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The doors of Amissville Baptist Church were forcifully barricaded to the public last Sunday evening. It was not until Tuesday morning that it was noted that the obstruction was being removed. A bevy of the most attractive set of young married ladies and a set of more talented maturing matrons, who to be sure were also attractive, were gathering at the church enroute to an extravagant hoe-down of the Homemakers Clubs in New Market. They were greeted by the sight of two old timers cutting up the entire top of a large locust tree. Swept up in a sudden blast of the wild wind and rain storm Sunday evening, the twisting current had wrenched loose the massive top and deposited it gently, but squarely in front of the front doors of the church. Now the two old timers presently joined by a third old bird, were hard at the trimming and sawing. Not sawing with one of those awful whining, rancous things that buzz right through the ear drums, but sawing with a two-man crosscut saw, the same as grandpa used and the same as his granddaddy used. The sound it made was swish, swish - quiet and rhythmic, like mama’s silk petticoat when she rocked baby sister to sleep. The rise and fall of the axe was a sweet reminder of long ago, when the steady chip chop in the back woods tapped out the reassuring message of warmth for the winter or kindling for the cook stove. The art of using an axe is steadily becoming forgotten and the crosscut or buck saws are antiques of today’s city boys. But the man who swung the 5-pound axe Tuesday morning was artist. Many a tree had fallen to his axe in the mountains, and many a 20-inch log had he helped to hand roll onto the logging cart. Some men don’t like a 3'2-pound axe -too light-but it is a right satisfactory tool to trim branches. In the trimming operation, the axe is stroked away from the trunk, striking the top of the branch at about a 45 degree angle. A single stroke is sufficient to sever a 3-inch branch or larger. Being ambidexterous saves time and the undercut or cutting under helps sever a difficult limb.
Judge a man by the company he keeps is an adage, but the [condition of his tools will also tell you something. A sharp axe
[shouldn’t substitute for a razor, and although it might be used to scrape hog bristles, the edge with the proper level and keeness will withstand the shock and impact of hard wood all day long. Look at the handle and see if a little piece has been cut off the free end, offering a small flat surface to tap home a handle loosened from the axe head, and still not splinter the grip.
As the crosscut saw bit into the standing stump, the backs of the two old boys swayed to and fro, bowing alternately to each other as each pulled his stroke. But the locust was sticky and so the 5-pound wedges were shaken out of the sack and hammered into the cut behind the blade. The swinging resumed, 15 minutes, a half hour, probably 45 minutes elapsed before the shout of timber accompanied the crash of the severed trunk. A frugal sense
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