The Ax Book: The Lore and Science of the Woodcutter

by dudley-cook, S. Lawrence Whipple (Illustrator)

The Ax Book is a thorough guide to cutting wood with hand tools. The author explains how to use various types of axes, hatchets, mauls, saws and wedges to take down trees and prepare firewood. In addition he shows every aspect of dealing with wood from the forest right to the hearth or stove. Author, Dudley Cook, of Waterboro, Maine, tells the reader a certain amount about himself. He has evidently worked in the woods a great deal, having learned to use an ax and the other tools of the woodsman as a boy growing up in a small New England town in the 1930s. He doesn't say whether, in writing The Ax Book, he found he had taken on a longer journey than he had expected; but if so, he was equal to the task, and his reader gain by the bargain. Illustrations are by S. Lawrence WhipplePaperback 144 pages, 8.50"x 11"

Genres: Nonfiction, Woodwork

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Andrew Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you need to know more about the tools of the woodsman, particularly the ax, this book covers the gambit. Given the current (odd, IMO) trendiness of the lumberjack as reflected in the "lumbersexual" I could imagine many a poseur sitting in a coffee house with this book in front of them - that said, this book is chock full of actual, actionable information that just might lead a self-identifying lumbersexual into the honest world of the woodcutter.

[Jacob Lehman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned about this from "The Scythe Book" and it's such a wonderful work! Written in an engaging way, but also very much a "how-to," as a recent transplant to the woods of upstate New York, it's proved invaluable in my engagement with axes (though admittedly I haven't taken on any projects more complicated than segmenting downed trees or splitting wood for the stove).

[Mike Welsch · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're going to chop wood, this book helps you do it right!

[Will G · Rating 3 out of 5]

This man <3's axes. I feel neutral toward them.

[Bre · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very clear instruction and safety manual on all things axe and tree felling.

[Nich Traverse · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love sharp things. The fact that (in addition to the author) I almost chopped my foot off with an axe when I was 17, hasn't really dampened my desire for the sublimely sharp. I read this book a few years ago and still tell stories out of on a regular basis. In addition to axes, it also relates great facts about saws and their uses. I used the information in this book to sharpen a 10 foot cross-cut saw when I lived out west...though, it did take me about a month. Also useful are the techniques of felling trees, which are just as useful with a chainsaw as anything else and have proved wonderful advice.

[Jim Wilcox · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a delightful read!