Use of the broadax for facing. The most important advance made 

 in the application of the cup and gutter system has been the substitu- 

 tion of the broadax for the club ax in making the flat faces on the 

 trees. The difficulty in using the cornering ax recommended in Bul- 

 letin 40, on the hard timber near the Gulf coast in south Florida, led 

 to the suggestion by Mr. R. M. Radford, of Braidentown, Fla., that 

 the broadax be used for making the faces. The experiment was tried, 

 and the result was faster and better work and a good surface for 

 beginning chipping. Later, Mr. H. H. Ellarbee, of Ellarbee, Fla., 

 suggested that the usual setting of the broadax on the handle be 

 reversed, so that in hewing the beveled side would be next to the tree. 

 This change greatly increased the speed of the work, as the chip could 

 be promptly split off after the full width of the face had been obtained. 



The next step was to have one 

 man make both incisions for the 

 gutters instead of employing a 

 right-handed and a left-handed ax- 

 man for making the two. At the 

 outset the laborers usually insist 

 that one man can not make both 

 cuts, but a little practice gives per- 

 fect facility in cutting each with 

 equal ease. 



These changes have made it easily 

 possible to double the speed of a 

 squad, and man} r laborers have be- 

 come very skillful in this use of the 

 broadax. One laborer during the 

 past winter prepared in one day 

 1,700 faces. Inspection of the work 

 shows that it was well done in 



FIG. 1. Making the first half of a face. everv respect. 



Directions for using the broadax. The ax should weigh from 8 to 9 

 pounds and have a perfectly straight edge. The handle should be 

 straight and not longer than 30 inches. Each laborer sets his ax on 

 the handle so that its edge is parallel to the handle and the beveled 

 side lies next to the tree in hewing. 



By almost vertical strokes of the ax a flat surface is hewn one-half 

 the width of the "face" which is to be chipped later (fig. 1). When 

 the ax first catches the wood the chip is prized outward slightly, thus 

 facilitating the eas} 7 entrance of the ax in the same cut on the second 

 stroke and also keeping the surface smooth. On the third stroke it 

 usually is possible to partly cut and partly break off the chip, thus 

 avoiding useless mutilation of the tree. This is done by a twist of the 



