Reminds me of a scene in "Happy People", a documentary about life in the Russian taiga, where the hunter fashioned a pair of skis by splitting a tree.
Link if you're interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cPhWpprLmM
Riving, a Viking-age woodworking technique
11–20 of 93 posts
Re: Riving, a Viking-age woodworking technique
#12I would imagine this wood-working technique wasn't unique to the Scandinavians. For one thing, a wedge is much simpler to make than a saw.
To your point: a saw is really just a series of sharpened wedges
Re: Riving, a Viking-age woodworking technique
#13This is an interesting article, but riving is not specifically Viking. It was the primary method of producing workable wood blanks from tree trunks in every civilization that used wood blanks. Which is to say, it was used all over Europe and Asia (at least), for at least the last 2000-plus years. I'm not as familiar with the woodworking traditions of Africa or pre-European-contact North or South America, so I don't k…
The article was hosted on hurstwic.org, which is a website dedicated to teaching Viking martial arts. It does not claim that riving is purely a Viking technique. I suppose it could have mentioned that, but I doubt the author ever considered their article making it to the front page of HN.
Ahh, makes sense why the author would make such a sadistic comparison: Making a few cuts with the axe into some of the oak logs on the site made me realize that a leg bone would be no match for this axe.
Re: Riving, a Viking-age woodworking technique
#14A while ago, I ended up watching a video about making roofing shingles using hand tools, which uses the same technique, but on only ~footlong logs. https://youtu.be/UZA1J8RHltY?t=555
If you want to scare yourself some time, watch the shingle sawyers do this with power tools.
Re: Riving, a Viking-age woodworking technique
#15A while ago, I ended up watching a video about making roofing shingles using hand tools, which uses the same technique, but on only ~footlong logs. https://youtu.be/UZA1J8RHltY?t=555
If you want to scare yourself some time, watch the shingle sawyers do this with power tools. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDKYGoIoukg
That's interesting, but riving them with a shingle axe looks faster to me. At least the guys I've seen do it. And there's no wasted material, or very little at least, compared to a saw kerf.
(An example here, not using a shingle axe but a froe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FjpmFwVLtM )
Re: Riving, a Viking-age woodworking technique
#16A while ago, I ended up watching a video about making roofing shingles using hand tools, which uses the same technique, but on only ~footlong logs. https://youtu.be/UZA1J8RHltY?t=555
If you want to scare yourself some time, watch the shingle sawyers do this with power tools. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDKYGoIoukg
I had to stop when it got to the guy casually smoking a cigarette and manipulating logs while not looking as they came out of the 2-foot-diameter spinning blade of death.
Re: Riving, a Viking-age woodworking technique
#17This is an interesting article, but riving is not specifically Viking. It was the primary method of producing workable wood blanks from tree trunks in every civilization that used wood blanks. Which is to say, it was used all over Europe and Asia (at least), for at least the last 2000-plus years. I'm not as familiar with the woodworking traditions of Africa or pre-European-contact North or South America, so I don't k…
Riving is still used for producing timber that needs to have perfectly straight grain with minimal runout, most notably the tops of acoustic guitars. The difference in stiffness between a rived and sawn top can be drastic, with commensurate benefits in tone.
Re: Riving, a Viking-age woodworking technique
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you want to scare yourself some time, watch the shingle sawyers do this with power tools. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDKYGoIoukg
I had to stop when it got to the guy casually smoking a cigarette and manipulating logs while not looking as they came out of the 2-foot-diameter spinning blade of death.
There's a video somewhere that's even worse, where the guy is also doing the 2 foot diameter blade by hand as well instead of it being autofed.
Re: Riving, a Viking-age woodworking technique
#19See also this technique in the making of an English longbow:
Re: Riving, a Viking-age woodworking technique
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
The article was hosted on hurstwic.org, which is a website dedicated to teaching Viking martial arts. It does not claim that riving is purely a Viking technique. I suppose it could have mentioned that, but I doubt the author ever considered their article making it to the front page of HN.
Ahh, makes sense why the author would make such a sadistic comparison: Making a few cuts with the axe into some of the oak logs on the site made me realize that a leg bone would be no match for this axe.
Sadistic? Ancient armies regularly hacked at each other with these battle axes, along with swords, spears, and other sharp weapons.
It was as normal as guns are today.