labels do not always mean the best steel. Your friend the woodchopper
will tell you what kind to buy in your neighbourhood. The handle
should be straight-grained hickory and before buying it you will run
your eye along it to see that the helve is not warped or twisted and
that there are no knots or bad places in it. The hang of an axe is the
way the handle or helve is fitted to the head. An expert woodchopper
is rarely satisfied with the heft of an axe as it comes from the
store. He prefers to hang his own. In fact, most woodchoppers prefer
to make their own axe handles.

You will need a stone to keep a keen edge on the axe. No one can do
good work with a dull blade, and an edge that has been nicked by
chopping into the ground or hitting a stone is absolutely inexcusable.

To chop a tree, first be sure that the owner is willing to have it
chopped. Then decide in which direction you wish it to fall. This will
be determined by the kind of ground, closeness of other trees, and the
presence of brush or undergrowth. When a tree has fallen the
woodchopper's work has only begun. He must chop off the branches, cut
and split the main trunk, and either make sawlogs or cordwood lengths.
Hence the importance of obtaining a good lie for the tree.

Before beginning to chop the tree, cut away all the brush, vines, and
undergrowth around its butt as far as you will swing the axe. This is
very important as many of the accidents with an axe result from
neglect of this precaution. As we swing the axe it may catch on a bush
or branch over our head, which causes a glancing blow and a possible
accident. Be careful not to dull the axe in cutting brush. You can
often do more damage to its edge with undergrowth no thicker than
one's finger than in chopping a tree a foot through. If the brush is