Next year's theme?

[Brian Dougherty]

Nice work everyone!  

So, what are we gonna do this year?

 

[Geoff Keyes]

Hatchets, hawks?  I want to make a Bill hook, but that's just me.

 

g

[Jaron Martindale]

ooh, I've been meaning to try axe making for a bit now, this would be a good excuse. I'm down for that

[Brian Dougherty]

I've been wanting to try a hawk since I saw it demoed at the Bowie hamme in a couple of years ago.  My only concern is that might be a bit involved for some.  

[Alan Longmire]

How about any one-handed woods-related chopping tool? Axe, hatchet, hawk, billhook, etc?

[Gary LT]

For chopping wood related, I’d be for it, if I am not called to work as it has been. I always enjoyed KITH a lot, usually finished early.

I don’t remember doing something like this suggestion before.

Gary LT

 

[Gert Burkhardt]

Would an adze qualify? I was wondering to make one for larger wood working projects.

To be honest, I would probably never use it in anger, but it would look cool on my tool wall...

Like the bow saw that I made a while ago 

 

[Brian Dougherty]

I would think an adze would more than qualify. 

 

Nice saw

 

[Bill Schmalhofer]

On 1/26/2025 at 5:34 PM, Brian Dougherty said:

I've been wanting to try a hawk since I saw it demoed at the Bowie hamme in a couple of years ago.  My only concern is that might be a bit involved for some.  

Not to diminish the beautiful work Alan does but in practice a hawk is not *that* difficult. The "hard part" is getting the eye drift. And making the handle  if you don't buy it... 

And as the KITH is meant (to my understanding ) to make you leave your comfort zone and try something new this would be an interesting subject.

 

On 1/26/2025 at 5:42 PM, Alan Longmire said:

How about any one-handed woods-related chopping tool? Axe, hatchet, hawk, billhook, etc?

I like this idea. I MAY actually join this time .

[billyO]

6 minutes ago, Bill Schmalhofer said:

 I MAY actually join this time .

Me too...and I might actually finish this one

[Alan Longmire]

43 minutes ago, Bill Schmalhofer said:

The "hard part" is getting the eye drift.

 

This is the original: https://www.imountainforge.com/shop/p/tomahawk-drift  The ones from other places are copies using this as the pattern, and are thus slightly smaller.  It fits most ready-made handles.  The little belt axe that Gerald Boggs makes is pretty easy too, if you follow the instructions.  And it takes factory handles as well.  If we formally choose this as the theme for this year I'll post a link.  

 

And you're right, a wrapped hawk is not difficult.  It's just an unfamiliar operation for many people.  Personally, I like Gert's Adze idea.  A little one-hand chair seat or coopers' adze would be both fun and handy, plus you'd get to make the drift for the tapered square eye, which wouldn't be too hard.  

[Geoff Keyes]

I'd like to try a billhook with a socketed handle, though the other thing that comes to mind is on the the Asian style "hatchets" they use for a variety of wood working/camp chores.  They are often Sanmai or Gomai which adds to the challenge 

 

[Carlos Lara]

Yeah, I like the idea of a nata quite a bit. Apparently it's sort of half machete, half hatchet. Seems like a really useful wood tool.

[Aiden CC]

This seems like a fun year, depending on my schedule I may be able to find time for an entry!

 

A nata came into my mind for this as well, I made one a few years ago and have wanted to try again now that I have a radius platen for the hollow back side, since the first once was left as-forged. The asymmetric grind is super handy for limbing. 
 

[Geoff Keyes]

Is that a right or left hander?

 

This is sort of what I had in mind

 

 

g

Edited January 30, 2025 by Geoff Keyes

[Aiden CC]

That nata is right handed, having the flat side on the left makes it easy to prune small shoots/limbs and make flat surfaces like you might with a hewing hatchet.
 

There are all sorts of cool bill hook variants out there. One peculiar one is the Finnish havukirves (meaning something like “conifer axe”), which presents a slightly different forging challenge than some of the other types. 

[Geoff Keyes]

I live in the PNW and we have a history of forestry and lumberjacking, but the billhook does not seem to have been part of the tool kit.  We have hatchets and small axes, big axes of every shape, and the big two handed brush hooks, but no billhooks.  We don't practice coppicing, so that might be part of it, but seems like a handy thing.  It's makes me wonder why it got left behind.

 

The middle tool reminds me of a cloggers knife.  The ring slides onto a hook on a bench and you use the leverage to shave off big chunks of wood when making clogs and wooden shoes.

 

g

[Jaro Petrina]

I would do it this year, but I have very erratic schedule and not sure I can keep any commitments

[Alan Longmire]

On 1/30/2025 at 1:33 PM, Geoff Keyes said:

It's makes me wonder why it got left behind.

 

Timing.  By the time Europeans got to the PNW in large enough numbers to settle, logging was almost exclusively commercial, and there was no established hedge-making culture like there was in Europe.  Also no need for coppicing. With that much wood to go 'round, why bother, you know?  You don't see billhooks here either, for the same reason, and 100 years earlier to boot.  The trees were too big to use a billhook on, until we cut them all down.  They did some coppicing in New England in the 1600s-early 1700s because they had limited land to live on. In both the interior southeast and the PNW, you had all the land you could eat, and once that was used up you just moved down (or up, as the case may be) the road.  

 

1 hour ago, Jaro Petrina said:

I would do it this year

 

You have a good excuse not to!  If you can make it you're welcome.  If not, you're still welcome! 

[Joshua States]

There are always options like froes and kindling crackers. The latter may be more fabricated than forged, according to the work preference of the smith.

[Alan Longmire]

A froe certainly fits the spirit, but I'm not sure about a kindling cracker... those are not a handled wood-processing tool in the same way as the other items mentioned. But if people want to make one, I guess that's okay.

[Joshua States]

On 2/8/2025 at 7:50 AM, Alan Longmire said:

those are not a handled wood-processing tool

I'm thinking about one of these.
 

 

[Alan Longmire]

Ah.  Yep, that would count!  I was picturing one of those that mounts on a stump that you push the log down onto.  

[Joshua States]

It certainly presents an interesting forging problem, making the stairstep piece.
It would even be a tough fabrication problem.

I would take a piece of 1.25 or 1.5 inch square and just cut steps in one side. Like a stair stringer.

 

[Gert Burkhardt]

To me that looks like 3/4" flat bars stacked one-third overlapping and welded. Well, that is probably how I would go about it. Not as elegant as forged from one piece but easier.

Since that would be for a kind of exchange , I suppose shipping would be quite expensive.