Feeling stressed? Anxious? Nervous? GRAB AN AXE!

[Caperguy99]

I can’t even imagine. You must be in very good shape.

We felled 15 pine trees back in the Fall and limbed them. With chainsaws. And I was still sore as the dickens for a fortnight.

 

[jjohnwm]

I can’t even imagine. You must be in very good shape.

We felled 15 pine trees back in the Fall and limbed them. With chainsaws. And I was still sore as the dickens for a fortnight.

You bet! I'm 66 but have the body of a 90-year-old!

I did 5 more this morning, along with a quantity of smaller brush. Honestly, using the axe on a tree is in many ways easier than clearing the smaller brush with a machete or brush axe, or manhandling a chain saw.

Great fun today! My first tree fell 45-degrees and hung up in another marked tree. I gingerly went to work on that one, carefully watching the other guy hanging over my head and positioning myself in such a way that two other big trees would deflect the others if they came down unexpectedly. I swung...then stopped and listened...swung again...stopped and listened...didn't want surprises. Finally the second tree let loose, and even began to fall where I had hoped...but then the weight of tree#1 pushed it off course and it snagged a third tree on the way down, one which was not even marked for felling.

Now I had a set of three 45-foot dominoes all ready to fall over. To quote the immortal W.C.Fields: "If at first you don't succeed...quit. No sense being a damned fool about it!"

So I left them to their own devices, went to the other end of the line and knocked over a couple of more cooperative targets, then called it quits for the day.

At this point of my experience, having a single 12-inch-diameter tree break loose and topple is still pretty exciting and a bit creepy. I cannot fathom what it would be like to bring down the gigantic old-growth monsters that the old-time loggers managed to fell with axes!

 

[Ulu]

They were fond of whipsaws too.

Each year, they have big lumberjack festivities just 50 miles north of here, but no whipsaws. Lots of axe tossing, pole climbing, and hot-rod chainsaws.

I, however, own an Electromac 4.5 hp saw and 100’ of 12ga cord. It covers my 1/3 acre & 7 trees, all irrigated with poopy fishwater.

Of course, I do not burn wood, except occasional BBQ, as my fireplace and chimney were replaced by 240 gallons of poopy fishwater. Everyone here has natural gas, which heats 10x cheaper than burning wood, unless the wood is free.

It ain’t.

My saw gets used in emergencies and for trimming Christmas trees. It’s not worth keeping a gasoline saw for that.

For BBQ kindling etc I keep this modern Vaughn (which is ok)


and this rehandled yard sale roofing hatchet, which is 100 years old. I love it a lot, compared to the Vaughn.

I have rehandled several tools, but this was the first time I did a perfect job.

I also keep a Tru-Temper root axe, which was the most recently used of the 3. Good for sprinkler repairs.

 

[jjohnwm]

I like those little hatchets, and have a bunch in assorted sizes that I use for assorted purposes. One of my favourites is a sort of hatchet-sized maul made by Estwing, called a Fireside Buddy or something like that. My problem is that virtually everything I own, and also the vast majority of what is sold today, is designed for splitting wood. An actual full-size chopping/felling axe is a rare bird, in a day and age where everybody wants to use chainsaws.

I have one of those root axes...they call 'em Pulaskis up here...and it's useful when it's useful but it's not a fun axe to use. The chopper I've been using was rescued from a barn after lying dormant for probably many decades. Seems to be good steel, takes and holds an edge, but the handle is practically petrified wood and after a few days' use it is getting a wee bit loose. I will have to try to re-handle it but I've never been 100% in love with any re-handle job I've tackled before. Swinging and using a hatchet feels like it is stressing the tool; swinging a 3.75 pound head on the end of a 36-inch handle feels like an impending disaster.

 

[Backfromthedead]

Love chopping wood. When overtime was scarce several years back i would put listings on craigslist offering to chop wood for people on the weekends...in the winter time it could be quite lucrative as long as your back could handle it.

I think the trance like state that can be attained can be attributed to a few things: the exertion, the repetition, the fresh cut lumber smell which is somehow nostalgic for all people....but the number one reason being the pure and heady thrill of obliterating something with an axe. This is why people love those smash rooms or what have you. Definitely an effective stress release.

I still chop wood sometimes on my parents farm but just enough to feed the supplemental woodstove they have, but pops only likes the wood cut into roughly 2" wide sticks...so he'll rough chop them with the gas splitter when im gone and then I'll come shave them apart with a 3.5 lb collins axe, my new favorite tool.

jjohnwm if you like splitting wood, you should try driving some spikes sometime

 

[Backfromthedead]

I have to admit to never actually having felled a large tree with an axe though. Im pretty sure even the old old loggers had those long two man saws or whatever and i cant imagine those were very easy either.

 

[esoxlucius]

Im pretty sure even the old old loggers had those long two man saws or whatever and i cant imagine those were very easy either.

No kidding! Especially when the saws had to be about 50 foot long!! lol. I mean look at the size of that thing.

 

[esoxlucius]

I expect there are laws against cutting these things down anyway, if not...there should be! They are magnificent trees.

 

[jjohnwm]

Love chopping wood....I think the trance like state that can be attained can be attributed to a few things: the exertion, the repetition, the fresh cut lumber smell which is somehow nostalgic for all people....but the number one reason being the pure and heady thrill of obliterating something with an axe. This is why people love those smash rooms or what have you. Definitely an effective stress release.

jjohnwm if you like splitting wood, you should try driving some spikes sometime

Lol, I've never heard of smash rooms...but I can see how someone trapped in a city could enjoy that idea. I need to know that I am achieving something when I do stuff like this; producing firewood and/or removing a tree that needs to be removed for some reason. The little trees I am assaulting fill both of those needs.

It's definitely addictive; the sound, the smell, the spray of chips, the solid feedback in the handle. Splitting is nice as well; trying to get and keep to a rhythm, concentrating on maintaining that rhythm throughout a string of single-swing splits, getting a little reward at the end of each swing as the two halves fly off to the sides.

But chopping....mmmmm! A little positive feedback after every swing...but then the bonus when the tree comes down! It's a "pure and heady thrill", indeed!

I have to admit to never actually having felled a large tree with an axe though. Im pretty sure even the old old loggers had those long two man saws or whatever and i cant imagine those were very easy either.

Yeah, I'd have a hard time dropping a truly big tree, not only physically but also mentally and emotionally. My biggest so far is only about 14 inch diameter, with a couple more in that size bracket still to go. These are poplars; they live fast, die young and have very little individual "personality"; I can't imagine how many thousands of them there are just on my little patch of ground alone. But a big tree? Different story. On my previous property, in Ontario, we had two big maple trees, each close to 4 feet in diameter. I would have moved heaven and earth to protect those trees from harm. And a tree like the one shown in Esox's post? Just touching something like that is practically a mystic experience for me; couldn't dream of harming it.

 

[ken31cay]

No kidding! Especially when the saws had to be about 50 foot long!! lol. I mean look at the size of that thing.

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I was in California last week dropping off my daughter to college and thought about driving up to the redwood forest. I didn't make it this time but it's definitely on my list to see these magnificent trees up close.