-

Come on Garry, tell us the truth. Don't you go every saturday afternoon at the barbershop to take care of your long stylish beard and have a talk about GB hatchets?

Dan.[/QUOTE]
Impossible, I can't grow a beard or maybe I would. :D

I didn't even know what a hipster was until my son in law explained it to me about five years ago...

Canadian lumberjack accidentally voted Portland’s ‘Hipster of the Year
https://www.the-postillon.com/2018/04/canadian-lumberjack-hipster.html
 
garry3 said:
I didn't even know what a hipster was until my son in law explained it to me about five years ago.
Click to expand...

The funny is that's my son who described me what a hipster is! Stylish beard and a haveyouseenmyhat on the head. I don't remember having seen a one ; we all are bumpkins here.

Dan.
 
dantzk8 said:
The funny is that's my son who described me what a hipster is! Stylish beard and a haveyouseenmyhat on the head. I don't remember having seen a one ; we all are bumpkins here.

Dan.
Click to expand...
Ya, still not really sure what one is but I think maybe my daughter married one. Can't drive a standard, my daughter is the only one of the two that can parallel park and I'm not sure he can change a flat tire but he can probably tell me how.
Typical conversation between me and my wife..

Me; Why's he got a bennie on when it is a hundred degrees out?
wife; It's just the style.
me; That's if'en dumb.
wife; Now you remember how how older people used to talk about your long hair when you were young.
me; Yep, he's an idiot, chuckle. :D
 
Garry,a good point(i also admire your lack of fear in troll-feeding:).
I'd like to enlarge on this minor point a bit further,more specifically by a factor of 2(so a 1000,vs 10 years).
This attitude-
Hickory n steel said:
Especially compared to those ugly overpriced swedish boutique axes, that's one glass of kool-aid I refuse to drink ;)
Click to expand...
-is utterly misguided,rooted in plain ignorance of history of tool usage.

Swedish(most Scandihoovian)axes have to do not with "hipsters",but with Hydrodynamics.
Here's a more famous example,dating to AD 830-ies(i think).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oseberg_Ship#/media/File:Le_bateau_viking_dOseberg_(4836398163).jpg

I realize this thread is to have fun with our troll,(nothing wrong with that if you've a hankering And patience for it:),'cos comparing different axes is more or less asinine to begin with.
However,comparing Norse-type carpenter's axes and a millenium-later felling ones from a different continent must be an epitome of asinine!:)
 
Furthermore,in the interest of calling a spade a spade here,a brief glance into economics:
US has began as a community of Protestant,even Puritan folks.Traditionally,for this and many other reasons as well wastefullness,profligacy,is quite a sin...(and so it should be in any normal society,wastefulness Is gross...).
However,lets not forget that a number of Very special circumstances has aligned to where today a VERY(arguably-the best Ever)axe can be had for 10 bucks.
It (the Golden Age of American tool-manufacturing)had to do in part with some aspects of history that we'd all prefer to not remember,like the wages and working conditions in the industry of the day and on and on(it isn't this immigrant's place to lecture on US history).

But really,gentlemen,if you think a couple hundred bucks for an axe is astronomical,i'd love to invite any and all of you to my forge...
Hickory n Steel,i think maybe you do construction work for a living?Well,divide $200 into your hourly wage,and put your hand to forging an axe from scratch...I guarantee you that when you reach than number of hours your forging will still be Very far from anything even Remotely recognizable as an axe-head!:)...
Darn it,too bad i live so far away...we really Could do this...
 
Well,the trouble with comparing dissimilar tools is kinda obvious...they simply don't share a purpose....They lack a common denominator...

Hard to compare a screwdriver with a 5/8 socket,say...they're both tools,but...

An "axe" is a pretty broad concept,and to really compare one needs to settle on a single chore,like felling or hewing...
And a specifically-purposed tool,from a material culture removed from ours by centuries and continents...
Ja,you can,have a Stavkirke building competition using Plumb Victory or the like:)...Och ja...
 
jake pogg said:
-is utterly misguided,rooted in plain ignorance of history of tool usage.

Swedish(most Scandihoovian)axes have to do not with "hipsters",but with Hydrodynamics.
Here's a more famous example,dating to AD 830-ies(i think).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oseberg_Ship#/media/File:Le_bateau_viking_dOseberg_(4836398163).jpg
Click to expand...

I was not referring to hipsters at all.
They're just expensive, and in my eyes ugly.
They seem to most often be purchased by the Bushcraft crowd, and put on a pedestal
 
There is more than a little prejudice at work here if we are going to call a spade a spade Jake. Would we be having this discussion if these Swedish axes were made in Merica? No we wouldn't be. If some one doesn't like a particular axe and has a valid reason OK, but to make blanket statements? Well that don't hold much water.
I like my vintage American stuff as much as anyone but I like my GB hatchets too. There is a lot of vintage steel out there that is to soft for my taste. I like my hatchets on the hard side and it takes an exceptional vintage hatchet to take or hold an edge as well. Someone should come a long at any minute now and tell me how how GB's steel is just plain 1055 and nothing special like they really know.
Wait for it.......
 
droppoint1 said:
I'm your huckleberry.

"Gransfors steel :
''Our steel is a special axe steel. No one can buy it at the market, it has no SS or SIS sign. The nearest you can come to our steel are steel for tools. It is C (0,55%)'' Anna-Karin Pettersson at Gransfors

It does not have a grade number, it is a proprietary steel made for them. Most likely 1144 steel from Uddeholm. It is a plain carbon steel very close to 1055 or EN9, for sure 0.55% Carbon.

Gransfors Bruks gives their heat treatment information, including a quench in cold running water and tempering to a hardness of 57 RC:

After the forging and the first step of sharpening the edge, the blade is hardened by warming it to 1508°F, followed by a quick cooling in cold running water.
Then the axe head is tempered: kept for 60 minutes in an oven that is 383°F.
This relieves the stress in the steel, built up by the forging and tempering processes and gives the bit
the desired hardness and toughness. The hardness of the bit is measured at 57 Rockwell C.
Click to expand...
Your no hucklberry.
"Gränsfors Bruk uses steel from Ovako that derives entirely from recycled scrap. The scrap is sorted into different grades and the steelworks uses a mix of these for the steel that it produces. Like all industrial processes, manufacturing steel affects the environment. Gränsfors Bruk chose to work with Ovako for good reason. As one of Europe’s largest, and indeed leading, steelworks, Ovako has a strong commitment to the environment and invests much of its resources in product development, process development and recycling, in order to have as little impact on the environment as possible."

I have seen some rumors that the slightly modified steel element is Boron. I kind of think that rumor might have some legs.
 
droppoint1 said:
I am fully aware that Swedish steel was blessed by the Norse gods themselves, which bestowed magical properties to the steel.
Click to expand...

Swedish steel WAS blessed by Sweden's latitude,and poverty of natural resources,so way later than anyone else they produced it using wood charcoal.
Charcoal,unlike mineral coal, does not contaminate steel by nasty elements such as S and P especially....
But also,because of Sweden's economic constraints,it was Cheap...
These two factors combined into a pretty well irresistable combination...For the better part of 19th c. in US "swedish steel" meant primo stuff...and later too,in a way of momentum-like...
 
Hickory n steel said:
I was not referring to hipsters at all.
Click to expand...

No,but you applied the term "boutique" to those axes,which is simply not true.
Hickory n steel said:
They're just expensive, and in my eyes ugly.
Click to expand...
Again,What's "expensive"?...Are you,being very good at your trade,"expensive"?...Should i go down to a local soup-kitchen and see if there's a bum i can hire for less?
Do you deserve to make a living wage,to be rewarded for something you do well,and consistently,et c.?
(i understand it's `a philosophical point,but just think about it).
GB and others have resurrected a historic enterprise,and re-started a manufacture of quality,specialized old regional tools...
What matters it to thee or me who they've found their market among?...It was an honorable, laudable deed by any standards practiced in the more civilized parts of our world...
 
To me the real boutique axes are the ones that are just different stamps and have "hand painted in New York City" hafts. Am I allowed to call out Best Made Co. for being nothing but a branding ruse?

I do think it costs more to make a living wage and a globally distributed, quality product than many people realize. And bottom line, people are paying the prices. If I were a painter, or singer, or accountant, or lawyer, etc., I'd have to be crazy to not take more money if my services became known as desirable and demanded more! So we have Kylie Jenner as a billionaire. And suddenly a new hand forged ax that costs a couple hundred seems to make more sense. It's not the craziest thing going on these days. And it highlights that even quite expensive vintage USA axes are still a deal.
 
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