Gransfors Bruk Hatched Edge Jacked Up From Ice?

M

MTAR15

Joined
Dec 5, 2008
Messages
298
We've had a helluva winter, feet of snow, weeks of subzero temps and occasional stretches of 40+ degree warm spells with torrential rain.

Usually I can manage the ice dams that form with these types of freeze/melt cycles. But this year kicked my butt and I have a large ice dam where my garage and house roofs meet.

Since we are now in a warm rainy period I figured I needed to carve a channel to let the water drain through. I decided to give it a go with my GB hunter axe. It went through the ice easily, a couple dozen wacks and a nice valley.

The GB is new, purchased this summer but it's just sat on my safe and never hit a thing until today.

While I was drying the head off, I noticed the edge looked terrible. Chipped as if I was chopping rocks, all because of the ice.

Normal? Thoughts? I'm amazed the damage done by chopping ice.

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It looks like impurity? Not normal chipping in the metal.( Im viewing this on a phone at the moment) Show the manufacture the photographs. Also, when you get a new one convex the edge.(Or if you keep that one)
 
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Using an axe in cold weather greatly increases the likelihood of chipping the bit, especially if it's tempered hard for wear resistance. Warming the axe before use on a cold day will help. Lumbermen of old were religious about warming their axes before using them in the cold.

This one is not the fault of the axe.
 
DbH mentioned yesterday that he had some soft issues with just the first surface layer of the factory edge. I have had the same experience on one GB, it didn't look like that though but then again I wasn't chipping ice. I would sharpen and use it as intended and then judge it.
 
Nothing that wouldnt resharpen right out after 5 minutes, max. if it does it again and everytime, then contact your GB reseller, id say.
 
garry3 said:
DbH mentioned yesterday that he had some soft issues with just the first surface layer of the factory edge. I have had the same experience on one GB, it didn't look like that though but then again I wasn't chipping ice.
Click to expand...

Chipping isn't a 'soft' issue. It's a 'hard' issue. Rolling is a soft issue.
 
Square_peg said:
Using an axe in cold weather greatly increases the likelihood of chipping the bit, especially if it's tempered hard for wear resistance. Warming the axe before use on a cold day will help. Lumbermen of old were religious about warming their axes before using them in the cold.

This one is not the fault of the axe.
Click to expand...
He said it was warm and rainy period. So cold steel is not the issue. While I am having trouble making out the pics on my phone something looks odd. If nothing more this is another example of an edge that belongs on a hewing axe being put on a a work ax and coming up short. I can, have, and will again, at your request ,take any one of my axes outside, into the cold, 0°f minimum and hack into frozen twisted oak and the ice below. You will not see chipping. Because I do not put thin edges on my working axes. (And "cold" enough to make steel brittle is a lot colder than 0°f unless you have a ridiculously thin edge. In which case any knot or twist could cause the same damage on an 80° f day)Literally living and working in ice and snow, I think you misunderstand what the fellers in the old camps meant when they said "cold". Thin edges cause chips. Abuse causes chips. And cold can make steel brittle, but extreem cold, not just "chilly". You may be right, this may not be the fault of the axe. It may be the fault of the manufacture for putting a thin edge on a working axe and a consumer using an axe like a working axe that was set up to be a "carving" or "vanity" axe.
 
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MTAR15 said:
We've had a helluva winter, feet of snow, weeks of subzero temps and occasional stretches of 40+ degree warm spells with torrential rain.

Usually I can manage the ice dams that form with these types of freeze/melt cycles. But this year kicked my butt and I have a large ice dam where my garage and house roofs meet.

Since we are now in a warm rainy period I figured I needed to carve a channel to let the water drain through. I decided to give it a go with my GB hunter axe. It went through the ice easily, a couple dozen wacks and a nice valley.

The GB is new, purchased this summer but it's just sat on my safe and never hit a thing until today.

While I was drying the head off, I noticed the edge looked terrible. Chipped as if I was chopping rocks, all because of the ice.

Normal? Thoughts? I'm amazed the damage done by chopping ice.

C807D93F-BF5E-4595-BDFD-DAC211612DE9_zpsh5sluqgd.jpg


663BC71E-A82E-40C4-A39B-6E72CF4F6B40_zpsz7m7pran.jpg


285D3E50-1609-4302-9F10-9FAC8F24FCCB_zpsxkscozrn.jpg
Click to expand...

Looks normal to me, it's a trade off having hard steel. Same thing happens in the kitchen with hard thin knives cutting frozen food. Not designed to cut ice, that's what Ice axes are for ;)

Of course an Ice ax will never hold a razor sharp edge. So pick and choose :)

Time to break out the sharpening puck :D
 
I haven't chopped ice so Im just guessing .If you have asphalt shingles .Sand will come off the shingles and collect in the valley on your roof,then as the ice dam forms it could be full of this sand.You could melt some of the ice dam and see if it has a lot of sand in it. If the damage is caused by sand there should be a scratch on the blade coming out of each damaged area.All that being said it lokks kind of crumbley not really chipped.Maybe over heated before or during heat treat
 
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