The Ax Book: The Lore and Science of the Woodcutter

by Dudley Cook, S. Lawrence Whipple (Illustrator)

Overview

The Ax Book is a thorough guide to cutting wood with hand tools.The author explains how to use various types of axes, hatchets, mauls, saws and wedges to take down trees and prepare firewood. In addition he shows every aspect of dealing with wood from the forest right to the hearth or stove.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780911469165
Publisher:	Alan C. Hood & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	01/01/1999
Edition description:	1st Edition
Pages:	144
Product dimensions:	8.46(w) x 10.90(h) x 0.43(d)

Table of Contents

	Foreword	vii
	Introduction	ix
1	The Tool of Necessity	1
2	Ax or Chain Saw?	4
3	First Blood	7
4	The Hurricane of '38	9
5	The "Right" Ax	12
6	The Efficient Ax	15
7	The Double-Bitted Ax	19
8	Swinging an Ax	22
9	Felling Trees--Preliminaries	27
10	Felling--Hinge and Kickback Stop	29
11	Felling--Other Means of Control	33
12	Felling Hazards	38
13	Tree Felling in the Marines	42
14	Limbing and Bucking	44
15	Splitting	48
16	The Right Wood	54
17	Effects of Temperature and Weather	58
18	Handling Your Wood	61
19	Big Ones into Little Ones	66
20	Storing Your Wood	71
21	Burning Your Wood	75
22	Sharpening Axes	79
23	Handles	83
24	Hanging an Ax	90
25	Other Woods Tools	93
26	Saws	96
27	Sharpening Saws	99
28	Operating with a Saw	109
29	The Exercise Element	112
30	Your Woodlot	114
31	The Future	120
	Glossary	124
	Bibliography	130
	Index	131

What People are Saying About This

Castle Freeman

The Ax Book tells you how to use an ax safely and efficiently for every task it can perform, especially in connection with cutting firewood: felling trees, trimming them, sectioning them, splitting them. The author isn't afraid to compare the ax with the chainsaw in this work, and he explains the use of the latter tool as well. What is possible to learn about using an ax from a book, his book will teach.
—From the Foreword by Castle Freeman

Back Home

Author Dudley Cook, who, from what it says on the indicia page, was born in 1921, has clearly had a rich experience growing up in rural Maine. He weaves a lot of history-personal and otherwise-into his descriptions and explanations of the various tools he discusses within the pages. But The Ax Book is not just about what we thought was a familiar tool. It is a guide to axmanship, tree-felling, splitting, and storing wood. It covers species, heating value, and handling what you've harvested. And there are intricate chapters on sharpening, hanging (fitting handles), and on handles themselves. Beyond that, Cook goes into saws and their care, gets into woodlot management, and discusses the benefits of using an ax over a chain saw. The book includes a series of fine pen-and-ink illustrations and a working index, and offers a glossary that in itself is a good read. Though spring may not be the best time to harvest your wood; it's a good time to be preparing for it, and if anything, The Ax Book will help you do that.

Editorial Reviews

Praise of Cook's treatment of saws cannot be complete without mention of the superb line drawings of S. Lawrence Whipple. The illustrations are large, clear, and with enough graphic perspective to enable the reader to appreciate what is involved when he drops off the saw 'to be sharpened.' Altogether, there are more than fifty of these beautifully drawn, incisive visual aids.
— Southbridge (Mass.) News

Roy C. Gunter, Jr

Cook takes the reader over every step in the wood-harvesting process-tree felling, limbing, bucking, wood handling, splitting, cutting to size, storing and burning. Cook packs his cook with vivid, entertaining anecdotes from a lifetime of experience.
—Bud Leavitt, Bangor (Me.) Daily News

Bud Leavitt