{"id":6773,"date":"2019-09-28T08:41:32","date_gmt":"2019-09-28T12:41:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bob-easton.com\/blog\/?p=6773"},"modified":"2021-09-19T18:52:16","modified_gmt":"2021-09-19T22:52:16","slug":"hatchets-andreis-and-mine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bob-easton.com\/blog\/hatchets-andreis-and-mine\/","title":{"rendered":"Hatchets – Andrei’s and mine"},"content":{"rendered":"

A sweet little bowl<\/a> from David Fisher caught my attention a few months back. That bowl inspired me to find my old “Boy Scout hatchet,” refurbish it, find an adze, and set out on a bit of green woodworking.\u00a0 But first, let’s look at a different kind of green woodworking half way around the globe.<\/p>\n

Woodcarver Andrei on Kizhi Island, Russia<\/h2>\n

\"photo<\/a><\/p>\n

Kizhi Island, a smallish island in Lake Onega in Russia, is now a museum<\/a>.\u00a0 The island is home to dozens of wooden buildings, many of them churches, the largest of which is the Church of the Transfiguration, which supports 22 onion-shaped wooden domes.\u00a0 It would be easy to fill a long blog post with pictures and stories of those churches, but I will focus this post on the wooden domes and the aspen wood shingles<\/a>* that cover them.\u00a0 In particular, we will watch Andrei demonstrate how those shingles are created.<\/p>\n

Our visit to Kizhi was early in the morning and I found Andrei just getting ready for his work. He was sharpening his two hatchets. He used what appears to be an Arkansas stone, and no stropping.<\/p>\n

Using only hand gestures (I have no Russian language skills), I asked if I could test the sharpness of one of his hatchets.\u00a0 His answer was the universal back and forth wagging of a finger.<\/p>\n