Things that Kill my Cub time.

[rfunk]

This Bradford Pear stump has to be gone before I can take the pool cover off. The chips are flying onto the cover, and I don’t want to clean them out of the water. It seems like I will have to clear about a 36” circle. I am about 1/3 of the way around, but I haven’t even gotten to the stump under the trunk yet, and any way I might go outward there are more surface roots to clean out. What appear to be leaves are actually wood chips all around the cavern.

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Besides your spade, a sawsall with a carbide blade, or a big bunch of rough wood blades can sure help. I had to hand dig several holes to plant new trees where we had to take down a row of dying columnar poplar trees.

 

[jkoenig]

Thanks for the idea Reynold, but No spade, no sawzall. Just me, an ax, and the stump. I will win if I live long enough, and I will have gotten some good ol’ Dan’l Boone exercise.

 

[dschwandt]

Thanks for the idea Reynold, but No spade, no sawzall. Just me, an ax, and the stump. I will win if I live long enough, and I will have gotten some good ol’ Dan’l Boone exercise.

Cut it off below ground level, a couple wheelbarrows full of dirt and forget about it!!

 

[jkoenig]

Day 3 progress: worked the gap a bit wider around the front, and right, and worked my way around behind a bit on the left side. Still rootage everywhere.

 

[John Wyrick]

I hired a stump grinding service last year when I was putting in my Ozark yard. Armstrong methods work but I have also sacrificed old skil saw blades and made multiple passes across stump and roots, then followed up with an ax. Lastly on a huge stump I tried a method on YouTube. Drilled many 1" holes about 5 inches deep,filled with waste oil let sit and repeated several times. Light stump on fire and it slowly burns. You can see evidence several feet out on buried roots. Vegetables oil also works.

 

[jkoenig]

I get to rest up for a few days. I left for Albany today.

 

[rfunk]

Forgot to mention, that the only reason I was digging these out (and AFTER stump grinding) was that we really wanted to keep the new trees in the same line . . .

 

[gary noblit]

Jim, use your imagination...While you're gone have the boys drill holes in the stump and fill them with salt and peanut oil...By the time you get to it again the critters should have it chewed up...,just tryin' to be helpful...

 

[jkoenig]

Maybe I gave you guys the wrong impression. I like doing it this way. It's frustrating, and exhausting, but this is the way I want to do it. I know nobody else understands, and I am definitely not right. I do appreciate the suggestions.

I am bummed that my dad's ax (handle) will probably not see the end of this project. I have learned that the handle is cracked quite a bit inside of the ax head. It was always his ax, but I can't remember seeing him ever use it. It was always me using it, lol.

 

[gary noblit]

Jim, I have my Grandads post hole diggers and his one man crosscut....I appreciate that my hands helped make the handles babybutt smooth but I never saw him use the crosscut after he showed me how....point is I get it .....both my axes have many wedges driven in the handle...

 

[rfunk]

Jim, I have my Grandads post hole diggers and his one man crosscut....I appreciate that my hands helped make the handles babybutt smooth but I never saw him use the crosscut after he showed me how....point is I get it .....both my axes have many wedges driven in the handle...

When I'm redoing a wood tool handle, hammer, ax, etc., I try to do the best I can, then get the head good and hot with a heat gun. Dose with hot melt glue. It takes up the last of the play, makes it last almost forever, unless I misuse it.

 

[gary noblit]

Rey, once a handle has been mounted tight a soaking in kero or oil will keep the wood from drying out for yrs...a week is plenty...

 

[rfunk]

Rey, once a handle has been mounted tight a soaking in kero or oil will keep the wood from drying out for yrs...a week is plenty...

Dad always swore by linseed oil,, keeps tool handles from cracking or splitting from the weather, too. Bonus is that dirt and grime can't get into the grain of the wood, either, I guess.

 

[jkoenig]

While I was away, the stump installed a defensive moat! It did provide a decent defense (think splashing mud onto yourself with every swing...) for a while until I splashed some out, and some soaked in with the vibrations of the ax falls, and some was absorbed by the chips and dirt clods knocked into it.

 

[jkoenig]

I’ve gotten it to less than the original trunk width. Every day I chop at this is a day I don’t have to ride that blasted stationary bike, so I’ll finish next weekend instead of today.

 

[RAllison]

I’ve gotten it to less than the original trunk width. Every day I chop at this is a day I don’t have to ride that blasted stationary bike, so I’ll finish next weekend instead of today.

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You're gettin her done!

 

[lpalma]

Only 5 more to go it seems...

 

[jkoenig]

Umm Lewis, those are destined for the firepit, or slicing practice, not ax work unless I get bored.

 

[jkoenig]

Well, I was almost right. Dad’s ax did make it through the project plus 1 swing. After I got the stump out, I sunk the head into a log, and the handle did not have enough strength to pull the head back out, and it broke.

Now I have a new project to refurbish the ax. Does anyone know where I can find an Onex Hickory handle?

Does the white look like stain, or paint to you woodworkers? I think the orange is paint.

 

[jkoenig]

Never mind. This may just have to do: