Axe Profiling Help

C

Crazyotter

Joined
Jun 26, 2010
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334
Can anyone give me some advice here? All these pictures of CT's Velvicut Hudson Bay and BMC's Hudson Bay got me thinking on how to get my paws on a nice hudson bay. Two dollars, ten hours, and around a pint of blood later I'm stuck. I cut / ground this out from a 3 pound 14 ounce yard sale axe (its 2 pounds 6 ounces now...), but half way through I realized the axe was way thicker than I thought. I'm tempted to try and hollow out the cheeks and sharpen the bit properly for a soft wood axe, but traditionally, aren't the hudson bays supposed to be geared more towards splitting? Advice please? :)

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Also, check out the eye. Its going to be funny trying to handle that with a 28'' straight handle. :)
 
That's an awesome creation. If you've spent ten hours on it you might as well spend a few more and make it exactly how you want it. Looks like you've got the tools, the skill and the determination to do pretty much anything you want. I'd hollow the cheeks and sharpen it since it will probably never be a really effective splitter anyway.
 
Man, you crazy! That's pretty awesome. I'd hollow them some if it were me.

What did you grind that with????

Also, my observation would be that the Hudson Bay was intended to be a good all around axe. Not necessarily a dedicated splitter. It seems to me like the very thick, wedge shaped HB's have shorter beards. So maybe those were geared more toward splitting. Just an observation, not much else to back that up.
 
Awesome, if it won't be a good splitter I guess my Monday is booked reprofiling. All I'm going to say is I'm sooo glad I have a carhartt suit. Time to find some 60 grit sanding wheels.

And M3mphis, I used a 4'' angle grinder with cut off wheels, a standard bench grinder, files, and about 10 buckets of snow.
 
Nice job. Just for fun-do you know how many cut off wheels you burned through???
 
Heh... I started with crappy cut off wheels, and cut this out in two steps, removing an inch per step, to keep it controlled. Only wound up 2/16th of an inch off my line that way, not good but I was losing fine motor control skills to the cold. The total was 4 crappy cut off wheels worn to nothing, and 3 broken crappy cut off wheels on the first cut. Then I got three good cut off wheels for the last cut, and only used one. It didn't help though using the wheels in 20 degree weather, I swear it made them brittle.
 
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You don't need to do much re-profiling.. A lot of people think a thin edge is for chopping and a thick edge is for splitting, but its not that simple. Most of the work should be done on the first inch and a half or two inches back from the edge, you want a gradual transition from thin to thick so as to throw the chip. I have used thin axes in soft woods and they do not throw as well as a thicker bit, reason being they bite deeper but lack the cheekyness to pop the chip and do not regulate well in that they bite off "more than they can chew" (severs fibers but does not pop the chip). I have an old homestead Phila-Jersey pattern that is crazy thin, main use for that is cutting felling notches when I put an under cut in with a crosscut. about 4 swipes and the tree is notched. But without that undercut the wood is far more resilient and you really want some more cheek to the axe for the best results.

Hopefully I didn't just talk myself in circles there, thinkin aint my strong suit :p
 
No, I understand what your getting at. It makes perfect sense. Especially since soft wood is more pliable.
 
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It would be cool to try to shape in a high centerline by only hollowing the top and bottom but not through the center....
 
Hmmm, theoretically though, wouldn't that decrease performance compared to hollowing the whole cheek? After the wood bends in from the force of the blow, cuts, and "springs" back the bit is past the spring effect and if the cheek is hollow, the spring won't stop the axe? Whereas if the center of the cheeks isn't hollow the spring will have something to grab onto?

Am I thinking too much in terms of racing axes?

Theres a really good profiling guide that follows G-pig's logic on woodtrekker, that ties in with my spring theory. And explains it much better. Guest Post: How to reprofile axes...

Edit: I over thought that and get what you mean now. That would be cool and unique, having a hudson bay with phantom bevels. I think thats outside of my skill range though.
 
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I am pretty sure Phantom bevels make no real difference aside from looking pretty BA. they are too far back up the cheek to really come into play. Having the high centerline in a properly filed and shaped axe makes more of a difference in my book.

I just re-read that re-profiling article by sam the axe dood. Not sure I totally agree with it. There "should" be a mid blade hollow on most axes, but in most situations the axe doesn't bite deep enough for that to come into play much. I have some axes that don't have hardly any hollow that cut pretty good, and I have some with quite a bit that also cut good. Goes over my head.
 
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Ok, I was way off. That was an excellent read, lots of big words but half an hour later I have a lot more to think about and mull over. I know one thing though, the only way I'm going to get a decent opinion is to get out in the woods more! Ty very much for posting that.
 
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