Axe...How sharp?

300Six said:
Back in my energetic youth I proudly brought out a very sharp chopping axe for splitting some elm firewood. It sliced beautifully into the wood and got thoroughly stuck every time. Rather than get smart and switch over to a duller axe (they don't go in so far to get stuck as easily) I ultimately managed to bury the head without causing the wood to part at all. We had to use a chain saw to retrieve it. You really don't want a splitting axe that easily 'cuts' into ornery pieces of wood, you want to maximize the wedging action in order to force rounds to 'split' apart.

Is was around this same time that I used a compressor-driven concrete breaker at work. The bits for these were always blunt/dulled to the extreme so I sharpened one up with a grinder one day. I figured it would go through concrete like gangbusters as a result. Rather, the concrete didn't break away, it immediately 'swallowed' the bit and we couldn't get it out! That was the one and only time I ever tried sharpening concrete breaker bits and when I realized that there is quite a difference between 'cutting' things and 'splitting' things.
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As has been pointed out--its not primarily the sharp edge that made it stick but the slim profile. I agree if you have a slim profile and you sharpen the axe it will make it get stuck more deeply. A splitting axe should either have a steep ramp or a high center to prevent binding. If you have the proper profile, then sharp is better. If you have to use slim a profile then blunter will help prevent sticking but you still won't have an efficient splitter.
 
Just gonna add to the yes sharp crowd. For dead standing wood, what we mostly cut for my wood furnace, I split with an axe, and I make "fuel" sized splits every day, usually multiple times a day to heat the house. Mauls may maul wood, and use force and massive wedging to split, but your axe can be any number of patterns, some specifically designed to chop, not split. Anyway, I have found time and time again, that my axes will split just fine for my day-to-day fuel wood processing and when it doesn't split, it cuts through. I find smoothly cut wood in my splits occasionally where it was twisted or gnarly which would have stopped the axe dead in its tracks if it weren't sharp. Plus, that tool is good for many other tasks as well when it's kept sharp. I think this is why some variant of a somewhat cheeky, 3lb-ish Michigan pattern axe is/was popular - it's pretty multi-purpose.
 
What we can all agree on is: better that an axe is too sharp than too dull. And you don't want to use a thin cheeked Euro chopping axe (whether sharp or dull) for splitting wood.
 
300Six said:
What we can all agree on is: better that an axe is too sharp than too dull. And you don't want to use a thin cheeked Euro chopping axe (whether sharp or dull) for splitting wood.
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I think so. I also think it's worth looking at splitting as green rounds vs dry firewood.
 
In general, splitting with a thin-bitted axe of any pattern isn't going to work so hot unless you use the twist-splitting method (which is totally doable.) But in American and Europe alike they made dedicated splitting axes and mauls, so tool selection is tool selection. :D
 
Okay..., I want to ask you guys a new question without starting a another thread.

This is a Michigan pattern with a 3.5lb head and a total length of 34.5". The curved handle measures 31.75". I haven't used it much but did take it out for a few swings. I noticed that when I choke up on the handle a bit I feel more natural, comfortable and in control. I'm tempted to take 2.25" from the handle leaving it at 29.5". Is this unheard of in the axe world? I'm 6' tall and 250lbs. Should I man up, leave it alone, and try to get used to the length?
 
Order you a shorter handle. I don't have much use for the 36" haft myself. Use what feels right.
 
garry3 said:
Order you a shorter handle. I don't have much use for the 36" haft myself. Use what feels right.
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I agree. I actually think your inseam, which somehow corresponds to your body structure, helps with deciding handle length - at what point your body bends (splitting happens in your hips), how far you are from the ground, all or none of that sort of thing. It all corresponds to the height of the block you split on too. I like knee-height. Shorter blocks screw me all up and with a long handle I just about have to split on the ground. There is a point, in that moment before the axe meets the wood, where your body stops working and you "throw" the axe head through the wood - somehow the length of the handle and that point have to work together. Cutting the handle is of course an option, but you lose the swell. In that last moment that I mentioned, you are not exerting force on the handle or holding it tightly at all. The swell makes the magic happen.

Now, this is my own brand of mumbo jumbo so I have a vested interest in selling it. I have used all lengths and there comes a point where you can pick up an axe and swing it effectively regardless of its length, but there is also a point where what feels right is more important. This may be the point where you turn to the dark side and become an axe enthusiast rather than an axe user. Or could it be that we are actually Jedi converting others from the dark side? I haven't mastered the lightening thing myself.

ETA: when we say handle length, we are talking about the total length of the tool (as a general statement) and the original length of the handle prior to hanging .... as another general statement.
 
Prompted by a discussion on this site I elected to re-profile my big box store splitting maul. I found that it did split easier than before.





As for my choppers, I like an edge that I can shave off my arm hair with. I'm more particular about this on my smaller axes; my HBs and hatchets as they are more likely to be used for slicing and shaving and other fine work. (I recall a quote from a Dan Beard book where he noted that the pencil he was using to write his passage on axes had been sharpened by his axe.)
 
cityofthesouth said:
I agree. I actually think your inseam, which somehow corresponds to your body structure, helps with deciding handle length - at what point your body bends (splitting happens in your hips), how far you are from the ground, all or none of that sort of thing. It all corresponds to the height of the block you split on too. I like knee-height. Shorter blocks screw me all up and with a long handle I just about have to split on the ground. There is a point, in that moment before the axe meets the wood, where your body stops working and you "throw" the axe head through the wood - somehow the length of the handle and that point have to work together. Cutting the handle is of course an option, but you lose the swell. In that last moment that I mentioned, you are not exerting force on the handle or holding it tightly at all. The swell makes the magic happen.

Now, this is my own brand of mumbo jumbo so I have a vested interest in selling it. I have used all lengths and there comes a point where you can pick up an axe and swing it effectively regardless of its length, but there is also a point where what feels right is more important. This may be the point where you turn to the dark side and become an axe enthusiast rather than an axe user. Or could it be that we are actually Jedi converting others from the dark side? I haven't mastered the lightening thing myself.

ETA: when we say handle length, we are talking about the total length of the tool (as a general statement) and the original length of the handle prior to hanging .... as another general statement.
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I've also found that handle lengths based on body measurements to be most comfortable. It seems as though any combination of the various bones of the body arrives at something of a sweet spot length for interfacing nicely with the tool.
 
quinton said:
Yep, that's it. The honey is sweet, the wood is gnarly!
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I believe the grain is interlaced like ironwood (carpinus caroliniana), making it a monster to split. I used to run across a log or two when i was younger. I would hit it and the axe would just bounce right off. I'm thinking those were tupelos.
 
Alocksly said:
Prompted by a discussion on this site I elected to re-profile my big box store splitting maul. I found that it did split easier than before.
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Beautiful job of that! Angle at the tip was too steep before. I am trying to imagine how long it would have taken to reprofile like you did had you only been able to use an axe file. Took me forever to do exactly what you did but on a steel splitting wedge with a similarly steep-angled tip using a portable grinder. When they're too steep they don't want to 'stick' and often they 'bounce out'.
 
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