You may have noticed lots of references here lately to hand hewing and broad axes. Call it research, I guess, because I’m still debating how I will acquire, and then work with and move those white oak timbers I mentioned earlier.
Anyway, I really enjoyed this quality video. Really well shot, very clear, very easy to understand the process of hewing here. Check it out!
I read a great post last night on the Holder Bros. industry blog about hand hewing beams with broad axes. It’s worth a mention here!
Beams that are hand hewn get a flat face treatment with nothing more than a felling axe and a broad axe. This is how beams were converted from round logs before the age of cheap fuel and portable mills and all that jazz.
This weekend, I attended an excellent firewood workshop at the Clark Conservation Area here in northeast Missouri. My primary motivator was the promised access to timber that would be granted by simply attending the workshop. I came away from the workshop quite excited by the possibility of obtaining free white and black oak logs perfect for timber framing, but very stuck as to how in the heck I could pull off getting the material actually out of the woods.
Hi there, I’m Ziggy. In 2008, I launched The Year of Mud while building my first natural home. This website is a collection of personal stories and experiences building with clay, straw, and wood over the past 15+ years. A few of the things that get me fired up are natural plasters, timber framing, & Japanese architecture. In 2012, we started offering Natural Building Workshops, so you can learn essential hands-on skills to build your own natural home.