So, now that scores of huge trees had been felled, their trunks burned into sections and the bark removed as detailed in the previous column, it was time for the hewing process to begin. This meant that it was also time for the introduction of the broadaxe into the mix of tools being employed at the building site.
The broadaxe was considered the big dog among the numerous kinds of axes that would be employed in creating the homestead. The iron blade of the broadaxe typically exceeded 12 inches in length, making it a ponderous tool to work with for many hours at a time. In reality, however, the broadaxe is not so much an axe at all as it is a wood plane. The blade is beveled on one side only and using the axe does not involve a swinging motion, but rather a dropping one, designed to remove wood chips from a rounded tree trunk and to create a straight, flat side.
Broadaxes
There are two basic categories of broadaxes, divided along ethnic lines. There is the English version and the German so-called “goosewing” model. Both share some characteristics, and both have their differences. One common characteristic involves the construction of the hewing head itself, crafted from multiple components, with the body of the head being made of one type of metal and the cutting blade itself being made of another. Most of the axe head was made of a softer iron, while the blade was made of file iron.
File iron? In early America files — employed by many different craftsmen, and especially blacksmiths, whitesmiths and edge tool makers — were made of the finest quality iron. So, when a file became worn out, it was never thrown away, but was instead taken to a blacksmith for recycling. One such way of reusing file iron was to integrate it into a broadaxe head as the cutting edge. On most early broadaxes the evidence of how the file was attached to the rest of the head is fairly visible.
On English-style broadaxes the handle is bent slightly at the point where it extends beyond the axe head. This was accomplished by taking the wood to be used for the handle, placing it in a steam box until it became pliable, bending it slightly, and then clamping it into the desired position until it dried. Having the handle bent in this way prevented the user’s fingers from becoming crunched between the handle and the tree trunk being hewn.
The German goosewing broadaxe was shaped altogether differently. First, the head was of a completely different configuration. If you stood the blade sharpened side down on a surface and looked at it, it would have the approximate shape of the folded wing of a goose — from whence it derives its name. The body of the blade was sharply pointed at one end and squared off at the other.
Unlike the English broadaxe on which the wooden handle was bent, the German goosewing head had a handle socket which itself was canted off-angle to the blade. This allowed a straight handle to be utilized while achieving the same effect as the English broadaxe handle in terms of saving the user’s fingers from being pinched.
With the chalk lines being snapped as the guide for the dimensions of the beam that would eventually be produced, the hewing process was set to begin.
Hewing
In the first step a person — often a woman or a youngster — would stand atop the log with what was called a marking axe. The marking axe had a deeply curved handle that made it perfect for the job. The axe was swung between the user’s legs toward the user in such a way that it cut through the log as far back as the chalk line. Such cuts were made every several inches going the entire length of the log. Because of the deep curve of the handle on this type of axe, it could not be swung in the manner in which a regular axe is used.
Once this extensive series of cuts with the marking axe was completed, it was time for the broadaxe to do its job.
The user aligned the broadaxe blade with the chalk line, allowing it to drop and cut through the curved edge chips that had been created through the marking process. When the broadaxe user reached the end of the log he or she had created a flat edge.
Incidentally, it was this process that gave rise to a phrase often heard in terms of household discipline, and which is still verbalized today in some regions. That parental warning was: “Young man, if you don’t hew to the line you’re going to get it when your father comes home!”
The process of chalking, marking and hewing was continued log after log over many days until enough trees had been converted to usable building logs to construct the project at hand.
It should also be noted that the chips that were removed in creating a straight edge on the logs were collected so that they could serve as chinking. Chinking was material used to fill the spaces in between the logs once the structure was erected in order to prevent wind from blowing through. After the chinking was laid in the log spaces, it was covered with thick mud on both the interior and exterior surfaces to make the structure more weatherproof. Applying the mud — which there was plenty of — (more about that in the next chapter) was often a job for the youngsters, who seemed to get a bigger charge out of it than did the adults.
So, with the trees now hewn into building material, the construction of a permanent shelter could commence; after all, winter was coming.
