Thread: Dustoff for Willie Peters

Just Googled that very old expression "Gapped Axe" to see how much use it gets in this modern day.

About the first thing me eyeballs fasten onto is expression....Axe Wound...'Vulva'.......The dirty bastards???.

Originally Posted by Scribe

Just Googled that very old expression "Gapped Axe" to see how much use it gets in this modern day.

About the first thing me eyeballs fasten onto is expression....Axe Wound...'Vulva'.......The dirty bastards???.

Hi Scribe good to see you back. Enlighten me as to the meaning behind gapped axe if you will. My old man was in forestry most of his life and was a keen axe man in my youth but the words gapped axe is not something that I am familiar with.

Originally Posted by Rushy

Hi Scribe good to see you back. Enlighten me as to the meaning behind gapped axe if you will. My old man was in forestry most of his life and was a keen axe man in my youth but the words gapped axe is not something that I am familiar with.

One of the reasons I was looking it up Rushey is that it never has been in common use and it is hardly ever heard used nowadays.

This is how I have heard it used in the past.... Once one of our boys went out with the axe and took a swing at a Black Maire stump outside the Ohutu Stream hut that over the years had turned as hard as stone. A chip came off of the cutting edge of the axe.
Hence it was said at the time "That boy has gapped the axe"

Sometimes a tree would grow around a sizeable stone which will "gap the Axe"

A hard knot in a piece of wood was known to "gap the axe"

Perhaps the steel of the old often treasured axes like the Kelly mays have been a bit more brittle than what are available now.

That all I know Rushey and like you I would like to know more. I am hoping "Gapped Axe" will come back and explain a bit about his chosen name.

Originally Posted by Scribe

One of the reasons I was looking it up Rushey is that it never has been in common use and it is hardly ever heard used nowadays.

This is how I have heard it used in the past.... Once one of our boys went out with the axe and took a swing at a Black Maire stump outside the Ohutu Stream hut that over the years had turned as hard as stone. A chip came off of the cutting edge of the axe.
Hence it was said at the time "That boy has gapped the axe"

Sometimes a tree would grow around a sizeable stone which will "gap the Axe"

A hard knot in a piece of wood was known to "gap the axe"

Perhaps the steel of the old often treasured axes like the Kelly mays have been a bit more brittle than what are available now.

That all I know Rushey and like you I would like to know more. I am hoping "Gapped Axe" will come back and explain a bit about his chosen name.

Killed a few mices in that hut and chopped up a few animals outside.

Originally Posted by TeRei

Killed a few mices in that hut and chopped up a few animals outside.

Ohutu Stream. I used to drop into there in the roar or when I had been eating venison to long and wanted a bit of pork. It was a great place to hunt stags under that big podocarp forest. The place used to go mad. The hut only had a dirt floor then and it was always dirty, it was damp in the winter and it was a hard place to get decent fire wood.

Interesting thing my old hunting partner Jim Warren found a Moa skeleton in the stream not far up from the hut. It is the sort of country that gives you the feeling that they are probably still in there.
A friend of mine said he got one of the biggest frights he ever had in this hut. He dropped down from Aorangi and got in after dark, cooked a feed and read for awhile before blowing the candle out. He was lying there contemplating the events of the day as you do when he spotted these two great baleful looking eyes staring at him from under the other bunk and along with that the outline of some sinister creature. His blood ran cold and he was frozen to the spot, mesmorized by these two huge green eyes staring at him. He had in the end to make himself get out of bed and get the matches and light the candle expecting to be sprung on. To his great relief on examination of the creature it turned out to be a half rotten stump that someone had pushed under the bunk and the eyes were two big round patches of Phosphorus in the rotting wood.

Originally Posted by Scribe

Ohutu Stream. I used to drop into there in the roar or when I had been eating venison to long and wanted a bit of pork. It was a great place to hunt stags under that big podocarp forest. The place used to go mad. The hut only had a dirt floor then and it was always dirty, it was damp in the winter and it was a hard place to get decent fire wood.

Interesting thing my old hunting partner Jim Warren found a Moa skeleton in the stream not far up from the hut. It is the sort of country that gives you the feeling that they are probably still in there.
A friend of mine said he got one of the biggest frights he ever had in this hut. He dropped down from Aorangi and got in after dark, cooked a feed and read for awhile before blowing the candle out. He was lying there contemplating the events of the day as you do when he spotted these two great baleful looking eyes staring at him from under the other bunk and along with that the outline of some sinister creature. His blood ran cold and he was frozen to the spot, mesmorized by these two huge green eyes staring at him. He had in the end to make himself get out of bed and get the matches and light the candle expecting to be sprung on. To his great relief on examination of the creature it turned out to be a half rotten stump that someone had pushed under the bunk and the eyes were two big round patches of Phosphorus in the rotting wood.

You should have been there on Saturday because it was howling. Some good solid wind gusts. Some good heavy horizontal rain and hail at times.