OXFORD — Forty-four contestants chopped, sawed and rolled logs for hours Friday, vying for cash prizes and bragging rights at the annual Woodsmen’s Day at the Oxford County Fair. 

Competitors from across New England and Canada showed off their prowess with a variety of tools — from rolling picks and hand axes to customized, super-powered chain saws.

In teams and singly, the men and women sent wood chips flying as they blazed through eight-inch-thick beams donated by Hancock Lumber.

The displays generated cheers and applause from a modest crowd of spectators who turned out despite periods of showers through the morning and afternoon. 

Organizer David Billings of Otisfield, who has decades of experience with woodsmen’s competitions, said he was impressed by the turnout. The event usually attracts 15 to 20 contestants, he said. 

Most of the competitors were familiar faces to Billings and one another.

“I’d say about 90 percent of the people here are the same ones I see every weekend,” said Mark Reed of Raynham, Mass.

Reed, his wife, Tara, and son, Tim, spend the summer going to woodsmen competitions across the Northeast and as far south as Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

The sport was a family activity, Reed said. He was trained by his father when he was young and, about four years ago, he and Tara took the sport up again. Two years ago, Tim, now 16 years old, took up the sport and started going to competitions with his parents. 

Jerry Gingras of Errol, N.H., didn’t have his family with him Friday, but said he and his wife, Katy, usually performed in competitions across the eastern U.S. 

Gingras, who has been into competitive woodcraft for about 32 years, attends around 28 to 30 events each season and has 12 championships under his belt.

His sponsorship from Laverdiere’s clothing stores and prize money he wins allows him to break even at the competition, he said. 

“You won’t get rich, but you can make it pay for itself,” he said. 

His two daughters, ages 7 and 10, were just now getting a taste for the sport, he said. 

Some contestants had been in the game even longer. 

Bob Doyle, a 73-year-old arborist from Winthrop, said he had competing for about 40 years. He was speaking after barely missing a pin with a staged tree he’d felled with his hand axe.

Doyle, who received his first chain saw when he was 12 and got paid for his first tree work almost 70 years ago, said he still regularly climbs trees to cut down branches and do other work. 

He said he didn’t plan to stop working with his ax and saw anytime soon. 

[email protected]