A dull axe is a safe axe

J

JLKII

Joined
Jun 4, 2009
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We all know the old saying that "a dull axe is a safe axe because it won't cut anything." It would appear that the Barco Kelly company has taken this concept to its logical conclusion, and provides their "Perfect" model axe without an edge of any kind whatsoever.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QnIsgflDDLM/TUMqQH7rBHI/AAAAAAAABXg/u_-46Vr0ch0/s1600/002.JPG

This pic is from a review, here
http://woodtrekker.blogspot.com/2011/01/barco-kelly-perfect-axe-review.html

Somehow, I don't think I will be buying one .....
 
Too much work needed to put an edge on this one. What were they thinking?


Ookami
 
I think they are targeting large scale commercial users, who would want to put a specific edge on their axes. It is a lot of work for the average person do. I am not sure how ground the True Temper models were. These days we always get ones that have been worked on by previous users. The one I have has had its edge seriously filed down.

http://woodtrekker.blogspot.com/
 
rg598 said:
I think they are targeting large scale commercial users, who would want to put a specific edge on their axes. It is a lot of work for the average person do. I am not sure how ground the True Temper models were. These days we always get ones that have been worked on by previous users. The one I have has had its edge seriously filed down.

http://woodtrekker.blogspot.com/
Click to expand...

Question. Who are these large scale commercial users?
 
Guys, just keep in mind that there is a difference between a dull axe (due to carelessness of the manufacturer) and an unfinished blank blade. This is not a sharpening error on the part of the manufacturer, it appears to have been intentionally left that way. Obviously it is not intended that one chop with the axe in its current condition.

There still are commercial users of axes. As much as they have stopped being the backbone of the logging industry, they are still in use there. The fact that you can not find these axes in any stores or marketed to homeowners, etc, leads me to think that the average person is not the intended buyer. The axe overall is of very high quality, so the unfinished edge is unlikely to be just an unintended error. Many people work on their axes, and would love the opportunity to put their preferred edge on it. Again, all this is just speculation based on the overall product.

I’ll try to post up the full review today.
 
I always heard it the other way around...A dull axe is a dangerous axe because you don't know what it will end up cutting.
 
are these manufacturers on the meth pipe?

i have half a mind to march into their offices with a SHARP Gransfors Bruk forest axe and show them a thing or two.
 
Whoa!

I read the review and saw the picture and couldn't stop laughing (who would sell an axe without an edge?) so I posted this as a joke. I even made up an "old" saying that is completely and utterly incorrect as part of the sarcasm that I had thought would come through as the tone of the posting.

From some of the responses, it appears that this was missed completely.

The full review, also posted, explains why there is no edge on it, as has rg598 in a couple of his posts. But I am curious as to how he got his sample for his review.

Given all the other good points about this axe, I personally think it is a shame that the manufacturer does not chose to put an edge on it and market it to the public. It would be a nice Made-in-The-USA alternate to the Swedish axes.

So I apologize to those who thought it was a serious post. Next time, I promise to use [/sarcasm on/off] tags!
 
Bushman5 said:
are these manufacturers on the meth pipe?

i have half a mind to march into their offices with a SHARP Gransfors Bruk forest axe and show them a thing or two.
Click to expand...

It is a shame that they don't sell a more user friendly axe. I don't know about their other ones, but this one is made the way they used to make them during the golden age of axes. From what I have been able to find out, back then axes were not sold sharpened. The end user was the one who put on the edge that they wanted. These days the average person has lost the skill to do that, making this design hard to market. It's a shame because I strongly believe that any serious axe user should have the ability to take a dull axe and turn it into a sharp one.

Having to rely on a sharp factory made axe in my opinion is a crutch, and creates problems if the axe is to be actually used in a serious way. Any axe will get dull if used. Fortunately, most axe users these days use their axes so sporadically, that an axe that has been sharpened in the factory will probably never be re-sharpened during its life. Perhaps that is why we have lost the skill and have to rely on someone in a factory to sharpen our tools.

We often talk about how great axes were in the good ol’ days. It is interesting to see that many people would have considered them garbage because they were not already sharpened for them. I always found it silly that these days tools are judged by how well someone else has sharpened them, especially since they are tools designed to be sharpened again and again over their life (if actually used).

http://woodtrekker.blogspot.com/
 
rg598 said:
this one is made the way they used to make them during the golden age of axes. From what I have been able to find out, back then axes were not sold sharpened. The end user was the one who put on the edge that they wanted. http://woodtrekker.blogspot.com/
Click to expand...

It's also interesting to note that in those days, most, if not almost all, axes were sold without handles.

The practice was for the purchaser to hang their own on the bare head they had purchased, the handle more likely as not being made from scratch to their design and desires. No axe company would waste time making and marketing handles, as users would not buy them, and there are pics of boxes being shipped containing nothing but one or two dozen axe heads.

It's also interesting to note the tremendous variety in the design of the axe blades being sold. One company offered over 300 patterns in the mid-19th century, and as late as the 1960s, Mann still offered some 70 in their catalog, with about 20 being the most popular. These variations arose from regional differences, with the designers trying to produce a shape suited to the logging conditions and types of wood in that area, with the skills of those making them, as well as the intended use: there were specialized styles for ice-breaking, for making shakes, for harvesting, and so forth. There are pictures of some of these styles, here

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/Fspubs/99232823/page05.htm

The trend seemed to begin in the 1920s or so towards a standardized pattern, and I wonder if the chain saw had not come along that basically killed off axe use, what this evolution would have produced, particularly with the rise of ergonomics in designing tools.
 
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JLKII said:
It's also interesting to note that in those days, most, if not almost all, axes were sold without handles.

The practice was for the purchaser to hang their own on the bare head they had purchased, the handle more likely as not being made from scratch to their design and desires. No axe company would waste time making and marketing handles, as users would not buy them, and there are pics of boxes being shipped containing nothing but one or two dozen axe heads.

It's also interesting to note the tremendous variety in the design of the axe blades being sold. One company offered over 300 patterns in the mid-19th century, and as late as the 1960s, Mann still offered some 70 in their catalog, with about 20 being the most popular. These variations arose from regional differences, with the designers trying to produce a shape suited to the logging conditions and types of wood in that area, with the skills of those making them, as well as the intended use: there were specialized styles for ice-breaking, for making shakes, for harvesting, and so forth. There are pictures of some of these styles, here

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/Fspubs/99232823/page05.htm

The trend seemed to begin in the 1920s or so towards a standardized pattern, and I wonder if the chain saw had not come along that basically killed off axe use, what this evolution would have produced, particularly with the rise of ergonomics in designing tools.
Click to expand...


That's very interesting about the handles. I did not know that. Thanks.
 
rg598 said:
That's very interesting about the handles. I did not know that. Thanks.
Click to expand...

From as near as I can gather, handles on axes became popular in the 1920s. I don't know why, but I wonder if it had something to do with the invention of a lathe that could make more than one at a time.

Nowdays, there's almost no choice in the weight of the axe. Almost any store selling an axe will offer a 3.5 lb felling axe but nothing else, and even the prominant manufacturers like Gransfor Bruks and Wetterlings offer only one weight of any given model. The only source I know for multiple weights is Council Tools, an American company, that offers these on different pattern blades. See http://www.counciltool.com/DisplayCategories.asp?pg=displaycategories&category=10

Contrast this with what one author mentioned that when he was first buying an axe in the 1930s in a very small New England town, his local hardware store had three patterns in three or four weights each. (Unfortunately, he fell into the "bigger is better" syndrome and bought one too heavy, which took him a year to unlearn and buy a lighter one. I wonder how many people buying that 3.5 lb felling axe would chop better with a 3 lb one if they could get it?)
 
I may have gestimated wrong about the date of axes being sold with handles.

Reading since I posted this showed me that there were lathes for making axe handles being invented in the mid-1880s, so I would assume that the practice of selling axes with handles probably dates to 1890-1900.
 
Joezilla said:
you can request a tuahati like that too. Interestin
http://www.tuatahiaxes.com/racingaxes.html
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Yeah, with racing axes that is even more important. I know people spend days measuring angles and filing to get the perfect edge on their racing axe.

That is not to say that for the average person the fact that an axe is not finished should not be an important consideration. I completely understand that a person may not want to spend hours putting an edge on an axe. It is a very valid consideration. My point was only that the fact that an axe is offered unfinished does not make it a bad or low quality axe. It may not be the right axe for everyone, but does not reflect on the quality of the axe. Just like the fact that I don't like Jersey pattern axes, does not make them bad axes, it just means that they are not right for me.

http://woodtrekker.blogspot.com/
 
JLKII said:
We all know the old saying that "a dull axe is a safe axe because it won't cut anything." It would appear that the Barco Kelly company has taken this concept to its logical conclusion, and provides their "Perfect" model axe without an edge of any kind whatsoever.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QnIsgflDDLM/TUMqQH7rBHI/AAAAAAAABXg/u_-46Vr0ch0/s1600/002.JPG

This pic is from a review, here
http://woodtrekker.blogspot.com/2011/01/barco-kelly-perfect-axe-review.html

Somehow, I don't think I will be buying one .....
Click to expand...

The information that he presents on the Kelly Axe and its history is not quite accurate.

However, if it came to him with a loose head, then, well, thats a problem. I big problem.
 
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