AXES AND HATCHETS, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 193 



or ought to be, sufficient to retain it, and the whole of the energy- 

 resulting from muscular action and gravity should be utilized. The 

 curvature, too, of the handle is in marked contrast with the straight 

 line of the sledge-hammer handle. The object of this curvature is 

 worthy of note. In my hand is an American forester's axe. The 

 handle is very long and curved. If, laying the axe-handle across my 

 finger where the head and handle balance, I place the blade of the axe 

 horizontally, you may notice that the edge does not turn downward ; 

 in fact, the centre of gravity of the axe-head is in the horizontal 

 straight-line prolongation of the handle through the place where my 

 finger is. Now, in sledge-hammer work the face is to be brought 

 down flat, i. e., as a rule, in an horizontal plane. Not so with the for- 

 ester's axe : it has to be brought down at varying obliquities. If, now, 

 the hewer's hand had -to be counteracting the influence of gravity, 

 there would be added to him very needless labor; hence the care of a 

 skilled forester in the balance of the axe-head and the curvature of 

 the handle. 



We must now consider the form of the cuttinsr-edge as seen in 

 the side of the axe. It is often convex. The line across the face in 

 Fig. 7 indicates the extent of the steel, and the corresponding line in 

 Fi<?. 8 the bevel of the cleaving edsje. It will be noticed that the cut- 

 ting-edge in each case is curved. The object of this is to prevent not 

 only the jar and damage which might be done by the too sudden 

 stoppage of the rapid motion of the heavy head in separating a group 

 of fibres, but also to facilitate that separation by attacking these fibres 

 in succession. For, assuming that the axe falls square on its work 



Fig. 



Fig. 8. 



in the direction of the fibres, a convex edge will first separate two 

 fibres, and in so doing will have released a portion of the bond which 

 held adjoining fibres. An edge thus convex, progressing at each side 

 of the convexity which first strikes the wood, facilitates the entrance 

 of successive portions from the middle outward. If the edge had 

 been straight and fallen parallel to itself upon the end of the wood, 

 none of this preliminary preparation would have taken place ; on the 

 contrary, in all probability there would have been in some parts a 

 vox., ix. 13 



