Your beloved chainsaw engine is essentially a fiery air pump. The process starts by drawing in fresh air, compressing that air, and then adding a dose of fuel and a spark – resulting in…

One of the most common questions that foresters get is, “How old is this tree?” Often, the response is less than satisfactory, as the forester carries on about site…

Forestry often involves the blending of technical solutions with ecological knowledge. Such is the case with scarification of the forest floor, which is typically done in conjunction with a…

Axes and crosscut saws have survived in the American mind as evidence of our utilitarian relationship with forests. Most of the crosscut saws I see today are hung above mantles or serve as a…

A few Northern Woodlands readers have confessed privately that what started as the innocent acquisition of an old axe has evolved into a full-blown obsession. Like any obsession, management is…

In the Spring 2022 issue, we tackled the task of removing a broken axe handle from the eye of an axe or maul. Now we’ll begin the process of hanging (or hafting) the axe. 1. Fit the eye.…

Sitting on the passenger’s side floor of my pickup are three broken axes/mauls, all succumbed to the same fate by excited friends and neighbors who had “wooded” and snapped…

Using a bucking stanchion not only keeps the wood off the ground (and your chainsaw out of the dirt) but also allows you to cut multiple logs or slabs at once. The design I use is sized so…

A friend recently showed up at my workshop complaining that his chainsaw was “bogging” and wouldn’t run at full throttle. He assumed the issue was related to fuel delivery…