Adams established this area (1829) as a reserve nursery for planting and growing live oaks for future naval ships and others critical to security and commerce. Because of its density and curved growing habit, live oaks were particularly useful for providing the curved rib supports, keels, and gunwales for large heavy warships and freighters.

I specifically asked the curator about using sections of the root. The root buttress sections were particularly useful when a long U-shaped piece was required, and some shorter pieces of large-diameter root segments were dug out and sawed up for mortise joints to connect longer segments at critical locations - to add strength. The live oak root is often the most dense part of the tree and the least likely to break or splinter when put under stress. Wood from the root will bend and flex a bit more than wood from the trunk or a limb.

Specialized boat-building timber cruisers outfitted with a set of ship plans and and an "eye" for selecting trees of the right size and shape would mark candidates for a given project.

xtm

 

[xtm]

Don't know about woodworking, but mention of the root makes me think of these Native American artifacts. Pictured below is an image from the Maine Memory Network. The Penobscot Indians are a branch of the Eastern Abenaki. The Abenaki peoples inhabited much of pre-contact Northern New England. The NH-Maine border is a rough boundary between the Eastern and Western branches.

(After the English gained hegemony, the remnants of the Abanaki fled and resettled in St. Francis, from which many raids in the 1700s originated. Anyone who has read or seen the movie "Northwest Passage" by Kenneth Roberts will be familiar.)

http://www.mainememory.net/bin/Detail?ln=6650

Along similar lines, some early duck and goose decoys had necks and heads made from roots. My family has a rig of old decoys outfitted with root heads - most were painted up like brant, but this one is painted like a canada goose:

The body was chopped out of cedar but the neck and head was fashioned from a holly root. The long necks and bills of wood decoys are unusually fragile - and the weak part of an otherwise sturdy working decoy. I'm told that clever decoy makers would dig for and hack out pieces of dense-grained holly roots that could be easily fashioned into a somewhat lifelike neck and head - and would be much sturdier than normal straight-grained softwood fashioned from a limb.

xtm