Anyone Else?

[EngrSorenson]

What’s crazy is that I always warm my axe heads in my coat when conditions are icy, so I must have realized steel becomes brittle, but I never would have guessed an Eswing would separate from its handle due to the cold.

I learned something today: you Alaska dwellers are nuts.

 

[jake pogg]

Well at least a lot of places that are cold like that there are no more trees left. Problem solved.

Don't scare me like that,man,i've got to go logging here forthwith!

Just kidding,Alaska(and many other very cold places) is Very well forested. Trees don't mind the cold.

Actually quite the opposite: Alaska is warming up very rapidly,which means that the underlying permafrost is melting.
As it melts the available moisture absorbs deeper,becoming less available to trees.All of Alaska's species of trees are suffering from that,the lack of moisture affects their immunity to many pests and diseases. (Warming climate was a god-sent to a number of species of bark beetles,the cold used to keep them down).
So it's actually the warming trend that is hurting Alaska's trees. Biologists agree that in about the next +/- 50 000 years Alaska will be back to the treeless savannah that it was in early Pleistocene. (i already look forward to hunting the giant sloth).

 

[Danke42]

Don't scare me like that,man,i've got to go logging here forthwith!

Just kidding,Alaska(and many other very cold places) is Very well forested. Trees don't mind the cold.

Actually quite the opposite: Alaska is warming up very rapidly,which means that the underlying permafrost is melting.
As it melts the available moisture absorbs deeper,becoming less available to trees.All of Alaska's species of trees are suffering from that,the lack of moisture affects their immunity to many pests and diseases. (Warming climate was a god-sent to a number of species of bark beetles,the cold used to keep them down).
So it's actually the warming trend that is hurting Alaska's trees. Biologists agree that in about the next +/- 50 000 years Alaska will be back to the treeless savannah that it was in early Pleistocene. (i already look forward to hunting the giant sloth).

True, I'm more of a tundra guy when it comes to wanting to go somewhere cold.

 

[Brent Halverson]

I know someone who tried to clear snowmobile trails with an Estwing axe up here in the frozen north, and it's handle did break. I looked at it and I attribute the breakage to a rust pit on the leading edge of the handle that created a stress riser and let a crack form. Steel is strong stuff, but it is well known that if it is high-carbon and is flexing, it has to be finished well or it will crack and fail. This is why the valve springs in automobile engines are shot-peened, a process that eliminates stress-risers on the surface of the spring, and it helps them work hundreds or thousands of times longer than springs with unfinished surfaces.

 

[sodak]

Leonard Lee, in his book, talks about his dad and himself sitting on axe heads to warm them up as they drove (in a horse drawn sleigh) to the site where they would be cutting. His Uncle didn't and broke the head on a brand new axe.

 

[Plainsman]

On Friday, I saw -38° Fahrenheit on the pickup thermometer on the way to work about 25 miles west of Grand Forks. I dont even want to think about what the windchill would’ve been as even a little breeze brings that down greatly!

 

[cyc79]

I've used the Estwing camper axe in temperatures in the low -40's with no issues but when I used to work as a carpenter I did see the head of a Estwing framing hammer go flying off when nailing in the minus thirties. Cold definitely makes steel more brittle but metal fatigue or a less than perfect heat treat could be at play as well.