I was gonna froe it out!

[easy-lift guy]

Well worth the wait. Thanks or sharing.

easy-lift guy

[Syd_B]

We did all the shaping with a horse rasp, and having done it, I bought one for myself (available from a farrier's suppliers) for the same job and have rehandled axes, adzes, froe, hammers etc, either that I've made or came originally from my grandfather's shed. It's a really good tool for rapid freehand shaping of this type, used diagonally across the grain. It has a coarse side and a fine side so it can leave a reasonable finish.

 

I've grabbed a few lengths of green ash, and I'm currently in the process of re handeling all my Tools, I use two surforms, one course one fine, and a hand axe.

[Pat Ferrett]

Great post Alec cheers for sharing the know how, knowledge like that takes genarations to learn and only one to loose unless its written down, please feel free to post away on the thread with any other hints and tips.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

here you go pat, see if you can find an old one of these for me!

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTnZ-rAz6VU]Richard Brown 2010 - YouTube[/ame]

[Pat Ferrett]

Yeah give me a week or 2 and ill get one for you

 

Have you received the axe yet, seems to have gone missing

Ill insure the next one for £100 atleast if it dont turn up we got money for beer

[agg221]

here you go pat, see if you can find an old one of these for me!

 

Hmmm. Aged about 16 I cut the grass in the orchard one summer holiday (around an acre) with a scythe as the mower was bust and we didn't have a brushcutter at the time and it had got to about 2ft high. Doing it took me two days and I was shattered. Doing it to the standard on that video takes a huge amount of skill.

 

Alec

[Pat Ferrett]

In ww2 the farm where my lock up is had 4 german pow's, the wheat got blown flat and was going to be hard to harvest but one of the Germans asked the owner for syths which were bought new in chichester and they cut the wheat and stacked it in stooks ( think thats what they are called) the syths are still hanging in one of the barns according to the owner.

[agg221]

In ww2 the farm where my lock up is had 4 german pow's, the wheat got blown flat and was going to be hard to harvest but one of the Germans asked the owner for syths which were bought new in chichester and they cut the wheat and stacked it in stooks ( think thats what they are called) the syths are still hanging in one of the barns according to the owner.

 

Great story. I think skills like this still have their place and the advent of the internet makes it a whole lot easier to keep them alive. The scythe I used had previously belonged to my grandfather, who had given it to Dad (his son-in-law) in the early 1980s as he had conceded he wouldn't use it again, being in his 80s himself at this point. It came minus the back handle, which had succumbed to woodworm. In that pre- internet age, trying to find a scythe handle was near impossible. None of the local ag dealers or hardware shops still had them, even the old shops which had been going since they had been commonplace. We eventually found one, in an old hardware shop on holiday in Yorkshire in about 1986. Just checked ebay - four suitable handles instantly available!

 

Alec

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

How to make an Axe handle