Why axes? (Axe v. Billhook v. Machete/Parang v.Saw v. Large knife)

[dancan]

AXE's ROCK!!!!!
A man's tool, knives are for girls to cut food up!!!!!

Now that statement I like !

I own and use more than a dozen chainsaws (exact number a secret from the wife) when I'm working my saws on clearing jobs I pack an axe with me to drive felling wedges , clearing some branches or to chop out a pinched bar . An axe serves me well .
My billhook is a FS550 .

[demographic]

Cerain tools are much better for certain purposes as stated. Lets take an example - the "Scandinavian Forest Axe" - a 24" light headed narrow profiled axe.

Now fell a tree with a chainsaw and decide you need to "sned" it (remove all the side branches). Stand on one side of the trunk and hold the (long) helve one handed, striking the branches off the other side. Faster than snedding even with a chainsaw.

A maul or splittling axe is fine - but you need to know how to use splitting wedges as well for large rounds. When you come right down to it a pneumatic splitter is the quivalent of a chainsaw - pricier and quicker (and more dangerous too).

All tools have their place - saws are fine at cross grain cutting - but slow and poor at along the grain cutting or splitting. Thin cutting cross grain (like hedging or snedding) is still quicker with a manual impact blade than a powered saw.

Its not a question of "better" - more a question of "better at a given task"

I disagree, you can't have seen anyone who was fast with a chainsaw then.
I'm not fast but you watch someone who does it all the time and its seriously impressive.

Plus fellers on piecework use the fastest way they can to get the work done. I've not noticed many that sned with an axe round here anyway.

Admittedly I don't particularly like using a chainsaw constantly and sometimes its just nicer to use something hand powered and for someone not used to either the axe might be faster but I don't agree that its faster in practised hands.

[British Red]

That's okay - we can disagree - indeed we usually do

[mr dazzler]

I love the brylcreme hairdo and the blokes felt hat on the aussie video. The building technique isnt dissimilar to the stave board method that was used to build the earliest wooden church buildings only they used horizontal rather than vertical boards. Frame and panel on a huige architectonic scale

[demographic]

That's okay - we can disagree - indeed we usually do

Can't say I'd noticed, is there a shrug smilie here?

[Smudge]

Bushcrafting I like a hatchet or khukri myself, axe not really required.

[Jared]

My preferred billhook pattern is larger (24"+) heavier and more dangerous (double edged) than a GB SFA, so...

I do think axes come into their own felling, and snedding. Snedding is a pure pleasure with an axe.
I have also heard that sawing frozen wood is a nightmare (sort of fibre reinforced ice), and an axe becomes favourable.

As an aside, woodworking cultures where traditional hand tools are used (Japan, Sweden, Germany, maybe France) all have axes and hatchets, and not billhooks, as woodworking tools. I think there must be something in this.

I suspect its to do with Inclosure Acts which helped to create our Hedgelaying tradition. Axe is a bit unwieldy in a hedge, machetes/goloks and long knives too light, so hence the billhook.

[forestwalker]

Wow, they still sell them. An interesting alternative to the chainsaw - cleaner, quieter, (only slightly) cheaper to purchase, cheap to run, greener, comes with free exercise, as much as you can use!

I've use this type of saw a little bit (mostly a 3' one man). Surprisingly fast, takes some skill to file and set (the only ones you see in the old barn here have the simple tooth pattern, so they are not *too* tricky). The Finn-Galick ones are on my "drool" list. *Wants*.

[Ian S]

Whoops - I've not been 100% precise about my terminology.

By woodworking, I really mean timbering, hewing, joinery ,carpentry etc rather that working in the woods, or for want of a better expression, forestry.

Any of the THJC traditions above seem to use axes and hatchets as wood shaping tools.

I think that billhooks have been found in possibly Iron Age settings, certainly in Dark Age (post Roman) Britain right through to modern Britain, and billhooks are also found in France, maybe Spain and just about Scandinavia.

Billhook use seems to be more woodland management, so hedging and coppicing tools, or in Europe a vineyard tool, so a heavy pruning and coppicing tool again. They don't seem to be used in a THJC context.

Cheers