Replies

1. 
   FrankB89 | Dec 18, 2002 06:46am | #1

   If you want to spend some buck$$$ there is a machine with a cutterhead that will leave a hand-hewn looking surface.  I've not seen one, but saw the device being promoted in a flyer awhile back from one of the log home/timber frame suppliers ( I don't recall which one).  You might do a web search under Log home supplies or Timber Frame supplies.

   I believe the device is made in Sweden or Finland.

   Jules Quaver for President   2004

2. 
   truehaven | Dec 18, 2002 06:49am | #2

   Not a huge help but I heard of a hand power planer made by festo or fien that has blades that will gouge to look like an axe.  If I think of who makes it I'll let you know here.

   ian 

1. 
   PhilEves | Dec 18, 2002 06:56am | #3

   I've used the following, and seen others used up here in Whistler/Vancouver:

    Grind or get someone else to regrind your Makita or other small planer's blades to a smooth arc instead of straight edge.....this is where it gets tricky.... remove the "shoe" that adjusts the depth( warranty and safety?), and practice "scooping" shallow adze-looking cuts out of the side or faces of the beams,...if you get it right, the scoops look random( you're controlling the depths)...and an added bonus, if you get a very little amount of tear out, and later stain the finished beam, you get a beautiful "hand fnish" with realistic blade marking, cheers,Phil.If it is to be, 'twil be done by me..

1. 
   Piffin | Dec 18, 2002 07:17am | #4

   This may date me but I'd much rather uase a sharp adz or ax than take on all that trouble with the Power poper..

   Excellence is its own reward!

   "The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit.

   The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are."

   --Marcus Aurelius

1. 
   FrankB89 | Dec 18, 2002 09:07am | #5

   Yes sir, you are aging.  It's axe and then adz, or better yet, axe then broadaxe and then adz.  (And with the adz,  careful of your feet!)Jules Quaver for President   2004

2. 
   truehaven | Dec 19, 2002 04:44am | #12

   i used to work in that area also.  Brad Sills, Nadeau, Woodchip manors, Mike Fevang.  Any bells?

1. 
   PhilEves | Dec 19, 2002 05:49am | #15

   Yah!

    Dunbar/Fevang. Durfeld, Pomar,Benbow,Carolsfeld,Whsitler Woodcraft, more ! E-mail me, Who'm I talking to? Where y'at?

    If it is to be, 'twil be done by me..

   Edited 12/18/2002 9:51:28 PM ET by Philter

   Edited 12/18/2002 9:53:36 PM ET by Philter

2. 
   bill_1010 | Dec 18, 2002 08:28pm | #10

   Festool makes the planer that has different cutters for a rough finish.

   A recip blade with a carbide particle grit can be used with a rocking motion on the faces to produce a saw blade like effect.  Wet the wood slighty and it will rough up some more.

   A simple stanley or LN scrub (# 40 stanley) plane can produce a rough effect as well. 

1. 
   junkhound | Dec 19, 2002 02:29am | #11

   An old boss of mine said when times were really tough (in the mid 1930's) he'd cruise the public Ozark timber lands with his axe and saw: he felled, skinned, broadaxed, and hauled out oak railroad ties - he got paid 10 cents apiece.

   If he were still alive he'd proba'ly wonder what this world had come to that people are afraid of a little honest work.

3. 
   jc21 | Dec 18, 2002 04:58pm | #6

   Timberwolf Tools has a Makita curved base planer that will give you the hand hewn look .............. kinda pricey for one job tho'

   http://www.timberwolftools.com/tools/makita/M-1002BA.html

   Piffin's time tested method, with some practice, isn't as slow as you might think and after you're done, you won't feel guilty about not going to the gym.

4. 
   Qtrmeg | Dec 18, 2002 07:19pm | #7

   Is it out of the question to just buy hand hewn beams? There are more than a few places around here that will supply them, (where are you?), and the price isn't out of sight. Something like $10/ft, fob, depending on size. 

   Handling 40 beams, hacking at them and/or play planing to make them hewn-like is no picnic, and time consuming. Nevermind that your stock will cost more than logs. The look is also different, do you want to go thru all that just to have a client shake their head side to side and say uh uh?

5. 
   andybuildz | Dec 18, 2002 07:39pm | #8

   MM

        I agree with what QT said about buying them already hand hewn. thats what I'm going to be doing in the old house I bought in the kitchen area. The prices I think are alot less money already boughtthen all youre going to have to be going through.

   Have fun

   a

   One works on oneself, always. That's the greatest gift you can give to community because the more you extricate your mind from that which defines separateness, that defines community. The first thing is to become community. "Ram Dass"

   http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM

1. 
   Qtrmeg | Dec 18, 2002 08:02pm | #9

   Hey Andy, it has been quiet lately so I thought you were off skiing, lol.

   Ya, buy the darn things. They only go super money if you want re-claimed. That might be an option for you, if you start looking now, and get lucky.

   I was going to hewn up a barn, I have free logs and free is good, right? Ya, well I did the stock list and said to myself "self? I don't even think so". One of the very few smart things I ever said.

6. 
   FrankB89 | Dec 19, 2002 05:11am | #13

   I've been thinking about this thread today because several years ago, a friend and I hewed out about a dozen timbers for a barn he was building.  As I recall, they were about 25 to 30 feet long and we were hewing to about 10" X !0".

   I grew up with a double bitted axe, an old broadaxe and an adz (that I still have, but don't use).  An old guy nearby had pretty much schooled us up on the process so after the logs were peeled and the ends blocked up we snapped chalklines under his critical eye and set to work.

   The first step is scoring with an axe across the log, then you hew to the line with the broadaxe,  shearing off (hopefully) the scored slabs.  Then you go back with the adz and clean it up.

   The axe part was easy for me because I'd used one a lot, making face cuts when falling trees, limbing poles without butchering the log, stuff like that that took practice, accuracy and finess.

   The broadaxe was harder, because you don't swing it like an axe, you just do heavy slicing with it and it's got an offset handle so you can guide it along the line and not tear up your hands.  It takes getting used to.

   And the adz is the real challenge, because you're standing over your work, swinging it between your feet and it, like the scoring axe and broadaxe are absolutely razor sharp (they have to be to do a good job).  And getting the proper arc in your swing really takes practice...the tendency is to chop too deep and either get the thing half buried or swing to shallow and barely avoid slicing into the arch of your foot.

   We got the timbers done over several days.  The first were REAL rustic, but we eventually started getting the hang of it and the last couple were pretty decent.  All were serviceable, but I've since come across some hand hewn beams in old houses and barns that, except for faint slice marks left from the scoring axe, looked as if they'd been through a planer.

   Having rambled on about this,  I tend to agree with Piffin that doing them by hand is the genuine method...otherwise, they're not handhewn.  So the point I would make is that if you have a client that wants HANDhewn beams, they're not gonna be cheap.  There are a few people around the country who will do them on a custom order basis.  To find those guys, tap into the hardcore timber framing community.

   If your clients want beams that LOOK like handhewn beams, other posts here have pretty much covered the bases.

   Good Luck!

   Jules Quaver for President   2004

1. 
   20657 | Dec 19, 2002 05:39am | #14

   MMAG36 Just go to your nearest saw mill and have  'em cut yer  beams 1/2 " over size and  use an  adze to remove the saw marks  and then score  'em  every  12" - 18"  with a felling  axe ( not a broad axe! )  an there ya have it . good luck Bill D. QWC