Forging a Hewing Broad Axe with Shawn James and Toronto Blacksmith's Paul Krzyszkowski

#forging #blacksmith #viking

I visit the blacksmith shop of Paul Krzyszoski (Toronto Blacksmith) to watch him forge me a hewing axe (Viking broad axe style) for some upcoming timber frame building projects at my wilderness homestead (at the log cabin in the forest). The biggest project this year will be the workshop, which I plan to build using timber framing techniques combine with log cabin building and stone masonry. I'm considering making at least one wall cordwood with sawdust and concrete and the remaining walls; squared timbers (which I'll do with the hewing axe). All of this will sit on a field stone foundation. I may build the woodshop on top of the stone cellar since the cellar will be mostly underground and can essentially function as the basement of the shop. I'm not sure about this yet as I need to excavate the ground by hand once the snow melts to see how deep the bedrock is and how difficult it is to dig in the rocky soil.