Big Wood

[Subdeacon Joe]

 

1930s Mack Log Truck…Log is 100 ft long 40” inch diameter at top and 8’ foot diameter at butt end…9000 board feet of lumber….Southbend Washington.....#trashytruckermedia #trees #Wash

 

-era capture lumberjacks working among the redwoods in Humboldt County California when tree logging was at its peak.

 

[Rye Miles #13621]

Wowza!😳

[Subdeacon Joe]

 

 

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

I used to see those "disjointed" lumber trucks when I was a kid.  I never was such a humongous log...maybe fifty or sixty feet were all we moved,)  Years later I spent a summer working in Oregon in the same forests my dad did and they were still using those trucks. We were still running a Shay (2) and Climax (only 1) geared narrow gauge steam locomotives as well.  There was a little Mallet loco, too, but I never

saw it run, maybe it didn't work any more.

 

I can still close my eyes and smell pine, diesel, and coal.

Edited November 21, 2025 by Forty Rod SASS 3935

[Alpo]

You suppose that bit with sharpening the ax was the guy's idea, or the cameraman come up with it, because "it'll look good on film"?

 

Sharpening the ax makes all kinds of sense. But testing for sharpness by shaving hair? You don't want a razor edge on an ax. It'll bend as soon as you hit the wood.

[Subdeacon Joe]

12 hours ago, Alpo said:

You suppose that bit with sharpening the ax was the guy's idea, or the cameraman come up with it, because "it'll look good on film"?

 

Sharpening the ax makes all kinds of sense. But testing for sharpness by shaving hair? You don't want a razor edge on an ax. It'll bend as soon as you hit the wood.

 

It looked to me that it's how he's done it for years. I've done it with cleavers to see if they were too sharp. 

[Sedalia Dave]

At the 30 second mark,

Did you happen to see the bleary eyed house watching them. 

[Stump Water]

Best I can tell from the reference to the source material, the video is from 1964.  Pretty darn good home video for 1964.

[Alpo]

2 hours ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

 

It looked to me that it's how he's done it for years. I've done it with cleavers to see if they were too sharp. 

What do you do if your cleaver is too sharp? Drag the edge across a rock and then start over?

[Subdeacon Joe]

1 minute ago, Alpo said:

What do you do if your cleaver is too sharp? Drag the edge across a rock and then start over?

 

Well, I have LIGHTLY run a steel over the edge to break it, then steel as normal. 

 

Or, more often,  use it for slicing for a little while to break the edge.  Then steel. 

 

For an axe, I either take a  couple of strokes, then break off the rolled edge with a stone, or touch it with the stone.