274 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. 



edge like an old axe with the corners ground off. It cannot be 

 denied that an axe with no corners will enter farther into wood, 

 at a given stroke, than one that has corners ; but a man can chop 

 much faster with an axe that is almost straight on the edge, than 

 with one that is very round on the edge. The reason for this is, 

 a chopper with an axe that is very rounding on the edge makes 

 a great deal of mince ; but with an axe that has but little round 

 ing on the edge, he will make but little mince or fine chips. An 

 axe of due proportion will measure about five inches from one 

 corner of the edge to the other, and about three and a half inches 

 the length of the poll, and about eight inches from the crown of 

 the poll to the edge A. B, midway between each corner. An 

 axe, the poll of which is about two and a half inches long, the 

 edge six inches long and hundreds are made thus is a very 

 poor tool to work with, and an ill-shapen thing. 



THE WEIGHT OF THE AXE 



365. Is a consideration in regard to which choppers often disa 

 gree; but the majority of them will probably agree in what fol 

 lows. If a chopper is naturally very slow in handling an axe, 

 and is not disposed to exert much strength, he should have an axe 

 which weighs from, five to eight Ibs., according to the strength of 

 the chopper. If a chopper strikes very quickly, and raises his axe 

 very quickly, if he is a man of ordinary strength, he should have 

 an axe weighing about four Ibs. A chopper will cut off a log 

 quicker with a heavy axe than with a light one ; but when he 

 comes to handle it all day, he will find he will be able to chop 

 quite as much, and with less fatigue, with a four- or five-lb. axe 

 than he can with one that weighs six or seven Ibs. or more. It 

 is better to exert the muscles a little in striking with an axe, than 

 it is to exert all the strength in lifting an axe which is heavy 

 enough to cut sufficiently deep at a stroke by its own weight. 



366. Were a chopper to strike twenty blows per minute, he 

 would strike twelve thousand blows in ten hours. With an axe 

 weighing five Ibs., in that time he would raise as high or higher 

 than his head, an equivalent to sixty thousand Ibs., or thirty tons, 



