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Hewing (Timberbee)

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intermediate page for Hewing (Timberbee)

Disclaimer (Warning)

Hewing can a Brutal, Dangerous, activity. You are dealing with sharp, heavy tools, that, at times, can achieve significant velocities. As with wood carving, or the use of a knife in Any medium, remember that where the axe is aimed is likely to be where it ends up, and if you are on the receiving end of your Axe's arc, even if there is some wood between you and it, there is a real good chance it's going to complete that arc, and end up in you.

To drive that point home, one of my apprentices broke his leg with a Broad axe. By Break I mean sheared through the front bone in his calf. At the time he was my partner, and no longer an apprentice, so, what can I say. It's dangerous, be careful.
(There is also a funny story about how he wouldn't let me take him to the Hospital until I put his tools under cover, but, we're all Human).

Remember It's not just an old saying, that, * "There is nothing more dangerous than a Tired Man with a Dull Axe"

It's also a Truism. Be careful out there.

Hewing

The Log

Understanding the Log

Sizing the Log

Tip Diameters

Sourcing the Log

The Tools

Axes, Broad axes, Adzes

Cribbing

Techniques

Orienting the Timber within the Log

  • The log is oriented so that either the Top, or the Side, of the ‘’’Timber’’’ is up.

For, say a 12 X 12, this point would Seem to be mute, not necessarily so. Unless your starting log is perfectly straight, with no curvature at all, no taper or Butt Flair, and no Possibility of [[Reaction_And_Tension_Wood_(Timberbee)| Reaction wood, then you will have to assign sides to the timber while it is still in log form.

Assigning sides is generally something which comes along later in a Hewers education, as, it requires a certain knowledge of what the finished timber will be used for, and how the building will be finished out.

Plates, in a square-ruled structure, which are, say, going to be used for a barn, let’s say 3 Bay, 4 Bent, dropped Tie Barn, Central Bay – Not Drive Through, with vertical siding – which means Girts, rather than studs. In this case, it would be nice to have one square edge, minimum – the outside edge. ‘’’That’’’ will be the reference edge. The edge from which all measurements will radiate.
The other two sides don’t need to be square to these two, but that would be nice.

What else this means, is that, ‘’’IF’’’ we can have only one Square Edge, out of four, then we’d like it to be this reference edge, and we would arrange it so that this is most likely to happen.

  • Another consideration is Curvature. Personally I like my Plates to be “Crown Up”, and my outside edges Bowed out, if they have to be Bowed at all.
    Crown up, is pretty much the way it sounds, the curved side is up, forming a “Hill”, rather than “Crown Down”, where the Plate would more resemble a valley.

The Joiner is going to make their Own determination on how the finished Timber will be oriented within the building – Once they receive that Timber -- for a large number of reasons, not the least of which being that you may, or may not, have been able to Hew the log as planned. Logs move. It’s a given.

The movement of logs is also why you choose orientation before you begin. You are trying to anticipate movement before it occurs, you are also setting acceptable levels. If the log moves more than the parameters you’ve set for it, then it’s time to think about where else the finished timber could work within the building, if it does Not move more than the limits you’ve established, well, then you are golden.

  • Notice that this means you don’t have to resnap your lines every time the log shifts. You are ‘’’Not’’’ trying to keep that log perfectly straight. In fact, if you have the opportunity, in order to drive this point home, take a look at some ‘’’Sawn’’’ Timbers of a similar size and length to what you plan on hewing out. In most cases you will notice timbers which are anything but perfectly straight or square.

Timbers move more on a saw than they do beneath the skilled hands of a Hewer.
Sawyers don’t have the ability to work opposing sides simultaneously, ‘’’Traditional’’’ Hewers do. Though a good sawyer has other tricks at their disposal – ‘’’SomeTimes’’’.

That’s also a key difference between Traditional scoring methods and using a Chain saw to score.
Chain Saw Scoring does Not permit you to work opposing sides of a log simultaneously. Not without rolling the log 180 Degrees every so often.

Drawing the Timber on The Log

  • A Center line, real or imaginary, is stretched “Roughly” down the middle of the log. This represents the middle of the ‘’’Finished Timber’’’ Within the log.

The center line of a novice hewer is, typically, the true center line of the log, and that’s fine if the log is perfectly straight, ‘’’Actually’’’ it’s desired. You are trying to take off exactly the same amounts of wood from each side, that’s ‘’’Balance’’’.

It’s where the log isn’t straight, that the true value of the Center line comes into play. In these circumstances, the line is offset to take into account unevenness, Reaction wood, flair, any number of features within the log which have to be compensated for, to produce a ‘’’Straight’’’ timber, that is, if Straight is what you are trying to produce – and it isn’t always.

  • This Center line is then dropped down, and scribed, or drawn with a pencil, ‘’’Down’’’ both ends of the log -- with the help of either a plumb Bob or a spirit level.

  • This is a good point to say that ‘’’Everything’’’ in Hewing relates to either Vertical and/or Horizontal. It just makes layout that much easier.

  • With a ‘’’Vertical’’’ Center line drawn on the ends of the log, and the orientation already chosen, it’s time to draw the timber.

  • Let’s say that I’m hewing a 26’ long, 14” x 16” Tie beam. The Log is oriented so that it is 16” tall and 14” wide, ‘’’Or’’’, it’s sitting Top up.

  • I need to make a mark ‘’’At Least’’’ 7” on either side of my center line and drop that down using my level or Plumb Bob.

  • I say at least, because it’s a tall face, and the finished surface will be quite dished (Concave), Maybe as much as 3/8 – ½”. If I mark the timber out at Exactly what I need, by the time these two faces are hewn, flipped over, and the next two marked, I will already be under 14”.

It’s often much better to go a bit big, than right on. In this case, I’ll go out 7 ½” from the Center, on either side.

  • The lines, which we’ve just drawn to either side of the Center line, go from the top edge of the Log to the bottom edge. They are what we will use to snap our chalk lines down the length of the log.

  • Except for Chainsaw Scoring, we won’t actually use the bottom aspects of these lines for anything but checking whether our chalk line was snapped in a plane.

These two sides will be Hewn before the other two sides are even laid out. And then, at that point, this entire process is repeated, starting with the center line.

Snapping the lines

In Traditional Layout, the desired Timber is etched on both ends of the log, those lines are then transferred up, and, or out, to the surface of the log. The vertical faces are snapped – in ‘’’Plane’’’ – this means that the chalk line is pulled straight up.

  • This is ‘’’Terribly’’’ important. How the lines are snapped will affect ‘’’Every’’’ aspect of the process from here on out.

The chalk line can either define one edge of a perfect plane, in this case, the top edge of the ‘’’Vertical’’’ faces we are about to hew, Or, it can become a Profile of log’s surface.

The way in which you ‘’’Check’’’ to see whether the line you’ve snapped is actually straight (you’re checking to see whether the line was deflected by Wind, bark, your own clothing, or just a bad pull) Is by leaving the line attached to the log at one side, raising the other end ‘’’Straight’’’ up, until it is ‘’’Only’’’ in contact with the log at one point, and sighting down the line.

At this point keep in mind “Three points equals a Plane”. And you have three points represented. 1. The far point where the line is still attached to the log. 2. The point where the line you just snapped intersects the ‘’’Top’’’ of the line you drew on the log’s end 3. The ‘’’Bottom most point of the line you drew on the log’s end.

Bear in mind that you are standing ‘’’At’’’ the end of the log, looking ‘’’Down’’’ the log’s length, with the line held in one hand, at almost eye level, the far end of the line is still connected to the log.

When you sight down the line, now – and for this the line has to be fairly taught, wind fairly minimal – you are looking to see whether all these points, mentioned above, line up.
The first thing you are looking for, is to sight straight down, and make the line drawn on the ‘’’End’’’ of the log become one point, a dot.
This will tell you if you are ‘’’Actually’’’ in Plane. It doesn’t Yet tell you whether you’ve snapped a straight line. But it sets everything up so you can see this, Very, clearly in a moment.

Next, trying not to move at all – if you Do move, just look down, resight your end line, and restore your position – Look down the Line you are holding, looking towards the far end of the Log.
What you are looking for here is to see if ‘’’Any’’’ of the line you just snapped onto the ‘’’Surface’’’ of the log is visible.

You should ‘’’Just’’’ see the line in your hand. It should meld perfectly with the line below, and pretty much obscure it from view. It’s a ‘’’Far’’’ harder thing to say than show. But, once you get it, it will be fairly clear and straight forward.

What you saw there, hopefully, was a perfectly straight line. If it wasn’t, just erase the line (By the Way, this is why Blue Chalk is better for this process than an indelible color, such as Red), and resnap it, trying to take care to raise the line in Plane, eliminate any snags, and watch for wind.

Profile

How did what you just do form a “Profile”?

Not only did your line define a plane – what we just checked for – it also created a perfect profile of the log’s surface. You’ll see this really clearly if you have a timber with a good deal of uneven surfaces – if It’s curved and such. Just move to the side, stand back a bit to get some perspective, and crouch down. Now look at your line.

That’s in no way a straight line. It’s a heck of a lot more like a map, than a plane. The less straight your log is, the more up and down that line is going to be.

If you were to roll that timber, right now, 90 Degrees, and ‘’’If’’ – But ‘’’DON’T’’’ -- you were to begin hewing along that line, you’d just be hewing a perfect silhouette of the log. It’d be not a darn bit different than what your kids just brought home from school the other day, where the teacher shone line on their faces, cast their shadow on the wall, and some other kid traced that shadow on a piece of paper.

If you ‘’’Don’t’’’ snap the lines in plane, and Hew them that way, then that’s all your doing, you’re making a pretty picture. Sure, if the log is dead straight, your line itself ends up Fairly straight, in that case it’s just your overall dimensions which get messed up, but, your edge will never be quite right, and, you won’t know why, and you won’t be able to fix it.

Once these two lines are snapped the two sides are scored, hewn, the log is rolled 90 Degrees, moved back into position, and, ‘’’Possibly’’’ re-leveled. Then, the process is repeated and the finished product attained.

And that’s all there is to that.

Scoring

Scoring is the process by which the bulk of the waste is removed and the log is made ready to be Hewn with the Broad Axe.
There are two main, traditional, methods;

  • ’’’One Man Scoring’’’; Standing atop the log and scoring down, between ones feet, with the felling axe. A method also used to Buck a log with an axe – cut it to length, And which is seen as an event in some of the Lumberjack competitions across the country.

One Man Scoring can be used to either produce Close scoring as well as Juggling (V’s).

  • Close scoring is ‘’’Only’’’ done in one direction (except around knots). If you are “Scoring Up”, Then you are starting at the Butt end of the log, and working toward the tip. Rather than making a V, as you would when Juggling, you are merely making an enormous series of parallel “cuts” with the axe, in an attempt to “Score” to the Line.

The cuts you make, with the axe, come from the tip and travel to the butt – direction wise, descend vertically from the uppermost edge of the surface to be hewn, with each vertical series only 3 – 5” from the next.
This process leaves a very distinctive Ragged, or, “Rough” look, appearing as though the chips might come loose and fall off at any time, which is in fact the reality.

Though close scoring can be utilized to produce as fine a finished Hewn surface as juggling, it is often associated with the “Rough-Hewn” look. In fact, one element of Rough-Hewn is the, very distinct, pattern of scoring which is left in the finished timber. That pattern is the one described above, the vertical series

  • ’’’European Two Man Scoring’’’; Two people Standing flat upon the ground, arranged on one side of the log, axes coming together -- one at a time– to form, or, chop a V -- a Juggle -- out of the waste on one of the vertical sides set to be Hewn.

This style is very suggestive of two men driving home a railroad spike. It is also one of the more dramatic elements of hewing. If practiced by two experienced people the axes come very fast, and seem to, nearly, collide with every stroke.
One of the most interesting pieces of footage, I’ve seen, related to Hewing, was where a Video Camera revolved around two men scoring a small log, in the pouring rain, in a half finished structure, the cameraman rising and falling as he navigated a greatly cluttered work area. This style can be absolutely thrilling to watch. It also has the added advantage that it is ‘’’Very’’’ easy on the back. Extremely unlike the style of One Man Scoring, which is, utterly and unavoidably, a Back Breaker.

  • ’’’As a Note’’’; Both types of scoring may be used on the same timber. Such as in the case where a Log is overly large, or where a great deal of material has to be removed, as, say, when hewing a Rectangular Timber.
    In these instances, Juggling will be done to remove much of the waste, those juggles are then split off, and, if a good amount of wood still remains – to little to bother juggling it, but still far to much to begin in on the Hewing -- then close scoring would be used to remove the rest of the waste.

Chain Saw Scoring

Hewing

  • Rev J.D. Hooker's Article gives an overview of the Hewing process. Though scoring is done, primarily, with a chainsaw, and little or no attention is given to dressing the timber with a Broad axe, and snapping lines the lines onto the surface of the log (Which is an absolutely Critical step) is a bit misleading in diagram 4. It is still a snapshot of a process that is as old as the shaping of Logs, and, for all the objections listed above, is still remarkably close to how things are done.