Eyyyyyy--I designed this axe!

Old Axeman said:
42- After looking at your last photo, I still think a easy fix (could also be a owner after market fix) is to dress down the existing poll until there is just a little chamfer left visible. The amount of weight loss would be negligible. Besides, I like the balance in a axe head to be slightly blade heavy instead of a neutral balance.
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The point of balance of the head is 1/4" inside the front of the eye, for reference. With the 22" handle in it, the center of gravity is right at the red dot, so you can balance it on your fingertip. :D

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FortyTwoBlades said:
The point of balance of the head is 1/4" inside the front of the eye, for reference. With the 22" handle in it, the center of gravity is right at the red dot, so you can balance it on your fingertip. :D

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for lack of better term, I’m going to refer to that high ridge as a “rib”, though I’m sure you’ve called it by it’s proper name at some point. It looks to me like you placed that rib in such a way as to account for the swing. Intentional? Or does it happen to approximately divide the bit length?

Cool balance point- calculated via software? Or determined experimentally?
 
It was designed both to coincide with the swing and the centerline of the bit. The balance point was established by experience-guided estimation, but would have been tweaked in CAD modeling by the engineering team if it had proven necessary. However, my estimation proved to be spot-on and no correctional work was needed vs. the original sketches to get the point of balance where it needed to be. I was pretty pleased when that happened lol
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
However, my estimation proved to be spot-on and no correctional work was needed vs. the original sketches to get the point of balance where it needed to be. I was pretty pleased when that happened lol
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Hah! As an engineer I appreciate when the “back of the envelope” solution proves to be sufficient. Sometimes a little experience and intuition get the job done. Very cool to learn about these little details of the design process, thanks for sharing them!
 
I had asked them where the model indicated the center of gravity to be, and supplied some notes to them about what to scale up or down and in what ratio as needed and what specifications to hold as fixed if needing to massage the specs to move it where it needed to go, and after they received the notes they emailed me back like "nah, it's actually already good." :D
 
This is really a nice idea and nice execution.
How deep does the edge go back before the 'phantom bevel' starts? How much life time of sharpening will there be before the edge meets the dip in the phantom bevel?
 
tommytman said:
This is really a nice idea and nice execution.
How deep does the edge go back before the 'phantom bevel' starts? How much life time of sharpening will there be before the edge meets the dip in the phantom bevel?
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They are not phantom bevels, but true bevels that converge like a pyramid with two of the opposing corners pushed nearer one another. As such, you will never sharpen back into a thinner portion then the edge is, much like with a conventional axe. The bevels thicken as you approach the eye just at a slower rate than the raised central ridge. :)
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
They are not phantom bevels, but true bevels that converge like a pyramid with two of the opposing corners pushed nearer one another. As such, you will never sharpen back into a thinner portion then the edge is, much like with a conventional axe. The bevels thicken as you approach the eye just at a slower rate than the raised central ridge. :)
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Then it's going to be really nice. Any chance for a close up picture of the head to see the detail?
Thanks
 
I'm away from the office at the moment but if there are any particular shots or details you want to see, just let me know and I can try to snap some tomorrow or the day after.
 
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I hope these help! You can see that the bevels are at a convergent taper and thicken as the work back into the cheeks, rather than being a compressed thinning of the material behind the edge like phantom bevels are.
 
I got something new from those shots- the eye isn’t as thick as I initially thought. I kept picturing a pick axe handle, or something really wide and beefy. Looks like it’s just a tad bigger than a “standard” wedge style haft.

it also looks like it’s slimmed behind the beard to help prevent wood from catching it.

Very cool.
 
Spear said:
The success? Not yet. It's a full sized 4lb head that will be in production soon. Hopefully under the $100 mark and it's a copy of a famous pattern so it is not like it's the pinnacle of axe design.
The failures? Hahahah, no. They were failures. Want to know why they were failures?
"The problem is when you try to do everything you do nothing well."
That's why my first designs were failures. Then I struggled with the fact the only few places who can mass produce cheaply want little to do with adding to a product line that the market is shrinking for.
When it hits I will pay up here and advertise. Hopefully I get more people like me and less fanboy stuff. This is disheartening.
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I prolly will not purchase one of these beautiful axes but that doesn't mean I have to poop on somebodies idea. I simply have no purpose for it. I do however have some sharpening tools from him. Smartest money spent.
Always be nice to people and God will smile upon you. So will Karma.
 
I ploughed my way all through this thread to understand what some of the quotes were about. I think it's a beautiful axe, I doubt I'll ever have $175 to pony up for one. Woox seems to be pushing the pricing envelope on the products I looked at.
I don't doubt that this will be a lovely ax for knocking about with, but being a lazy old pharte, I need something a little lighter. If I'm carrying a rifle, I most definitely don't want a 3 lb+ axe to lug along, and if carrying a bear-stopping handgun I probably don't either. (I live in AK)
I'm sorry that somebody felt obliged to drizzle feces on the project, but I have found the interwebz to be THE place for expanding the boundaries of bad behavior.
 
It's definitely made for carry where a user KNOWS they'll be needing to do axe work rather than as a "just in case" tool. The extra heft does add about a half pound vs. a typical boy's axe, but it's still half a pound lighter than a full sized axe! Lots of options in a boy's axe or Hudson Bay, etc. out there, but I feel the tweener range of a heavier pack/camping axe was a niche that needed filling. Won't be for everyone, but no axe is!

As far as cost goes, while I think they could be finishing out the edge better at this price point (and I've mentioned this to them and they plan to see what they can do about it on the next batch--as it currently stands it's a very quick end-user fix thanks to the backing geometry being good) the cost of forging dies is pretty huge, and given the overall finish of the piece I think it'd be difficult to produce it for less. It sits in approximately the range of a Council Velvicut of equivalent size, maybe a little less. To manage that when they don't have the same reach as someone like Council to amortize the cost of the dies is actually a pretty decent accomplishment, I think. But it does place it solidly in the "deluxe" market segment.
 
A buddy of mine who's a much more accomplished woodsman than I could ever hope to be took his out for some hard testing today and I'm happy to report it passed with flying colors. The following are his pictures, not mine, for reference:

9-inch seasoned white ash log:
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3.75-inch hemlock knot:
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The poll after "trying to break it" by striking steel-on-steel many times.
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He said this of the hemlock knot testing from the field:
The limb knots of an eastern hemlock tree are infamous for collecting silica mineral in the wood. Silica is one of the main minerals in quartz, granite and other rocks that will chip your axe. Wetterlings, Gransfors, Council Tool, Condor TK, and even my beloved Kelly Works Flint Edge have all received Chips and even sawteeth from the real-world abuse of limbing Hemlocks.
This Forte Axe got a slightly, barely noticeable rolled edge on the toe of the edge. That's all.
I'm thoroughly impressed so far.
Now let's try to break it.
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(and then proceeded to testing the poll)
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
I've received confirmation that they're beginning development on 28" handles now. Looking forward to that.
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ooooooh really?! I suspect that my wife and her family have gone in together on a big gift for me, and I suspect it's the 22" version. Do you think they'd sell hafts separately?
 
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