Delco ‘lumberjill’ continues to dominate timber sports

In a clearing of felled trees and log piles, Martha King stands on a sawdust-covered stage, wielding a heavy ax and a whole lot of power. She draws from her family, her faith, and a lifetime of experience handling sharp objects.

Her biceps help, too. King, 34, is ripped.

She’s eyeing a piece of wood on a Saturday morning in Chadds Ford, swinging the custom ax slowly, like a batter warming up outside the box. Then King turns it on, the blade in and out of the wood in a half-second with loud “thwacks” that echo across the yard. She exhales hard with every hit, and wood chips fly through the air all around her.

“Yeah,” she says without pausing, “this will toughen you up.”

Few lumberjills in the world can work an ax, or a single buck saw, or a chainsaw like King. In July, out in Milwaukee, King won her third U.S. title at the Stihl Timbersports National Women’s Championships. She won the title in 2018 and 2021, too, and last year, won first place at the Timbersports International Women’s Cup in Vienna, Austria. She even chopped wood on the set of Live with Kelly and Mark.

King had little time to celebrate her recent title or even get back to work at Chadds Ford Tree Services, the family business her father founded in 1979. She flew to Australia, to compete in the Ekka Woodchop & Sawing Competition, soon after her victory. She placed first in five events there and was named “champion of champions.” Once home with her hardware, King repacked and drove straight to Boonville, N.Y., for another competition. She’s also chopped wood in France, Germany, and New Zealand.

The New England Cup in Connecticut was next on her schedule. She placed first in two competitions there and third in another.

“I think I’ve traveled about 25,000 miles in the last four weeks,” she says. “It’s just been running and gunning.”

King’s life as a lumberjill began in earnest in 2007 when she enrolled at Penn State’s Mont Alto campus in Franklin County. King, a high school athlete, started competing with Penn State’s woodsmen team, like her father did, and excelled immediately. She won most events she entered and was named the team’s MVP in 2009.

“I didn’t think this could be a life, but I thought it was so cool, a way to keep off the freshman 15,” King said. “The wood chopping stole my heart.”

Beth Brantley, a former Penn State forestry professor, was one of King’s mentors at the school and a coach on the woodsmen team. She said King didn’t need much coaching.

“I think that all I did for Martha was open the door. She was already building self-confidence, already an athlete and highly motivated.”

Rob King said he didn’t pursue lumber competitions after college because he worried about his feet. Competitors have chopped off their toes and often have to wear chain mail armor. Martha King said she’s had some “uncomfortable” calls both in competitions and out in the field, at work. She said chain mail might “help from chopping your foot off, but you’d still break some bones.”

King’s custom axes are from New Zealand and cost anywhere from $600 to $1,000 apiece. They have names like Domino, Dolores, Tass and Little Rock. King’s protective off them and she’ll write notes to the TSA officers at airports, trying to explain her ax boxes: “These are very sharp and very expensive.”

King doesn’t like the gym, doesn’t go, and says she’s never really needed to. Dragging brush and hauling trees for hours is her workout routine.

“Every day at work is a training session, whether I like it or not,” she says between chopping demonstrations. “And when it’s really hot and uncomfortable, I use that moment for mental training.”

There’s no hourglass for King’s competitive life. She said it’s all up to her body and how long it lasts. Competing, she says, doesn’t wear on the body as much as the tree work.

For now, King is in her element, sweating and hacking away at logs, whether it’s alone in a cathedral of timber in the backyard or in front of a large crowd on another continent.

“I’m so glad I don’t sit at a desk,” she says. “I’m so grateful I get to be out here.”