My daddy carried a double bitted axe. One side he kept fairly dull and used it for splitting. The other was razor sharp and used for cutting down trees.
My father’s father Allen Ammons was a woodsman. He made a living from wood. Daddy grew up in the woods. He carried that axe in his hand and a bowsaw slung on his shoulder like an archer carries his bow.
When it came time to kill a hog Daddy sharpened up his axe. When most people hang a carcass they split it into two sides with a saw. Daddy dipped his axe in the boiling barrel of water and cut the sides away from the backbone.
Then he cut the ribs into two inch wide strips and cut up the backbone. I don’t remember exactly how he chopped up the backbone. I never liked backbone so I had no interest in knowing I guess.
One would think that there would be mangled meat and bone splinters from using an axe in butchering an animal but I saw none of that. Everything was as perfect as anything you would see in a butcher shop or a meat display in a grocery store.
An axe in the hands of someone who knows how to use it is equal to a multiplicity of power tools! An axe is not a tool for a lazy man or a fool though. You have to have the smarts to keep from killing yourself and the willingness to make a living by “the sweat of your brow”.
—Ed Ammons
There is a real skill to using an axe, especially the way Ed described. I definitely do not have that skill. I always have a hard time using the small axe we leave by the woodstove for building fires.
The Deer Hunter adores axes. He has acquired several over the years. Here’s a post he wrote about his favorite axe.
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Interesting post about axes. Thank you for sharing!
Tipper. I forgot to mention that was such a special post the Deer Hunter wrote about Pap’s axe. It brought tears to my eyes because you could tell how much he thought of him and the kind things he had to say. The older we get I think things mean so much more to us especially when someone has passed away. I am sure that axe will be in your family for generations to come.
There’s not a price you could pay me for the axes here at home. By the time my husband was old enough to carry a hammer, he worked with his granddaddy after school and every summer. When he died, my husband was given all his tools and there is an axe that means the world to him. We have a couple other ones and some hatchets also and it’s amazing how the memories come flooding back when you see them. It’s a gift to be able to use them in ways that you may have never thought of such as butchering a hog. I’ve always enjoyed watching someone that knew what they were doing use them. Taking good care of them is the least we can do with these treasures. My brother also made knives and was a collector of them and I have a few of them also and they mean the world to me.
I like to use an ax, though I don’t claim to be good with one. And I treat them rough which I ought not. There is a lot of skill in using one well, though if you are just watching someone chop it doesn’t look like it. To start with, it doesn’t have to be “made” to work, just “let” to work. If sharp, it doesn’t need a lot of force. That’s biblical. And you have to know how wide the cut should be to keep from “pinching out” before the job is done. The cut has to start out at least as wide as the depth needs to be and just a bit more is better. The depth needs to be worked uniformly, one side then the other, as one chops. But perhaps the most important skill of all is to be able to sink the blade where you intend everytime! Chips should be large and flat. If they look like broken Saltine crackers, don’t brag or you’ll get embarrassed by and by. That’s why I don’t say I’m an axman.
I am hogging the comment section today, but to me, one of the trademarks of a true craftsman is knowing how to be good when using the tools of their trade along with taking good care of their tools. I would be willing to bet the Deer Hunter does this with every tool he has and also has a place for each tool. I like say to use but don’t abuse. I am blessed in having tools that belonged to not only my grandparents but even some blacksmith tools that belonged to my great granddaddy. He died in 1926. One of my most prized possessions is a broke (half) blade butcher knife that belonged to my grandaddy that I tried to stay with when growing. He kept it in the leg pocket of his overalls and would use it when cutting his corn stalks. The wood handle is slick as glass, he was born in 1888 and died I’m 1971. My time with him was in 50 and 60’s, so there is no telling of how old this knife would be.
I still use my double bit axe but not as often and nowhere as long as I once did. Eight decades of hard work take a toll. As a young man I cut many a cord of pulpwood with an axe and bow saw. We heated with wood and Mom had a wood cookstove. I spent a lot of time working in the wood yard to keep a supply for both. Now we use electricity and gas for those needs. My neighbor heats with wood and oil. I help him split wood at times and sometimes harvest a tree or two.
I never learned to chop wood, but it was not uncommon for some young ladies to be good with an axe. One Home Health aide I knew would chop the wood for her patient who lived in a remote area. I never tattled, but it was so strictly against the rules. Can one only imagine the implications with OSHA and Worker’s Comp? I quite admired the young lady sent to give a bath, and then she went that extra mile and did a really good deed. Then there was the aide who helped plant their garden. Again, I never tattled, because I was always taught to do good deeds as we go about our daily life. I wished I had time many days to help with things not on my assigned list. I have cooked breakfast for more than a few, and I helped them work their remote. Once helped one get into the house when a lock had become old and faulty. Many of my kinfolk were great with an axe back in the day when a woodpile lay outside most homes. They must have loved wood, because I see some of my younger kin posting pics of their woodworking accomplishments. One even posted a pic of a wooden chess set he had masterfully carved. Interesting to study my ancestors and see many woodworkers or cabinet makers among them. I loved reading about how good Ed’s dad was with an axe, and I am certain if I had met him, he would have been one of my favorite people. Thank you, Ed, for sharing the story about your dad, and I know you are still very proud of him.
My husband has his granddeddy’s axe, and like the a Deer Hunter, no amount of money could buy it! Grandpa Carl was born in 1908 and lived 98 years. How amazingly blessed are we to have him in our lives as long as we did. When our second son was born, Grandpa Carl and Grandma Marceline (who was in a wheelchair) were the ones who came to our house to stay with our 12 month old son. At 75 yrs old he was still the strongest man we knew, yet that mountain of a man cared, ever so gently, for his beloved Marceline, just as he would changing the diaper of a 12 month old. My boys knew their great granddeddy until their high school days, and like us, they think he was the greatest man they ever knew! My youngest proudly wore Grandpa Carl’s “Letter” on his Lettermen’s Jacket, from the same high school they both went to!
My late m-i-l was from Alabama and taken by her parents & grandparents from the country to Miami, FL around the age of 6.
I married into the family after being raised in Michigan as a vegetarian knowing no other way of living till then. Guess they thot they’d ‘change’ me more to their way of eating. Ha!
Years later, my m-i-l confessed, if she saw how meat was readied for home cooking, she would have been a vegetarian too.
OTOH, at one point my husband had a butcher shop. And while we were still newly weds, we went out at night once and came home with 2 pillowcases of frogs. I watch him dispatch one before retiring for the night & if memory serves correctly, his mom followed me out also. BTW, I did learn to cook meats & they were amazed.
I once saw a man shave his face with an axe. He first demonstrated axe sharpening in his presentation to our writers’ group. I don’t recall his name or where we were, but I cannot forget his show.
A man (or woman) who can swing an axe to fell a tree, chop wood, or butcher a hog is certainly someone worth knowing. It’s an amazing skill one could use any time or anywhere as it’s right handy to have! Once when I was hanging at Dr. Patch Adams WV homestead on Droop Mountain , I ran across a stout nurse from out west who was working with Native Americans mainly children and women. She grabbed up an axe and commenced to chopping wood like I never saw before! She not only ate pine nuts- she was a TOUGH pine nut herself without rival! I’m not a chopper but describing cutting up that hog got my mouth to watering. The older I get the more I see I’m not too good at much. I also wonder where did all my time get spent? I now completely understand the saying “my heart and mind are willing, but the body is not.” Enjoy today for there’s no promise of tomorrow! Love to all.
You’re stories are interesting to read .
I loves a good axe. It’s amazing what skilled hands can do with an axe. From chopping to splitting to slicing to carving and more, an axe is a very useful tool. One time, I watched a man field dress and skin a deer with just an axe.
I have already made one comment but I was thinking of the Deer Hunter and his comment about money not buying Pap’s axe. I feel the same way about my daddy’s axes. I don’t need the money they would bring if sold and if I did, it wouldn’t be enough to make much of a difference anyway. I would just spend it and then have nothing of him. By keeping his axe and some other things of his I have memories of him that are more valuable than anything money could buy. Daddy was my hero, my idol. I also have a few of my father in law’s things, he was a second daddy to me, he seemed to a lot like what I have heard of Pap.
….”daddy was my hero, my idol”…. I love this so much Randy, no better description of a great father!!!
I read the post and the linked post by the Deer Hunter. He and I like a lot of the same things. I have several old axes and hatchets that need some love. I’ve been seeing a few YouTube videos of old tool restorations that are amazing. I know I would watch it if the Deer Hunter did a video restoring an old ax. I’d watch it, like it and comment on it. I might get motivated to get busy in my shop. I wish it would warm up some. My shop stove help but it not enough.
I never anyone in my area to use a double bit axe. My daddy kept his axe razor sharp just like his pocket knife. He was born in 1922 and grew up when wood was used not only for heat but also for wood cook stoves so he had a lot of experience cutting wood with an axe. His favorite brand of an axe was the Kelly True Temper, no longer made and now considered an antique tool. He had several of these that I now have. He was always on the lookout for these axes at the flea/jockey lot or yard sales. He would use his axe to split wood but would not use it like a wedge, what I mean by this is start axe in block of wood and then hit it with a sledge hammer or go devil. He wouldn’t even hit it with a wooden maul, he was afraid it would swell the head and make the axe handle loose. I don’t remember seeing an axe used when butchering our hogs.
I have a love of old tools too. When our daddy died all us kids were blessed with different tools and knives he used.. I had been eyeing an Easton medium size hatchet/axe for a long time for I feel it a useful tool as well. I know it seems a strange gift for a woman, but it was a gift I received for Christmas. I love it and can hardly wait to put it to use. I can only dream to use it the way described above, but hopefully I can be proficient with it in my garden, yard, and while foraging.