Hatchet

“ Choose a quiet day, when there is no wind, for tree-felling. You cannot control the wind, and it may control your tree.
Never allow your hatchet to lie on the ground, a menace to every one at camp, but have a particular log or stump and always strike the blade in this wood. Leave your hatchet there, where it will not be injured, can do no harm, and you will always know where to find it (Fig. 17) . ”

“ Now, such a hatchet as they usually make use of, if thrown by its handle, will revolve in a perpendicular plane about once in every three yards, irrespective of the force with which it moves. An Indian judges his enemy to be distant from him any multiple of 3 yards as 15, 18, 21, and strikes him full with the edge of his weapon accordingly. ”

“ If there are obstacles, such as vines, bushes, limbs of other trees, or rocks, which your hatchet might strike as you raise and lower it while at work, clear them all away, making a generous open space on all sides, overhead, on the right and left side, and below the swing of the hatchet. ”

“ The white man’s hatchet was a broad-bladed, clumsy thing, heavy to carry and hard to handle. The Indian designed a thin, narrow-bladed, light hatchet—the tomahawk—that would bite deeper into the wood and so cut faster than the white man’s thick hatchet. And every woodsman now knows that for fast chopping, with little work, a hatchet made on the lines of the tomahawk beats out the other kind.”
The old man took his own hunting axe from the sheath at his belt and held it up for inspection. ”

“ When a savage has found a tree suitable for his purpose, he, with his stone hatchet (kul baling-carek, Fig. 1) , cuts a notch in the bark for his great-toe, raises himself up, makes a second toe-hole, and climbs up with a facility, rapidity, and skill, of which we can hardly have an idea. In Western Australia, the helve of the hatchet is pointed, and the natives, after making the notch, stick the tool in the bark and lift themselves up with it. ”

“ The Hatchet is an indispensable tool, for it can be used for a good deal of your rough work, such as splitting and paring. It requires practice to handle one successfully, however. A misplaced blow will sometimes ruin your work, either by cutting into it or striking grain which runs off into the portion to be finished. With straight grained wood it is not so difficult to pare to a line with the hatchet. The wood should be removed to within less than an eighth of an inch of the line, as the work must be dressed up afterward with the plane. ”

“ An infernal hubbub drums itself into your brain: the almost human cries of the pigs being slaughtered, the violent strokes of the hatchets lopping off the limbs, the repeated shouts of the “ripper,” who with a superb and sweeping gesture lifts the heavy hatchet, and with one stroke opens from top to bottom the unfortunate, quivering animal hung on a hook. During the terror of the moment one hears the continuous grating of the revolving razor which in one second removes the bristles from the trunk thrown to it by the machine that has cut off the four legs ”

“ Forthwith, the hatchet, without anyone taking it, hopped forth, and began to cut away, and the wood of itself came into the room, and stowed itself in the stove, at the sight of which the sisters-in-law wondered much at the craft of Emelian; and every day, when the fool only ordered the hatchet to go out and cut wood, the hatchet went and cut some. ”

“ I have travelled many weeks in the woods without using a more formidable implement than a one-pound hatchet. Pile your fuel--a complete supply, all you are going to need--by the side of your already improvised fireplace. ”

“ Also a belt of hide from which there hung in sheaths a delicately balanced hatchet and a long, broad-bladed knife.
"These you will discover no less useful than the gun," he explained, drawing the weapons from their coverings. "This which you call a hatchet is the tomahawk of the Indians, used for fighting at close quarters and for throwing. This other is the scalping-knife, and a deadly blade it is, too. You will feel them strange at first, but among my friends in New York there is a Dutchman named Corlaer who will instruct you in the ways of the wilderness." ”

“ They take out the properest pieces for their purpose, to be fastened to the end of a stick, made much in the form of a hatchet-handle. They slit it at one end, and fix in the cleft any fragment of those burnt stones, that will best fit it, which they further secure, by binding it tightly round with the strongest Toobee, or fibrils of fir-root above-mentioned; and then make use of it, as of a hatchet, not so much for cutting of wood, as for splitting the skull of the enemy, when they can surprize him. They form also other instruments of war ”

“ The hatchet, on the other hand—and its modification the axe—has its blunter blade fastened to a handle; that the principle of the wedge may be utilized at the long end of a lever and with the momentum of a swinging blow. Ages before anyone could have explained the principle involved in such obscuring terms as that, the implement itself was in use for the same purpose to which it is still applied. Indeed, there is probably no other implement that has played a larger part in the history of human industry. ”

“ It was not only that they were strong of limb, swift of foot, and excellent marksmen—the hatchet was as familiar to them as the musket; and an amateur, who had never cut wood but for his diversion, could hew down a tree with a celerity that would astonish and abash a professed wood-cutter in this country ”

“ My master gave me a hatchet to make fences with, and a lance to fight with if any body came to steal my cattle: he also gave me a new clout, to wear after their country fashion, my old one being worn out; the common people seldom wear one broader than a napkin; they call it a lamber, and so shall I for the future ”

“ So the Waternick left them, and the children began the work at once. They took the saw and tried to cut down a tree. But the saw soon broke and they were done for. So they took the hatchet, and the hatchet split in two after one stroke. They began to cry.
"Things look bad for us." ”

“ If any one has ever struck a common hatchet to any great depth into timber, and carelessly endeavored to loosen it by raising the extremity of the handle, he may have found the handle separate from the metal near the junction of the two. ”

“ After you have cut the first chip in logging up a tree, chop on the base of the chip, swinging your hatchet from the opposite direction, and the chip will fall to the ground.
Having successfully chopped off one piece of the log, it will be a simple matter to cut off more. Chop slowly, easily, and surely. Don't be in a hurry and exhaust yourself; only a novice overexerts and tries to make a deep cut with the hatchet. [30]
Be careful of the blade of your hatchet; keep it free from the ground when chopping, to avoid striking snags, stones, or other things liable to nick or dull the edge. ”

“ Use your hatchet as much as possible, take care of how and what you chop, and do not wait until the axe gets really dull before having recourse to your file and stone. It is a long distance to a grindstone. ”

“ On a number of Gallo-Roman cippi, we find a hatchet beneath which we read the words, Dis Manibus, and lower down the dedication, Sub Ascia dedicavit. At all times and everywhere the hatchet appears as the emblem of force, and is the object of the respect of the people. The tradition of its value and importance is handed down from ancestors to descendants throughout many generations. ”

“ To cut down a tree with a stone hatchet must have been no slight undertaking. It is, indeed, most probable that they made use of fire, in the same manner as is done by existing savages in felling trees and making canoes. ”

“ It runs along the ground, covering everything it meets with a network of branches which only the powerful hatchet can clear away. It is covered with sharp thorns which make it a most formidable obstruction to all who travel through these wilds. ”

“ Whilst it was falling a bird built its nest in the handle, and laid eggs, and hatched them, and brought forth young ones; and when the hatchet had fallen down, it gave birth to twelve little hatchets. And I put them in my wallet, and carried them to my godfather. My godfather rejoiced. He gave me one of the hatchets, and I stuck it in my belt at my back, and went home. I was thirsty and went to the well. The well was deep. I cut off my brainpan, and drank water out of it. I laid my brainpan by the well, and went home. ”

“ Seely produces a theoretical study of the invention of the stone hatchet, a tool which represents the earliest human workmanship of which any knowledge has come to us, and presents in its rudest form the evidences of being the fruit of long-antecedent growth. When men used wooden poles for pikes, they found that their weapons were better if they were pointed. ”

“ I have a flat piece of jade, apparently part of a thin hatchet, on one face of which two notches have been sawn converging at an angle of 135° and marking out what when detached and ground would have formed a curved ear-ring. ”

“ He may not have been as strong physically as his neighbor, but with the aid of so marvellous an invention as a stone hatchet he undoubtedly conquered his enemies and became a great prehistoric potentate, until some other great man made a larger and stronger hatchet ”

“ In most cases, one face of the hatchet was first roughed out, and then by a series of blows, given at proper intervals, along the margin of that face the general shape was given and the other face chipped out. This is proved by the fact that in most of the chipped hatchets found in Britain, the depressions of the bulbs of percussion of the flakes struck off occur in a perfect state only on one face, having been partly removed on the other face by the subsequent chipping. ”

“ And with every upward movement he raises higher the rope collar which fastens him to the tree. Over his loins, hangs and glitters the steel hatchet. He keeps continually clinging on in an easy fashion like a parasitic creature attacking a giant ”

“ At first, the early Chinese in that unsophisticated age were content to use real hatchets for this commercial purpose; but, after a time, with the profound mercantile instinct of their race, it occurred to some of them that when a man wanted half a hatchet's worth of goods he might as well pay for them with half a hatchet. Still, as it would be a pity to spoil a good working implement by cutting it in two, the worthy Ah Sin ingeniously compromised the matter by making thin hatchets, of the usual size and shape, but far too slender for practical usage. ”

“ In the first place some of the bark is peeled off, by means of the hatchet, from the tree which is to be felled. In the opening thus made coals are placed, which are fanned till they are all consumed. By this means a portion of the stem is charred, which is then hewn away with the hatchet, and fresh coals are continually added until the tree is burned through. In our peat bogs old stems of trees have been found which appear to have been thus felled by stone hatchets with the aid of fire. ”

“ A large hatchet, weighing one pound seven and three-quarter ounces, was sent to me by Mr. John Filson, of Flemington. It was found at Kerang, on the Lower Loddon. It is formed of dense, hard, tough, nephritic greenstone. ”

“ Hence we have almost always to pass down through a mass of incumbent loam with land shells, or through fine sand with freshwater molluscs, before we get into the beds of gravel containing hatchets. Occasionally a weapon used as a projectile may have fallen into quiet water, or may have dropped from a canoe to the bottom of the river, or may have been floated by ice, as are some stones occasionally by the Thames in severe winters, and carried over the meadows bordering its banks ”

“ We’ll start out at once. Hazel, you get a hatchet, and, Marie, you get a saw; the rest of you get your combination knives.”137
In a few minutes they were in the thick of the timber, searching the small trees and saplings for Y-forks to serve as catapult handles. In half an hour they returned with a dozen of varying degree of symmetry and excellence.
Then the work of assembling the parts of these miniature engines of war began. Some of the girls exhibited a good deal of mechanical skill, while others made moves and suggestions so awkward as to occasion much laughter. ”

“ In our lumber regions up in the Northwest it is customary to clear a small spot on a log and strike it with the blunt end of a hatchet containing the initials of the owner, and then send it adrift down the stream with hundreds of others, and though it may float miles unguarded, that mark of ownership is respected. ”

“ Just at this moment, a band of pioneers happened to be passing, who always carry with them huge hatchets. We called to them, and, with their assistance, soon made our way to the cellar. But here a great disappointment awaited us. We found no liquor, but only two tiers of firkins, used for holding butter. One of our men, in anger, struck his hatchet into one of them, [192] when, to our great surprise, out rolled whole handfuls of doubloons. We then struck the heads of the firkins with the butt-ends of our muskets, but could not break them. ”

“ Throwing aside the counterpane, there lay the tomahawk sleeping by the savage’s side, as if it were a hatchet-faced baby. ”

“ When they have had sufficient conference with those necessary agents, or shadows, as they term them, they ask for the hatchet, bayonet, or the like, which is always prepared by another person, with a long string fastened to it by the haft, for the convenience of hauling it up again after they have swallowed it; for they very wisely admit this to be a very necessary precaution, as hard and compact bodies, such as iron and steel, would be very difficult to digest, even by the men who are enabled to swallow them. ”