About 10 senior members of the 30-person team were filmed for the segment.

special GEAR

After reducing a three-foot stump to splinters in barely 20 seconds, Curt Karboski, 20, who is from Parish, rolled back his Carhartt pant legs, revealing a protective layer of chain mail.

The cameras zoomed in.

"This one is from a fireplace screen," he said of the shin mail, "I made it myself."

Karboski held the ax blade close to the lens.

"Have you ever shaved with that?" film director Steve Durgin asked.

"I have," Karboski said.

The racing ax is a special piece of equipment, explains team coach Kevin Ransom, evolved from the early hand-pounded iron blades that felled the forests of North America.

Ransom, a graduate of SUNY Environmental Sciences and Forestry College, grew up in Saranac Lake.

"Curt (Karboski) qualified for the Steel Collegiate series," Ransom said of earlier fame.

Being filmed for national television did create a few jitters, he said.

"This is kind of like being in a professional meet. It's nerves. They're seeing a different aspect of the sport."

And lumbering sports have become hugely popular in recent years, he said, moving out of the woods into mainstream.

"There is an element of danger to it. But from an academic perspective, it's moving away from the bad old days, when logging was seen as contrary to good environmental policy," Ransom said. "This has made it out of the woods."