Woodsmen Competition

The Woodsmen Competition has been a crowd favorite at the Crapaud Exhibition for many years. This modern day lumberjack show, symbolic of similar shows at fairs and exhibitions across North America, features some of the top amateur and semi-pro male and female competitors from the Maritime provinces. Several of our competitors have represented our region at national and international meets as far off as Australia and New Zealand.

The competition begins with a modified dart game - well, sort of anyway. Participants throw 3-4 lb double bitted axes at a bulls eye target 20 feet away. When on their game, multiple throwers can hit three bulls eyes in a row, and often have to go in to sudden death "throw-offs" to decide who takes home the prize money.

Underhand chop features contestants standing on an 8 x 8 block of wood and chopping between their feet with razor sharp 5lb professional racing axes. Not for the faint of heart, these guys and gals can sever the log in times of 25 seconds or less.

Buck sawing and Cross cut sawing events involve both single man buck (or swede or pulp saws) sawing one section, commonly called a cookie, but don't try to bite it, off an 8 x 8 log and two person teams sawing two cookies off the log in the two man cross cut event. These saws are nothing like the tools used in the woods by our fore fathers of yesteryear.there are only a few craftsmen in North America who can construct these super fast bucksaw blades that sell for up to $500 apiece. The six and seven foot long two man cross cut saws are often laser cut and the best of the best will set you back up to $2500!

Other events throughout the day include the PeeVey Log Roll and the Run, Cut & Split, but the crowd favorite by far is the Kettle Boil race. Contestants work in pairs with an axe, a bolt of dry cedar, wooden matches and a can with a bit of soapy water in the bottom. The goal is to see which team can get a fire going and have the water boil over the side of their can ion the fastest time. Even the best microwaves and stoves in the world can't compete with these folks. The fastest team at Crapaud has boiled water in less than 2 minutes, and are getting faster every year.

Here's the best thing of all though. At the end of the day, when the gear is all cleaned and put away, comradery takes over and all rivals celebrate each others good fortune and talk about where they will see each other for the next competition.