Pulaski

Having wielded a few in my day, I can say, “now THAT’s a pulaski!”

https://www.barebonesliving.com/store/products/garden-tools/pulaski-axe

The Making of a Danish Axe

This is a show that appears to make recreations of weapons from movies and video games.

This one is based on one that appears in the Ubisoft game For Honor.

I always love seeing axes being made. While the size of this isn’t practical, the techniques are the same as the making of an axe mere mortals could actually wield.

Pioneer Axe

Peter Vogt made this terrific 10 minute film in 1965 of the Emerson Stevens axe shop in Oakland Maine. Makers of the Pioneer brand of axes, they were the last remaining shop in a town that had once housed a dozen axe making shops. They closed a few months after this film was made. Amazing to see the process involved in making axes. It’s easy to imagine that the way they did things in 1965 was the way they did things in 1865.

Artspiration: Maskull Lasserre’s Secret Carpentry

Canadian artist Maskull Lasserre’s carved a snake skeleton into an old axe handle, a piece entitled Secret Carpentry. His other work is worth a look too.

Artisans of Australia: Timbercraft

I’ve watched this a few times in the last few years and I come away envious each time. Always love seeing craftspeople who really know how to use their tools, and seeing these two gentlemen wield various axes, (as well as a crosscut felling saw, a froe, and a drawknife), they are clearly masters. I’ve felled trees with an axe quite a few times, but hewing a log with a broad axe and an adze is something I’ve never done. These two, Bill Boyd and Mark Garner make it look easy. Plus, Mr. Garner wears a great looking hat while he does it. 

Filmed in 1984, this short film shows efforts to restore Coolamine Homestead in the Kosciuszko National Park. I appreciate not only that they made an effort to rebuild these structures, (drop slab alpine ash timber huts to be precise - examples of a building technique in sync with the surrounding environment), but also that they used the tools and techniques that would have been used at the time of its construction, circa the 1880’s.

I have to wonder though, 30 years after this film was made, whether anyone is left in Australia who could do this work. I suspect that misters Boyd and Garner were a rare breed even then.

Northeast Loggers Handbook

For an individual looking to cut down small numbers of trees, clear out a sugar bush, etc. a lot of the old ways of logging are still quite applicable. I had the opportunity 15 years ago to learn about clearing out a sugar bush from an old fella who still did things the way they were done decades ago, before mechanization took over. He still used hand tools, and skidded out selectively logged trees with a team of horses. Those experiences remain a cherished memory.

Published in 1951, when chainsaws (delightfully primitive) and mechanical skidders were just beginning to make an appearance, this book is a goldmine of information.

http://naldc.nal.usda.gov/download/CAT87208315/PDF

Birth of a Tool

A reader shared these with me, but I didn’t want them to be hidden away in the comments section. 

John Neeman hand makes woodworking tools – axes, draw knives, framing slicks, chisels, kitchen and hunting knives, and other goodies.

These two short films are not only beautifully done, they show a beautiful process. The shop is envy inducing. I have tried my hand at a variety of skills, but blacksmithing is one I very much want to tackle one day. Oh time and space and money - why must you be in such short supply?






When I have some money, I must talk to him about an axe.

Love the quote used as well.

“It is a tragedy of the first magnitude that millions of people have ceased to use their hands as hands. Nature has bestowed upon us this great gift which is our hands. If the craze for machinery methods continues, it is highly likely that a time will come when we shall be so incapacitated and weak that we shall begin to curse ourselves for having forgotten the use of the living machines given to us by God.”
Mahathma Ghandi
 

An Ax To Grind

A superb treatise on that wonderful tool, the ax, from the U.S. Forest Service.

I’m hard pressed to think of anything they missed. It covers history, types, care of and maintenance, sharpening, re-handling, safe use, techniques, manufacturers, distributors. Everything.

An Ax To Grind: A Practical Ax Manual

There’s also a video that accompanies it

The Complete Guide to Sharpening by Leonard Lee

Leonard Lee is the retired president of (the fantastic) Lee Valley and Veritas Tools. A woodworker and a tool maker, he’s researched, designed and manufactured numerous tools, jigs and sharpening systems. I’ve put much money into this mans hands over the years and have done so gladly.

The primary focus is sharpening as it relates to woodworking tools, but there is much knowledge to be gleaned from this book. It is the most practical reference I’ve ever encountered on the subject.

Having and knowing how to use certain tools is important, but I think sharpening is the oft overlooked third part of that equation. I suspect that many don’t really know how. Either the techniques or the materials and tools to use. This book goes a long way to overcoming any deficiencies anyone may feel in their understanding of this seemingly simple, yet often times perplexing subject.

The first chapter is entitled “The Meaning Of Sharpness.”
Probably one of those things everyone thinks they’ve always understood, but a good explanation of what it really means.

The title of the second chapter belies its woodworking focus, but is quite interesting regardless- “The Physics of Severing Wood Fibres.”

The third chapter really gets into the heart of it all though with “Metallurgy.” An explanation of steel. Heat treatments. Alloying elements. An explanation of different types of steel. How to use spark tests to identify different types of steel. An explanation of different processes used to treat steel.

The fourth chapter delves into “Abrasives.” For me this was the chapter that I learned the most from. An explanation of the differences between man made versus natural stones. Qualities to look for in a stone. Explanations of the different types of stones in each category, including microscopic photos of different materials. Microscopic photos of chisel edges and how various sharpeners affect them. The importance of bond and how it affects the performance of abrasives. Lapping and polishing compounds. Hardness scales and tests. Understanding grinding wheels. An explanation of the grindstone codes.
 

The fifth chapter deals with “Sharpening Equipment.” Powered sharpening equipment is the first subject touched on. Grinders, belt sanders, sanding drums, buffing wheels. How to true a stone. Then bench stones are tackled. Natural – Arkansas stones and Japanese water stones (and a sideline on how to grade the latter). Man-made – oil, water, reconstituted, diamond, ceramic. Honing oils and waters. How to store stones. Honing guides. Strops – leather and wooden. Files – mill, triangular handsaw, web-saw, feather-edge, cross-cut, auger-bit, diamond and boron-carbide. Sandpaper. Micro-finishing abrasives. Finally, a sideline with suggestions for a basic sharpening set-up.

Then the books gets into the ins and outs of sharpening specific tools – Chisels, Planes, Knives, Carving Tools, Turning Tools, Scrapers, Handsaws, Axes, Hatchets and Adzes, Power-saw Blades, Drill Bits, Peripheral Milling Cutters (routers, joiners and shapers), and then Other Shop Tools (tweezers, trammel points, center punches and awls, screwdrivers, marking and cutting gauges, claw tools, nail sets, pliers, end cutters and nail pullers, scissors and shears, punches, rotary cutters, miter-trimmer blades, cornering tools).

Several appendixes finish the book, including an explanation of international grit standards, as well as a glossary of terms.

If you take your knives and other cutting implements seriously, if you enjoy woodworking to any degree, or if you’d just like to learn a little more about this really quite engrossing subject, I can’t recommend this book enough.

The Complete Guide to Sharpening

There is also a video available.

Lee Valley also carries any sort of sharpening implement one could ever want, here and here.