Noss has a field test out, comparing the Ranger RD7, the Gransfors Bruks Hunters Axe, and the Fusion Battle Mistress. He mostly chopped, shaped, and split downed tree trunks and branches. Watching these tests was an exercise in frustration. In the first place, as he tested the blades, I only could hear what Noss was saying 20% of the time. Mostly I watched him hack away without a clue to his reactions to the tools he was testing. I expect he was just too far from the microphone pickup of his video camera, but it’s still a problem.

That wasn’t the worst. The most frustrating thing was watching him chop. Cutting a downed tree trunk with axe or knife, it was always the same. He chop a narrow notch, ending at a sharp V point. Then he keept chopping within that notch. The result is that whatever edge he was using constantly pounded the same place, at the bottom of the notch. It’s hard for me to imagine a less efficient approach to chopping timber. I’m sure someone has one, but I don’t want to hear about it.

The way I learned to chop, you opened a notch as wide as the cut you are making is deep. If you are cutting through a ten inch thick deadfall, cut a ten inch wide notch. If you are going to cut through from the north face of the log, and then finish from the south face, each notch can be about five inches wide. Each side of a notch heads into the log at about a 45º angle from the line of the log where you’re cutting into it. That way you can keep chopping towards the center, removing chips as you go. This is much more efficient than just banging your knife or axe blade against the same spot until you gradually wear that area into sawdust.

If you’re using a full sized axe, you can probably open a ten inch notch on a log in one go. Chop above the centerline of your proposed notch on both sides. Chop below the centerline on both sides. Chop in the middle at both sides. With luck and skill that will pop a big chunk of bark and wood loose, and you can take the next step.

If you’re using a hatchet or a chopper knife, you’re unlikely to be able to work so large. So work in stages. Chop a narrower notch, still working in at a 45º angle. When you’ve gone as deep as you can with the opening size you have, expand the notch. Take bites on either side of the existing notch, removing short chips of wood. Keep going until you have the size of notch you need to chop as deep as you want. It may sound like a lot of extra work. But it’s still better than banging your blade uselessly at the bottom of a narrow notch.

If you can’t make sense of my instructions, check out
An Ax to Grind: A Practical Ax Manual

To be fair using hand tools is a lost art. I LOVE the link though and it is one of the main reasons I like a good hickory handle rather than the steel ones.

you do have a point about how he chops when i think about it.never really accured to me before.

i do a lot of chopping myself.chopped with the DFLE last weekend until my hands where literally numb and tingly for a while afterward.

i have blisters from last weekend even though i was wearing gloves and i'm just going to add some more on top of them this weekend.

The other thing that a lot of axe users forget nowadays is that your object is not to hit the wood, it's to separate it. Every stroke that you don't snap out a chip is wasted stroke! Observe; strike; recover. And yeah. 45 degrees from perpendicular is the optimal attack angle. Making a steeper notch wastes less wood I suppose, but that is pretty much never a consideration with an axe. If you want a nice flat end with minimal waste... get a saw.

I learned using hammer, saw, block plain, axe, etc., before I learned to shave. It's hard for me to think of these as lost arts.

You are dead on right about chopping technique, Implume. I can chop a thick log with a thin machete, using the 45 degree attack angle.

I rarely have the time to watch much of Noss's videos, so I can't comment too much on that I guess.

I like the way you put it with the chopping. That's pretty much the way I learned, although I don't think I've ever thought about it in exactly those terms. Makes very good since! Thanks for sharing your insight on it. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />

Well I got through it didn't I. So my technique worked. ( twice )

Why don't you guys put some stuff on video so people can bitch about how you do it ?

ohhhhh. I know what you they mean now.
basically chop wider is what your saying?

that would help with the last bit because you would be able to go at an angle more.
(man I am tallented! I did that in that in one sentence! I took implume 5... I really am quite good at explaining things right? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />)

EMF, you rule!

Easy, man. This isn’t one of those criticisms that claim you’re unscientific because you don’t test knives inside a supercollider. If you listen to some of those arguments over on BladeForums, you’d have to conclude that Galileo was an unscientific hack. I mean, rolling balls of different materials down troughs? What can anybody learn about gravity with such a primitive test? Where are his detailed statistical analysis? Where is his control group using different balls and different lumber for the troughs? Obviously the man was a scientific poseur!

Believe it or not, I was trying to help you and anybody else who doesn’t understand how to chop efficiently. You don’t have to trust me. Link to An Axe to Grind. Look up the chapter called Bucking. Grab an axe or your FBM. Try his method. Try your method. Come to your own conclusions.