Oxfordshire Woodland Group

The log identified for use as a centre cruck blade was bucked to length, debarked and then pulled on rollers towards the hewing bunks guided using ash pole levers when required.

The log was calculated to weigh 300 kg / 650 lbs and is beyond the capability of a person to lift manually and so good use was made of a come-a-long set to work in 2 ton mode to pull the log into position using various standing larch trees as deadman anchor points.

Once in position the log could be easily rolled by hand to set same in belly down mode and optimal verticality to produce a good straight vertical hewn face.

Having hewn the first side it became obvious that this log contained spiral grain which resulted in a good smooth lower surface and slightly torn fibres on the upper surface.

The cruck blade was rolled to the horizontal position and drawknifed to clean the upper and lower surfaces to produce a good smooth finished surface

To hew the second side the log needed to be rolled into a hogged (belly up) position. This cannot be done by hand but if an ash pole lever is attached to the log using small load straps then the log can be easily rotated by one person and blocked up to prevent roll back.

This log is more curved than the previous 4 hewn cruck blades and so needed to be blocked up in the centre with double bunks and packers to ensure that the log could not roll back. Once the first hewn face was set in the vertical plane the log was dogged ready for hewing.

This log was still quite wet when debarked and so has become quite badly covered in mould but this is not of a concern other than potentially resulting in a slippery surface which is a personal safety consideration for the hewer standing on the log.

Once the first pass at hewing was made it was note that the log had hewing axe signature stripes and so the axe cutting edge was examined and this revealed the the edge had 2 nicks or dings. This was most likely caused by a small piece of stone, flint or grit being present on the top surface of the log or on the top of the hewing bunks or timber packers.

This is the worst thing that can happen to a hewing axe since trying to remove same by filing / grinding and polishing can take hours to entirely remove the dings.

These marks evident on medieval timbers and can facilitae the recorder of timbers in a timber-framed building to identify the number of hewing axes at work and hence also probably the number of hewers since sharing of hewing axes is not something that the serious hewer would permit becuase of the risk of sustaining careless dings.

Once hewn the curvature of this log is now quite obvious. This log would be relatively valueless for conversion in a conventional sawmill and would probably just be chipped for woodfuel. Once hewn by hand it has become more valuable than a standard straight log for use as a cruck blade or to be further broken down to produce arch brace material.

The cruck blade was drawknifed to clean the upper and lower rounded surfaces.

Ken Hume - OWG