Axe reprofiled

markhait

markhait

Joined
Jan 14, 2007
Messages
297
After reading MANY posts about re profiling an axe head, I finally got off my butt and did it!

First, I took it to my bench grinder with a fine white wheel. It worked pretty good, but way to slow for me.
Next, I took it to my belt sander. It did a pretty good job, but kind of too slow also.
Lastly...kind of...I took it to work and started to work it on our 24" disk sander.
Pretty cool. We have 2 side by side and I had one go clockwise and the other counterclockwise. That way I could grind from side to side and keep the sparks away from my face.
head.jpg


I then took it home and wanted to clean it up a bit. I still have work to do, but I'm pretty happy with it up to this point. First, I tried it on a buffing wheel on my bench grinder. My scratches were too deep to get them out.
I then took it to my belt sander, which did a pretty good job, but still left some scratches behind.
Lately, I took out my most favorite tool...Porter Cable Random Orbit sander.
This did a great job of cleaning up the scratches, but now I can see areas that I need to clean up more.

Check out the profile below.
edge.jpg


I cant believe how easily it was to do and how much more sharper I can get it. I could actually shave arm hair with it! I never thought I'd be able to do something like that with an axe!

What I really like about it, is the way I can shave sticks with it. I know it can chop, but being able to make shavings with it, really tells me how fine the edge is and how sharp too.

Oh yes....by the way its a Craftsman. I have a GB and a Wetterlings, but I hate to use them around the house for day to day tasks.
This way I figured, that if I accidentally burned the edge or ground it wrong, I could exchange it for a new one. Heck, for $15 you can't go wrong!
 
Amazng work! I bet the cutting efficiency is close to that of some GB's!
 
Some nice work there man. You will find that super handy now. I don't know why most companies make the edge about 5X thicker than it should be.
 
I bought a cheapo $10 china-special hatchet from Wal-Mart a few years ago. The out-of-factory grind was at least a good 90 degrees. Recently I found it lying around oxidizing in the ol’ garage, I spent a few minutes on a belt grinder, it now has a nice acute edge, I used my GB Wildlife Hatchet as a guide for how thin I should go, makes for a perfect beater hatchet for everything that I wouldn't dream of using anything else on! With its heavier head, longer handle and new edge it will out chop the GB! Too heavy for backpacking though, I'd rather have my Small Forest Axe.
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How sharp should a hatchet be? I have a cheap Chinese thing to practice on. Can I take a diamond stone and hand grind a sharp convex edge on one?
 
I love Craftsman tools and some of the things they come up with are truly innovative. This axe I just re profiled though wasn't one of them. It probably had a grind of 30 degrees per side!
What prompted me to finally re profile it was this:
I had to babysit my brothers kids while they were on spring break, only 2 days.
Anyway..my niece is 13 and is quite a tom boy. I mean I have NEVER met another young girl like her who is more boy :-)
She was outside of my house and we live in the country. We have a pond and are surrounded by woods, although its all private property.
Anyway, she want to make a spear and try to spear some frogs at the pond.
I went out into the garage to find to my horror....she was sharpening her spear with my Wetterlings!!!!!
I said no way! I gave her my trusty Craftsman, but she said she tried it and couldn't sharpen the stick. O come on now....she's just a girl..I grabbed the stick to show her how its done and found out that she was right!
I then picked up my Wetterlings and it shaved it like butter!

I figured that the Craftsman was just dull and so I sharpened it for her, but no ah ah. Then I remember the posts here about re profiling.
Armed with that and a thorough examination of the Wetterlings profile. I hit the sanders and grinders and sanders.....

I am so happy that I've read so many of these posts here. Its really helped me around the house and not just with "survival" stuff.

Everyone keep up the good work!!!
 
Mark nice job on the axe!!! It's a gloomy saturday so I'm inspired now to head out to the garage and do the same thing to an old axe thats been sittin in the corner for a few years now. You can always find something cool to do from reading BF!!!

Paul
 
I'm thinking of taking it back to work. We have some air tools that hold some various grits of Scotch Brite disks. They remove metal and polish at the same time. Its pretty incredible stuff! I was working on a die at work using them and almost got too carried away. I couldn't believe how good they ground steel. I figured that they would only polish them, but I put a small depression in the die! Luckily, that was the area of change and a lot more had to come off.
 
So, did she gig any frogs?! Oh, nice job on, what was that?, an ax?! Tool and die maker dying breed of American Craftsmen....
 
No, she didn't nail any frogs. Its still too cold here in Michigan. The days have been warm (55-65 deg) but, the nights have gone down to freezing.

Tool & Die...yeah its really sad! I've been with this company since 1991 and just in our area of south/east Michigan, I can't begin to tell you how many companies have gone under. We are now 1 of 6 that do all the work for the Big 3. You would think that less competition would be good, but everyone is slashing their costs and so we have to slash our profits as well. Work is pretty scary now. Typically we work 56 hours a week, but as of late, sometimes we work less than 40! If we don't work, we don't get paid either. No one is salary. Its really caused a lifestyle change for our family!

I'm not complaining though!....I feel fortunate to have a job here in Michigan since it seems we are having a 1 state depression.
 
No Mark, it's happening everywhere you're not alone in that hapless State! Ri had a big jewelry industry go pretty much belly up once Chinamart began flooding this Country with it's cheap &&IT! Next thing you know most of the RI Tool & Die Companies are closing their doors and their shingles coming down. Sad commentary on the state of our industrial nation as a whole. My Dad always told me to watch the Tool & Diemakers not the Stock Market as an economic indicator, how right he was. Hopefully if your company does have to move on they might consider knife manufacturing since no one knows steel like a T&D guy in my book!
 
Am curious if the steel heated up during the make over. I remember reading somewhere, that heating the steel too much, like a grinder would do, makes the steel brittle. Did you have any heat problems during the reprofiling?
 
Love that profile shot. Looks like you did an awesome job.

Longbow50 - someone posted earlier that if you draw the temperature with too much heat, the blade often turns blue at the area you are sharpening. Doesn't like the case to me. Of course, if the temper was draw, you'll know the first time you chop with it :)
 
I was really worried about burning the blade. I was really surprised that it never even got to a point where it was hot to the touch! I bared down on it pretty good too.
When I took it to the disk sanders here at work, I dunked it, but only because we have coolant right next to the sanders.

I still want to do just a bit more, but thats only because I want to make it pretty....oh oh..can I say that word here? :-)

Just to reiterate....No, the blade never heated up. Now I was a bit more concerned when I started to work the edge, but only because it's much thinner there.
 
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