Gransfors bruks steel???

M3mphis said:
I don't know why that surprises me. I've probably set up camp under one and didn't realize it was a yew....:rolleyes:
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Probably not, I can spot it from a distance, but if you saw the bark you would know. It is reportably in the northern part of Valley County to just before the border with Canada. It is a Magnificant Tree. I have cut some that had to be close to one hundred growth rings to the inch. It was a small tree. I could never take the axe to an ancient tree.
Call me a dirt worshipping tree hugger I guess.
 
Hey dirt worshiping tree hugger (AKA garry3), I'd be interested in following a thread dealing with using axes/hatchets/tomahawks to rough out primitive bows. I don't have any experience but could probably come up with some questions. Do you usually make long bows or flat bows?
 
Bo T said:
Hey dirt worshiping tree hugger (AKA garry3), I'd be interested in following a thread dealing with using axes/hatchets/tomahawks to rough out primitive bows. I don't have any experience but could probably come up with some questions. Do you usually make long bows or flat bows?
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I make both Bo T.
A hatchet bow build might be a fun project this spring. It's too cold to be fun right now.
I did this for grandkids this past summer. Last one I built.



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I know what you are thinking. Thats a nice little toy, and the arrows should have suction cups on them to make them stick, right?
Can't remember how long it is but it pulls 8lbs at 12inches. Those arrows are 1/4" hard wood dowels from the local lumber yard. The tips are from the auto parts store, to plug off a 1/4" line. Not sure how far it will cast them arrows but for sure over 150 feet(glad the neighbors were not home:D).
I made the mistake of trying it out first in the house at my entry door(oops).
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Yes it dented the door. And nobody knows how the lockers at work got dented either:D.
I have now lived long enough to be a problem to my kids!
 
garry3 said:
Hey Shotgun, Do you get a permit to cut your Yew there? I have made a couple trips over there to get Yew permits. First time I went I could get a district wide permit. Last time it was sight specific. It's been awhile just wonding what it is like now. We have it here in Idaho also but no permits to cut.
And ya, I make more than sapling bows and I cut more than just for bowyer purposes. A knife? Ignorance.
Sorry about the off topic.
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I've never actually made a bow so I'm not sure about the trees. I just know from watching people shape bows with an axe and my own experience trying to make a mallet for a baton to use with the knife that a knife is not the right tool for that work. I spent 20 minutes trying to hack out a handle on the piece of wood with my knife and eventually gave up on it. If I had a hatchet it would have been done in a much shorter time. Then again I wouldn't have needed to make a mallet for a baton if I had a hatchet anyway. :D
 
Square_peg said:
A knife maker will frequently give a blade a series of soaks at low heat to relieve stress. GB is stating that they are doing this because it "relieves the
stress in the steel, built up by the forging and tempering processes". That leads me to believe that the axe has already been hardened and tempered before these soaks take place.

But also, I'm pretty sure that 383° F isn't hot enough to remove the brittleness from a piece of 1055 that has been cold water quenched. That piece would be brittle hard after quench and I can't imagine it being tempered at less than 450° or 500° F.

So both the language and the process lead me to believe that we're missing a step. But I'm not sure.
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Been eying a GB for years now, but don't really have a use for one, so I can't justify the purchase. Just piping in here to provide a little information. Low alloy and plain carbon steels can have lower toughness between 450 deg F and 600 deg F than if tempered lower, say 350 to 400. In the range of hardness used for hand held cutting tools, lower hardness does not automatically mean higher toughness. There is typically a drop in toughness that starts around 450 and doesn't recover until over 600.
 
Operator1975 said:
I would like to think that someone else should get the frog in the throat from them buying a swedish axe, and not supporting the manufacturing base here in the USA. And I will never support that. One reason I bailed on the Les Stroud axe review.
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You must mean supporting American antique dealers and ebay sellers. ;)
Do you only buy American made products?
 
It's impossible to buy only American now because we've shipped most of our manufacturing overseas. Ross Perot was right about the 'giant sucking sound'.
 
For basic woodworking I use my scandinavian forest axe, the helve still doesn't get in the way. I bought a GB because of the hardness of the steel and the ultra thin profile. It's a real treat working with green wood.
 
Liam Ryan said:
What model of gransfors is that? It has an upswpt tip and a different looking handle.
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It is the wildlife hatchet. It is a earliar version. Not sure when they changed. I have the hunters also, which is my favorite. I am going to get another one soon:).
The next one will be the small forest axe I think it is called. Same specs as the hunters if you believe what you read. I don't. It feels a little longer in the handle and heavier.
 
kissmyaxe said:
Couldn't find anything on it so I was wondering if anyone knows what steel gransfors bruks uses for their axes.
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Most likely 1144 steel from Uddeholm. Uddeholm is one of the the largest and oldest steel manufacturers in Sweden and they make tool steel from recycled metals and that is exactly what Gransfors Bruk uses to make their axe heads. And of the steels made by Uddeholm 1144 is perfect for axe heads and hammers.
 
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