Hewing basics

[Don_P]

I am definitely not a tie hack or hewer of any stripe. I've worked around a bit and had some time avoiding the wind outside this morning. I saw a question related to this, hopefully this will give a general idea of how it was done around here.

The first thing to do is chock the log stationary. With a tape pull across each end several ways and locate the center of the log, marking that point. Use a level to draw a vertical and horizontal line through the center point. without disturbing the log, go to the far end and make a similar cross hair mark through its center point.


That is the imaginary center of your timber. Measure half the thickness and height out along each axis, using the level, mark the timber cross section on the log. Do that at each end and then snap lines down the length of the log describing the plane of the surface as it emerges from the round log.


With the regular felling axe and using a practised swing move down the log, scoring it every 2-6" depending on how wild the grain is locally. The scores alternate from side to side and are to just the depth of the snapped lines.


This shows some tight scoring in a gnarly section of the white oak upper log, the lower was scored more widely in calmer grain. That was hewed about 1849.


The log is then turned so that the plane is now vertical, it is often set up on "ponies" and the broadaxe is used to chip out the depth scored wood and plane the surface. turn 90 or 180 degrees and repeat 


I'm not much of a hewer so to match up the texture of this replacement ceiling joist I needed to use a drawknife and slick as well as the axes to approximate the level of finish the old guys had achieved with axes alone. Consciously standing in a hewn log home makes one appreciate that surfacing task.


Although it was not traditionally used for the task, an adze is frequently used for the job as well. If you use one either get some soccer shin guards or wear stovepipe leggings, I've seen an awful scar from that tool.

It sounds like others here have more experience than me and I hope they'll chime in, I just had the time and wasn't shy 

[John Raabe]

Nice post and helpful introduction to a (nearly) lost art!

Thanks for taking the time to show us how this is done.

[southernsis]

Thanks Don for this information. My husband is wanting to make his own timbers. This is very helpful.

[ben2go]

Sweet write up. 

[Squirl]

Thanks for the info.

[glenn kangiser]

Thanks, but that made me very tired...

[MountainDon]

Gives one a real sense of appreciation for mill produced lumber. 

[Ernest T. Bass]

It's amazing how fast the old timers used to do that kind of work... There's guys around here who talk about their dads chopping up timbers for railroad ties.. People knew how to work back then.

For myself, a jig that lets the chainsaw take a slab off a log in a couple minutes or less suffices.

[Don_P]

A large and long timber is expensive, if you are handed some good trees during land clearing it might be worth it to process the timber, hewing is one method. The plus is that the tooling price is low and it looks great, it does resemble work. A chainsaw mill is another relatively low cost way.

The next thing is moving the timber.
This is a very simple, low tech way of moving a pretty good sized timber. A pair of healthy 2x's are bolted to make a pair of hinged legs. From this bolt an adjustable ratchet strap is also hung. The timber to be moved is strapped to the hook on the adjustable strap. It is adjusted so that as the legs are lifted and pushed forward they lift the timber several inches off the ground and slide it forward. Move the legs forward and repeat, "walking the dog".

[Ernest T. Bass]

Now there's an ingenious trick I never heard before... Time consuming, but effective by the looks of it. 

[Squirl]

I will probably use this when I build a barn.  I agree with you about a use when clearing land.  It is a shame to use a long strait tree for firewood.  The tools are cheap enough and I like working with hand tools.  I always could use the exercise.

[JRR]

I've got a foot-adze lying around somewhere.  I don't want it to find me very often.

[OldDog]

 I have a contract where my GG Grandad sold hand hewn crossties to the railroad for 64 cents each.

I have been told that a man could make 2 ties a day.

[Jens]

Thanks Don.  Check this out.  Love the bare feet!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueIB0h4SzHc&feature=related

Haven't had a chance to hew yet, but one day will build a house with only hand tools.  Or at least, that is one of my dreams and goals!

[firefox]

Now I know what the expression "Hue and cry" means...

Sorry, I couldn't resist,
Bruce

[Jens]

Is this an expression that anybody else has ever used?  Or is it just you?   Sorry, had to poke, cause I've never heard that one before.

[MountainDon]

[Q] "What does hue and cry mean?"

[A] This idiom, meaning a loud clamour or public outcry, contains the obsolete word hue, which people these days know only as a slightly formal or technical word for a colour or shade. As a result, you sometimes see the phrase written as hew and cry.

Our modern meaning goes back to part of English common law in the centuries after the Norman Conquest. There wasn't an organised police force and the job of fighting crime fell mostly on ordinary people. If somebody robbed you, or you saw a murder or other crime of violence, it was up to you to raise the alarm, the hue and cry. Everybody in the neighbourhood was then obliged to drop what they were doing and help pursue and capture the supposed criminal. If the criminal was caught with stolen goods on him, he was summarily convicted (he wasn't allowed to say anything in his defence, for example), while if he resisted arrest he could be killed. The same term was used for a proclamation relating to the capture of a criminal or the finding of stolen goods. The laws relating to hue and cry were repealed in Britain in 1827.

This mysterious word hue is from the first part of the Anglo-Norman French legal phrase hu e cri. This came from the Old French hu for an outcry, in turn from huer, to shout. It seems that hue could mean any cry, or even the sound of a horn or trumpet — the phrase hu e cri had a Latin equivalent, hutesium et clamor, "with horn and with voice".

As an etymological footnote, the Old French huer survived in Cornwall right down to the early twentieth century. At that time an important part of local livelihoods in coastal communities came from the seasonal catch of fish called pilchards, which migrated past the coast in great shoals in early autumn. To be sure of not missing their arrival, fishermen posted lookouts on the cliffs. They were called huers, since they commonly alerted the waiting fishermen by shouting through speaking trumpets.


http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-hue1.htm

[Redoverfarm]

The bark and cambium layer should always be removed from logs used in the construction of log homes. If left intact they can provide a home and food for a wide variety of pests and their presence hinders the drying process. We next encounter sapwood, the living wood in a growing tree. All wood in a tree is first formed as sapwood. Its function is to conduct water from the roots to the leaves and to store nutrients generated by the leaves. Since sapwood is moist and contains many nutrients, it is the section of the tree that is most susceptible to decay and insect attack.

In the center of older trees we'll find heartwood, wood that is no longer living. Heartwood is typically resistant to decay and insects since it contains a high concentration of naturally occurring fungicides and pesticides. In some tree species it may appear in a cross-section as a discolored circle, following the annual rings in shape. Usually the older a tree is the more heartwood it will contain. Years ago few people constructed a log home using sapwood. They only harvested old large diameter trees and then hewed off all of the sapwood. That's how the log home "hand hewn" look came about. The heartwood, being naturally resistant to insects and decay, was used to construct the home which is why many of the log homes constructed in the 18th and 19th centuries still exist.

[firefox]

Hi Jens,
   Always feel free to poke. I'm surprised that you are the only one who adzed me about this.

Thanks Don for the  clarification of the expression.

Bruce