Tree work hand tools

[woodworkingboy]

I used to see old timers using these pretty regular, fewer younger guys nowadays have picked up on the usefulness. They date back to old school methods. The short handled log pick can save a lot of stress on your back, makes for easier picking up while keeping yourself in a more upright position. Jab into the end grain and pull the log length from the ground up to yourself. One arm under the log and the tool poked into the bark at arm's length below makes for a helpful carry as well. Also good for hooking under branches to drag or lift up. No such beast here, but maybe useful for feeding a chipper?

The big hacking knife, Nata they call it, is real good for lopping off smaller branches, and with the thickness of the blade and weight of them and if kept sharp, often one good whack cleanly removes. An enjoyable tool to use with it's connection to the old ways, once you get in the habit of carrying on your belt and using, you really don't need a chainsaw and using gas to cut everything. It may seem obsolete in a sense, but if you get into using one, you may find it surprisingly purposeful. Probably not so useful for guys chipping everything, it occurs. I really like these, and it doesn't make for much added effort to carry them around on yourself if working the ground.

The Nata and picks are readily available here, but I prefer to make my own tools, or at least the handles. I like a little longer length on the picks than the store bought ones offer. The pick can fit into a little pouch on your belt in the back, short and light enough not to fall out. The stainless pipe pick handle I recently made for moving bigger logs

 

[Spellfeller]

Really interesting. Thanks for sharing. I'll bet a Nata comes in really handy; almost like a streamlined hatchet...

 

[woodworkingboy]

Yes, very much like a hatchet, I also use it for making kindling. It's nicely balanced.

 

[Limbrat]

Very cool Jay, it's great so see how the rest of the world rolls. I'm curious how your picks work in hardwoods. I built one for handling firewood but it just won't stick satisfactorily for me in a lot of the harder stuff. That Nata is a wicked looking tool that obviously gets a lot of use. I made something very similar but a little longer out of a plowshare years ago with a long bevel like yours and it was a green wood and kindling cutting machine but I lost it somewhere in the north Florida swamps. For trimming shooting lanes around my hunting stands it was a wonderful tool. May have to build another now after seeing yours.

 

[Jomo]

How thick's the blade on the Nata hatchet Jay?

Looks very much like an old Chuck n duck chipper blade!

Jomo

 

[woodworkingboy]

Good question on sticking in hardwoods, Ray. They can work quite well in hard wood, Oak and whatever, and the secret is having a point that is not fat with a quick taper, you want it slim on the end, but just thick enough to be durable. I busted the handle recently on my light pick, so I made that new lower one with the end being some 304 stainless rod that I had, the most common type stainless. I had a fatter tip and it wasn't sticking so well, so i ground it down and I think what you see in the photo is about right. I have yet to see how the stainless keeps it's point, I just started using it. It also fairly coincides with the shape of the steel end on the top one, which is hardened steel, and originally was from a store bought tool. With a tip that bites your fingernail, you really don't have to stick it in very far to get a good enough hold, sometimes barely have to touch lighter logs for it to stick. Mind your toes though if one should slip. Getting the right hook shape on the end is important.

 

[woodworkingboy]

Jomo, I would guess about close to a quarter inch. I can measure tomorrow. With a good balanced tool the weight is no bother, it seems helpful.

 

[Jomo]

Thanx Jay.

I'm going to get my machinist brother to drill some holes in an old C&D 12 inch chipper knife so I can attach a handle, and voila, I should be good to go!

After my leather man builds a custom scabbard for it that is!

Jomo

 

[MasterBlaster]

I like that knife!

 

[CurSedVoyce]

I've seen video old old school guys making good collar cuts with a Nata on some decent sized limbs. Chop with amazing accuracy and leave pretty smooth cuts. Takes some mastery and practice I am sure.

 

[stig]

While we are showing the old/weird stuff, let me post this.

Vanriskniv.

Used for cutting the water sprouts off oak logs, to keep them in veneer grade.
You'd go through the oaks yearly and remove sprouts as high as you could reach.
That would be up to 18', with the knife mounted on a long pole.
Usually you'd work two guys together, using diffrent pole lengths.
Hard work, holding an 18 foot pole up all day, cutting sprouts.

One was paid by the tree, last price I remember was a bit over a dollar.
In good years with few sprouts, a good price, in years with lots, less so.

It takes a sharp vanriskniv and some skill to cut the sprouts exactly at the collar, so one doesn't leave a scar, which would ruin the veneer log.

I have done that for years, back in the day, but nobody does that kind of intensive forestry anymore.

So my old vanriskniv just hangs in the shed and rusts.

 

[MasterBlaster]

That reminds me of a shovel... a tool I hate to use!

 

[stig]

Me too, Butch.
It totally wrecks my back.

 

[woodworkingboy]

I know some gardeners that are hell on wheels with shovels. They can dig pretty holes with them as well. Usually they complain about their wrists from all the ornamental pruning they do with their hand clippers. Snip snip snip all day long. They can lop off a pretty good branch with those small clippers, it looks like the secret is hand strength and giving it a quick little twist when cutting.

 

[stig]

Yup, that little twist is it.
Having cut branches for x-mas dekoratioins and bundled them up in 10 pds bunches for export for years, I have that down pretty good.

 

[Altissimus]

Old school .... Use a single and double bit Axe quite regularly.

 

[woodworkingboy]

Old timers working in the woods often like to carry handsaws on their belts, I suspect once that poor country boys buying gas was not so easy. Good to save on it where they could. Here is a nice set with saw and Nata covered in Cherry bark. Sheaths are pretty much always made from wood. Still outfits are making these. The handsaw sharpener's trade was once flourishing. A blacksmith making cutting tools will often have a Nata as one of their products. Some very beautiful ones are available.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Hey! I have that same set-up!!!

 

[woodworkingboy]

A man can still be rich with not very much money!

 

[sotc]

How much does something like that cost Jay? I love it

 

[woodworkingboy]

Which something, Willie?

 

[sotc]

That "nata" hand saw you posted a pic of. It looks like a quality tool

 

[woodworkingboy]

Willie, you mean the chopper, like in the first photo, or the dual set of chopper and saw?

 

[sotc]

Dual

 

[woodworkingboy]

OK, will have to look into it. It might take a little time, but I won’t forget. Some family stuff is going to be taking me out of town for a number if days.

The specs on my Nata are:

Blase thickness. At handle .22” tapering to slightly .20" at the tip.
Blade length 8.25”
Blade width 2.0”, but it has been sharpened quite a few number of times, so I’d guess around 2.25” when new.
Handle length 6.25"