34N 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



&he Making of Wagon Wood Work. 



HICKORY AXLES 



As scarce as good hickory axle timber is to- 

 day it is not probably as searci as it would 

 ,vere it not so difficult to convert 

 hickory trees into merchantable lumber. In 

 other words, it appears that the difficulty of 

 working hickory and other hardwoods, 

 as oak, ash, inaple, etc., served as something 

 of a protection and materially assisted in 



preseiving the forests of this kind of w I. 



Go back to the early days of sawmilling in 

 any section, and you will find that the mill 

 man avoided everything but soft woods. In 

 the North he u.■■>^*'■ almost his entire attention 

 K, white pin.-. In the Smith pine region it 

 as yellow pine, while in the hardwood sec 

 ti.ms' it uns poplar. And when a mill cut 



out all of this c lass of w 1 in reach it moved 



,,n to fresh forests and left the hardw Is 



standing. I he n ason for this is very simple. 

 It was easier worked from the tree to the 

 finished product, in say nothing of the fact 

 that for structural purposes the softer wood 

 was preferred for the same reason. The 



w Is sawyers could cut more logs '" a day. 



cut them easier; the trees as a rule were tall 

 and comparatively smooth, thus redu ng the 

 work of trimming and enabling sawyers to 

 get m ore logs from the tree than in the aver- 

 ag, hardwood! The logs were lighter t.i haul. 

 easier tn load, and then at the mill they were 

 in,i only easier tn handle, but easier to saw. 



It is nn n ler therefore that the hardwood 



forests have SO far as the sawmill man is 

 concerned, been largely left untouched until 



the forests of softer n I b came thinned out 



to the point wl ere desirabli sets were not 

 readily obtainable. 



While the sawmill men as a rule neglected 

 the hardwoods in the earlier days, and thus 

 quite extensively, though unintentionally re- 

 st rved much of tin se ton sts for future use, 

 .it th. same time the farmer as a destructive 



.•liMiit. made hue, i inroads on the bardvi I 



forests than any ether. In fact, it is highly 

 probable, though it would very likelj be in 

 ilignantly denied by fanners as a class, that 

 the farmers have done more to destro 

 good hickory forests of the country than all 

 the sawmill' men combined. This applies i - 

 pecially to the early settlers, and the old pio 

 neers themselves, and then those of the days 



when sawmilling first came into prominei 



in the Southern Mississippi valley emu. try. 

 In the hills and valleys where good hickory 

 grows the same land that produces this hick- 

 ory is also tin- best tn be found for farming 



purposes, Bo naturally it has always I n 



among the first tn he cleared up and put in 

 cultivation. It was the hickory and oak that 

 made the heavy clearing work fur the farmers 

 and furnished the material for the old time 

 log rolling, following which was always tire. 

 destroying enormous quantities of what 

 would now In- called valuable timber. This 

 was destroying timber pure and simple. There 

 was nn converting it into merchantable lum- 

 ber and nothing but destroying it t,, get i' 

 out of the way so the farmer could grow 

 other products "a the land it occupied. 



The working ..f hickory into wagon axles 

 was ,,f course not entirely neglected during 

 the earl) days, because wagon axles then had 

 to be had the same a- now, only in lesser 

 entities. The men who ran old time saw 

 mills of any pretension as a rule did not want 



t„ fool with working axles, because it was to,. 



d in,, close ati, in 



eve , i utting the tne to sorting 



piling th.- finished product. Now. how 

 ,. N ,. r , th, as changed very material 



iv. not only in thi rests, but in th< 



at in- 

 -. in the farming population during the 



past two or three decades there has come an 

 even more extensive increase in the use of 

 wagons and other farm vehicles which has 

 created an enormi us ,h mand for wagon ma- 

 tt rial, a demand to-day seriously threatening 

 the available supply of material, especially 

 fin the making of hickory axles. 



A'tai.time, lumbermen, have come to rea- 

 lize that what they really should operate a 

 sawmill fur is to make money, and not merely 

 to make lumber. Sawmill men. no matter 

 whether tiny are operating big saw mills or 

 little ones, where they can get hold of any 

 hiekory timber in their forest holdings, are 



now tn go a ttei , ■ eiy tree of it and 



manufacture it into axles nr any other pro- 

 duct that will bring the best returns. Still. 

 general!} speaking, the successful manufac 

 turer uf hickory axles is the owner of the 

 small sawmill. This li es aoi imply that a 



man with a large mill may not work his hick- 

 ory into axles and other products and get 

 fair returns for his efforts, but In- will prob 

 ably get just as much profit if he lets some 

 small id i i I man take the stumpage and work 

 it up. 



Vccording to tradition, and the rules of 



i icturing, the first step in the 



process of manufacturing hickory axles 



should be taken in the winter time. That n. 



the hickory timbei should be cut during what 

 is called tin winter season, the season between 

 tall and the rise of the sap in the spi 

 'I lii— same iiile. t,„,. applies tn oak and some 



Other »ng,,n nardw Is. However, hickory 



axle -leek is frequently cut in the spring 



while the sap I- li-nv.. because at thi- time 

 tin bark ean be removed more readily than 

 in any other season and the bark is the hard- 

 est thing a man ha- t,, contend with in work- 

 ing hickory. There is no other argument in 

 favor of cutting in th spring of the year. 

 and i o "ii, , i er disputes the fact that hick- 



ory, or any othet timber for that matter, is 

 tn. I,, tl, I fo] til ing 'lit ill the winter time. 



Still the qualil wood, proi ided it is 



properly taker, care of is not perceptibly in 



jnrod fur being cut in the spring. It re 



• -. uf e, hit, a lilt b closer attenl ion to 



care for both the logs and the product there- 



f i, for In tw. en tin- sap and the warm 



weather it will easily damage if left to,, long 



in the log or if the axles Should be piled too 



elosely. Hickory logs cut in the spring should 

 bi peeled immediately and then be worked up 

 within a few days, unless one is prepared 

 to -tore them in water, in which ease it don't 

 mutter when they are cut, as they will keep 



in water an indefinite time. In fact, hiek- 

 ,,i\ logs have been found perfectly sound and 

 grei n after being immersed in water for over 

 twenty year-. This -nine rule applies to even 

 winter ent logs when warm weather comes 

 along, for whih they will keep all right 

 through the cold weather and will not spoil 

 quite a- -non a- lee- with the sap in them 

 when spring COmeS bickorj logs with the bark 

 nil thelll will SOOn be attacked by insects when 



the weather gets warm enough to bring forth 

 the annual crop of these pests. 



'fhe making of axles from bickorj logs is 

 :i sawmill job that 'all- for close attention 

 from -tart i' finish, l hi re ean be no reck 

 less rolling of |,,n- on the carriage and cut- 

 ting and slashing such i- characterizes the 

 work of pine in every step. Prom the plac- 

 ing of the log on tl arriage to the cut- 

 ting the last piece careful attention and 

 forethought raual prevail. It is interesting, 

 though, aid not nearly so burdensome a- 



would think for a man who takes pride in 

 wrestling with a Ion to get all the good out of 



it that is possible to obtain. Because of the 

 attention required, the work is necessarily 

 -low, and then inasmuch as the wood is one 

 of the hardest to be worked in this country, 

 it is naturally advisable to work it slowly. 



There are two general plans or systems for 

 working hickory axle timber, and of course 

 a dozen or more variations to this. too. The 

 first, and what one might call the original 

 plan is to use a small sawmill rig, something 

 ii the order of a typical plantation sawmill, 

 have a light crew, and do all the work on the 

 main saw. In tact, many little mills operat- 

 ing on hickory axles have as a crew only a 

 sawyer, a man to get in and help handle the 

 logs, one man behind the saw to take away 

 the product and a boy on the carriage. Some 

 times this even is reduced by disposing of 

 the man who gets in the logs, the sawyer 

 and the block setter doing this work tliein- 

 selvt -. 



II thcr method, tin- one followed by mill- 



of a larger type, i- merelj to flitch the log. 

 ii], on the main saw and then let one man or 

 one man and a helper do the rest of the work 

 on a heavj edgei: or rip saw. If it i- a two- 

 storj mill the general plan i- to have a 

 heavy rip saw down -tail- somewhere ami the 

 stock a- it comes from the big -aw i- taken 

 down I, .low mill piled tip. There is aii inter 

 mediate variation which conn- between the 

 two systems, and in which the bulk uf the 

 axle- an- made on the big saw proper, but all 

 the corner pieces and side trimmings are 

 winked up on a -mall saw. 



Now. while the matter of system, or how 

 fo carry out the general plan of manufactur- 

 ing of hiekorj logs into axle- f- an important 

 in, tor in the commercial success of such an 

 undertaking, and must therefore be given due 

 consideration, -till there i- another import- 

 ant factor in thi- work, and one that should 

 probabl) be considered first, and that i-. a 

 stud} i. the d.tail- of working a log into 

 axles at am sawmill; that i.-. how to cut the 

 log up to flu- best advantage. Wagon axle-, 

 a- a rule, an- squares approximately one 



inch larger i way than the other. In other 



word-, a -I inch axle i- 4x."> and the length 

 varies somewhat. In old days practically all 

 axle- were cut 7 feet long ill the rough, but 

 in these times of closer manipulation they do 

 not put an)' more surplus wood in I he axles 

 than is absolutely necessary, and axle- are 

 now cut in very close lengths, usuallj to 

 specifications furnished by the purchaser. 

 The length, however, is a small matter of 

 delail that i- easily arranged when cutting 

 the logs, i. ut when you come to -aw these 

 logs up into axles, the detail- of the work 

 require -killed attention. In the first place. 

 the log should be cut fo -ingle axle length as 

 a rule, some specially fine timber will wink 

 double length, but Mil can get more out 

 of tin- timber ami that is an important item 

 these days, bj cross-cutting it to -ingle axle 

 lengths before beginning to work it in tin 

 sawmill. 



Wlien Mm put a log on the carriage and 

 .-tail to work, the natural inclination of an\ 

 sawyer trained to cut pine, or do any kind of 

 general -awing, would be ti. -lab for a face, 

 and say In- wanted to make axle- 4x5, the 

 tendency would be to -lab for a ten inch face 

 ami then cut oil a l inch flitch to be squared 

 and ripped int., i.Mi axles. Thi-. however, 

 i- the ii'ii thing a sawyer should not do. t,,r 

 the proper making of a hickory axle calls 

 for the '.'lain to inn ju-t the other wa,\ .1 

 the wooil from what it WOUld be in thi- '.!-' 

 Iii other word-, if 4x5 axle- ate wanted, a 

 man should -lab for an S-im-h face, take oil 

 a 5-inch flitch, -pine and -plit Ihi- into two 

 4-inch piece-, which, provided the timber i- 

 free from defects, will make two excellent 

 axle-. Ihi- -.ilin idea, the idea of Inning file 



