Medieval Timber making video

[S.C.M.]

Thought this might be interesting and I couldn't see anything like it when I did a quick search, so I figured I post it here. Some poor axe handling (I fear for their knees) but overall neat work. Maybe not anything new, but hey, here it is.

[video=youtube;aI8VWjpKBlA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aI8VWjpKBlA[/video]

and on a related note, does anybody have an easy way to make thin, small planks? I get all wonky things when I just split them, and because they're so thin and small (about 2" by 2"), carving them smooth is dangerous for fingers

 

[tombear]

Thanks for sharing, that's really interesting and the related links are great as well.

I've made small planks on a band saw, just used the guide and a stick to push them through. Unfortunately it was unseasoned oak and it warped to hell and back as it dried out. But before then it was perfectly fine, almost veneer thickness.

ATB

Tom

 

[S.C.M.]

I've made small planks on a band saw, just used the guide and a stick to push them through. Unfortunately it was unseasoned oak and it warped to hell and back as it dried out.
Tom

I knew, the second I posted it, someone would say "bandsaw" I edited to show the video and didn't think to include one tiny detail... I don't have a bandsaw... yet irate: I do have a scrollsaw, which is great as long as you work in small, fiddly stuff, not so much for planking thanks for the advice though, maybe I'll rig something up, or use the honking great big tablesaw, that'd be funny to watch

 

[tombear]

Sorry! Ever since we got it ive been enamoured of the band saw, I even use it to shape the outside of ladle bowls. It's my solution to most things.

Thin 2" squares? Your not making tablets for weaving are you? A total stab in the dark.

ATB

Tom

 

[Robson Valley]

Hand-sawn planks were often done over a "saw-pit" with one man standing in the bottom.
Smoothing is commonly done with one sort of adze or another. The really fiddly work for joints
used smaller tools. I suppose you could smooth a plank with a draw knife but experience tells me that the
physical effort is substantial.

 

[mr dazzler]

when you split, try to always split the 2 pieces so they are equal in mass, less chance of a run out....If you split a thin plank off the side of a fat one it will usually run out-something shingle splitters use to their advantage to get naturally tapered shingle boards out of cedar logs. Also try to get a clean log and split radially (one edge of board at the centre, one edge at the outside of the log). That gives a quarter sawn effect which will prove to be very stable when it dries (less likely to cup) It will be tapered in cross section when split but can be planed up with an axe/adze/drawknife whatever you use
Why poor axe handling? chopping notches and squaring up in that fashion is an ancient time proven way to hew a log

 

[Robson Valley]

I have a little experience splitting western red cedar. To get the sort of run-out needed for shingles, you have to split bottom-up.
If you flip the log end-for-end, that is, a 24" shake block, you can split slabs with practically no run out at all.

The anthropologist, Frans Boas, measured a WRC house board on Haida Gwaii to be 36" wide, 14 feet tall and 1" thick.

 

[S.C.M.]

Sorry! Ever since we got it ive been enamoured of the band saw, I even use it to shape the outside of ladle bowls. It's my solution to most things.

Thin 2" squares? Your not making tablets for weaving are you? A total stab in the dark.

ATB

Tom

Yeah, I would like a bandsaw but...
I'm making hair ties actually. The cheap bobbles don't work on my dreads, they're too small. A wooden planklet with a hole, a bit of elastic and a wooden toggle works though, and I'm figuring out other ways too.

when you split, try to always split the 2 pieces so they are equal in mass, less chance of a run out....
Why poor axe handling? chopping notches and squaring up in that fashion is an ancient time proven way to hew a log

I have been doing my best, it's not really run out that're the problem as I'm splitting very small lengths, more how uneven the split surface is, but i will probably just have to saw, not split.
As for the axe handling, I was sure at one or two points the chopper was going to take a knee off, just seemed he was right in the axes path, but it could be the camera angle

Oh and just in case anyone wants to know, I'm working in olive and almond wood

 

[richardhomer]

Thanks for sharing. I really enjoyed that video

 

[Hammock Hamster]

Yeah, I would like a bandsaw but...
I'm making hair ties actually. The cheap bobbles don't work on my dreads, they're too small. A wooden planklet with a hole, a bit of elastic and a wooden toggle works though, and I'm figuring out other ways too.



I have been doing my best, it's not really run out that're the problem as I'm splitting very small lengths, more how uneven the split surface is, but i will probably just have to saw, not split.
As for the axe handling, I was sure at one or two points the chopper was going to take a knee off, just seemed he was right in the axes path, but it could be the camera angle

Oh and just in case anyone wants to know, I'm working in olive and almond wood

I thought exactly the same about the axe technique, putting in the notches were fine but for logs of that side I would have thought they would have been on the other side of it to remove the excess. Bigger logs I imagine you would be offset? Pretty sure that's why broad axes have a canted handle so your not directly in the path of the axe head as well as to allow space for fingers if choked up.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[mr dazzler]

The broad axe handles are off set so you dont crush your knuckles. Normally they are used to slice wood off, not with a big chopping action. The weight of the axe head does most of the work