It’s a sport done in jeans and T-shirts. And with chainmail shin guards, saws and axes, too. The 36th annual Woodsmen Contest took place on Saturday at the Agricultural Fair, and it was the event’s largest year ever, with over 50 competitors traveling from all over Massachusetts, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire, plus a few hometown participants.

Many at the fair had never witnessed a woodsmen competition before, and terms like “cookies” and “springboards” seemed somewhat out of place. But as the day progressed and the men and women tested their lumberjacking skills, the audience at the pulling ring got a feel for both the modern sport and the woodsy roots where it began.

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Dave Grime from Rochester is king of the disc stack technique. — Ray Ewing

The competition began at 11:30 a.m. with the disc stack, an event requiring competitors to make horizontal cuts in an upright log. Each cut, or cookie, remains stacked on a pile as the woodsman makes more and more cuts. The event ends in one of two ways — a lumberjack makes a satisfactory stack or the precarious stack tumbles. Participants roared forth, chainsaws blazing, and the cookies seemed to be everywhere, either stacked in teetering towers or scattered about the boots of disheartened lumberjacks. Hometown favorite Vincent Maciel had one of the best showings and the Vineyard crowd roared even louder than the chainsaws.

At the axe toss, axmen let their axes fly at a bullseye affixed with a soda can. It was easy to tell when the thrower made a hit — the soda can had been shaken and the contents sprayed as if, well, hit with an axe. The first competitor of the day struck the bull’s eye on his third toss.

The crowd favorite was almost indisputably the springboard chop. In heats of three, competitors hack at a nine-foot-tall tree stump, wedging springboards — long pieces of plywood — into their cuts and then jump up to use these springboards as standing platforms for higher cuts. Atop the second springboard, they chop apart a final log.

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Brenda Gingras and Heather Maciel are dynamic duo with a crosscut saw. — Ray Ewing

Competitor Devin (Merk) Merkley said the springboard chop is his favorite event because it favors precision over strength.

“I’m an accurate cutter, not necessarily powerful,” he said. Plus, it’s thrilling. “You’re up there swinging a six-pound axe, and it really feels like the board is about to fall.”

It took the top finishers under two minutes to complete the event, as their springboards sagged and threatened to dump the axe-wielders back to the ground.

Mr. Merkley helped start a woodsmen club at the State University of New York at Cobleskill, where he attended college. Newly graduated and still fairly new to the sport, Mr. Merkley said the key to success in woodsmen competitions is watching and listening to the more experienced athletes.

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Wielding an axe in the woodsman’s competition. — Ray Ewing

“Chances are there’s going to be someone better and more experienced than you in the group. You’re cheating yourself if you don’t take advantage of watching people like that,” he said. And Mr. Merkley can easily spot the more experienced challengers, they’re the ones with the most confidence, and confidence is vital in events involving six-pound axes and five-foot-long saws.

Other events included the partner cross cut, the single buck cut and the first-ever chainsaw relay. The competition ended late in the afternoon. With sawdust and splinters covering their jeans and T-shirts, the visiting woodsmen and women exited the ring to enjoy the gentler fair exhibits.