Gransfors, Hults, or Wetterling?

I have a couple of Wetterlings, I got these instead of a GB because I can get them for dealer prices. Compared to a GB they are 25% of the price that I would pay here.

Over the weekend I received a model 26 (limbing axe) and spent about 10 hours on it with file and paper to square off and flatten the poll and to polish down to #1200 the head and to sharpen it.

On the Outdoors Magazine forum there is a pretty respected guy (Old Jumbo) that is very knowledgable about axes and hatchets.

In one article he compares a Wetterlings to a GB. They are very very similar in size and weight.

Here are some quotes from the article.

For the LHA, the sharpening session took 15 minutes, to make the edge symetrically convex and as sharp as the SFA. If one is not ready to sharpen an axe , he should not buy one, that is my view on the question. So yes the SFA comes Sshaper, and it is a nice touch, but it is not important. I also made the poll more symetrical. One day, I may remove the varnish to treat the handle in tung or linseed oil, but really the axe works fine like it is, as you will discover reading by the rest of this article.
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(LHA refers to the Large Hunting Axe from Wetterlings)

Cutting a log: The LHA is very efficient in terms of penetration and control. It is easy to penetrate deep in hard wood, cutting big chips, but also the axe does not glance. A wide varieties of angles works very fine. The SFA has a tendancy to glance after 30 degrees, and its precision because of that is less, whether used with one or two hands. It also penetrates less.
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(SFA refers to the Small Forest Axe from Gransfor)

Cutting branches The LHA is the big winner, because of its unequaled penetration and precision. This axe makes me think of a Survival golok from Valiant in terms of wood penetration, it just cuts through branches some one and a half time better that the two other axes.

Everything has a price, so the LHA is also the axe that has the most tendancy to stick, but this is also because it penetrates deeper. Nothing bad anyway a litles shaking and it releases, but it does stick more. The thin convex profile of the LHA is certainly very efficient.
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Now, the comment that Cliff has made (and incidently did the author of this article) says that 'With a bit of work' Meaning to just dress up the not so great factory edge. I went the whole hog, including rubbing down the handle and soaking it in Linseed oil. For 25% of the cost and having an axe that I know will cut like the devil is worth the work. It hasnt been modified from the stock shape just 'tuned' so saying that the same work done on a GB would yield the same results is not a foregone conclusion. I would like to see it done though.
 
and spent about 10 hours on it with file and paper
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Seriously?!? 10 hours?!?
I'm not being critical here, and I'm sure you'll be happy with your axe, but isn't your time worth something? I wouldn't buy any new tool that needed 10 hours of tweaking to perfection.
I spent 2.5 hours rehandling and reworking an old Plumb one night and wished I had just paid myself my usual wages and bought a new GB with the money.
 
I wouldn't buy any new tool that needed 10 hours of tweaking to perfection.
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In the article it took the author 15 mins to make it out cut the GB.

I could have done the same thing in under an hour with power tools if I had wanted too. I guess I enjoy working with metal and it gives me a great deal of satisfaction when its done. My time is worth nothing, I work from home via email, I usually get at least 12 hours a day free. :)
 
JW said:
I wouldn't buy any new tool that needed 10 hours of tweaking to perfection.
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Putting a high polish on the GB heads would take a long time as well with hand sanding, they come as forged outside the edge itself. This and modifications to the poll don't dramatically effect the function of the axe they just tune it, similar to hand sanding and oil treatment, the latter being a long term use issue.

Temper said:
Now, the comment that Cliff has made (and incidently did the author of this article) says that 'With a bit of work' Meaning to just dress up the not so great factory edge.
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Yeah, the one I had came with a secondary v-bevel on top of the convex edge which is more for utility than actual wood work, taking it off is just a few minutes with a file, similar to fixing an edge which hit a hard knot or hit a rock on a glance. The small Wetterling also had some cosmetic issues and in general looked "rougher' than the GB, but outside the sheath problems were not really functional.

I went the whole hog, including rubbing down the handle and soaking it in Linseed oil.
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This like sharpening tends to have to be redone periodically anyway which is why most serious axe users don't tend to rank it very highly on NIB products. Most expect to have to tune axes to local woods anyway, note in Jim's case when he compared the Wetterling/Bruks the Bruks was set for more of a soft wood pattern and the Wetterling a hardwood one hence the higher penetration of the Wetterling and more fluid nature of the Bruks. There may also be some individual variance here as they are hand forged, likely every pair of them compared would not always follow that same trend.

-Cliff
 
martin j said:
Well yes of course, no argument there if you are willing and able to do the work. But if you are not rich enough to buy all the necesary equipemente and your job + commute = 65 hours per week and you don't have very much time for "customising" your tools, then buying the better "stock" item is probably worthe the extra cost.
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Right. Buy the Reeves! Or Ragnar!

nessmukians.jpg



hollowdweller_hatchet.jpg


www.ragweedforge.com

http://members.tripod.com/ssidders/id76.htm
 
About the OM test, reviewer wasn't Old Jimbo, he was JM.
While I generally appreciate his article, I don't like this article, which is to my opinion largely too oriented against the GB. I know JM pretty well from different forums and I know he has a bolt personality. My guess is that he was somewhat sick with all the GB fanboys who advertise it as "ultimate axe in the world", so he tried to "break the myth" which is always a praiseworthy goal, but doing that he put to much on the counter argument, just to enjoy fanboys exploding in rage which is always a pleasant view.
Old Jimbo who, with all respect to JM, more experienced on the subject is more ponderate on this particular subject.

I've got a GB SFA and it performs OK for me.
I'm not professional lumber jack, and don't consider myself a great axe litterate but I know some semi-professional people who use them pretty often and are happy with it and I've personnaly met at least a traditionnal woodworker (falling carving) who uses them on a daily and is happy with them. So I can buy it isn't the "best in the world" but at least it is adequate.

GB is more expensive but you pay for better finish, if you have enough time or enjoy to finish it yourself, you don't need that. Actually most axe (bahco, ochsenkopf and even sometimes "noname" ones can be made very good if you spend enough time on it.
 
GB's are good axes. However I broke one mini(the replacement they sent is holding up) and my GB Hunters edge chipped pretty bad till I took the edge back a bit.:thumbup:
 
I could have done the same thing in under an hour with power tools if I had wanted too. I guess I enjoy working with metal and it gives me a great deal of satisfaction when its done.
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....interesting discussion...in any event I think we can all agree Temper has done a "handsome" modification to his Wetterlings. Congratulation on the fine work.....I appreciate the photos and fine end-results of your workmanship. I am considering giving it a try.......file, sandpaper, linseed oil, time, patience, elbow grease...anything else you might recommend Temper ?

-regards
 
Thanks for the compliment Gramps.

In fact I have done a few of these recently for cutomers and modified the one you see in the pic. For one, I took off the paint, it did a great job hiding the forging marks but it hurts performance by allowing the head to stick. Its now polished all over to #1200. Of course the dings are still there but they are full of paint so I guess it did achieve some goal.

If you want to do this I recomend this order

1: Tape the handle well with painters tape and the protruding bit from the head.
2: Get a decent bastard file for the poll if its uneven. I just finished working on a Limbing axe from Wetterlings (#26 which means a 26" handle) and its a lot more work than the pictured handle (#16). The poll on the 26 was nasty, but with an hour or so with the file and a few stops for coffee I got it nice and squared off, then just rounded the corners as they were pretty sharp.
I didn't use a file if I could help it on the edge, if I did I used as fine as I could and just used more elbow grease as polishing out a single deep scratch gets you up to date on your cussing in no time.

The paper I used was #80 (for a really short time and not on the front edge, this is really only for getting the nastiest rust and scale off)
The real work starts with
#100
#180
#320
#400
#600, this gets it as 'near as damn'
Final polishing is #800 & #1200. I used a mouse pad for the final polishing of the edge and finished off with a #1200 ceramic steel.

The head was then thoroughly cleaned and polished with Metal Glo to stop the black crap going onto my fingers and then onto a newly rubbed down handle with oil on it.

Once the head is 95% done with only the final polish and sharpening remaining I took off the tape and dunked the whole head in Linseed oil for a full 24 hours. I did this by cutting out a PET pop bottle and lay it on its side, the 'feet' that give the bottle strength under pressure will prevent it from rolling. leave it in so the oil is just over the head (Make sure you really get the varnish off before you start the oil, it will be a PITA if you were a little too impatient and it will show up in the finished product and dissapoint you, especially right next to the head, its troublesome but worth it in the end)
Once it had soaked for 24 hours it was put upright on a linseed oil soaked cloth (Be careful Linseed oil is known for spontaneously combusting for some reason, but I think this may be more common with the Boiled variety rather than the straight stuff I used. Over the course of a week the handle got a liberal coating on the handle and the head was resting on the oil soaked cloth the whole time giving the top of the handle a full week to soak up as much as possible. All in all it probably got about 20-25 coats of oil.

When the handle was done and dry I wrapped it in saran wrap while I finished off the final polish and sharpening. Of course it will get grubby when it gets used but its nice to see it as clean as possible considering all the effort :)
 
Temper.........thank you for your thorough step-by-step guide ! Again, your patience and hard work has produced remarkable results !

-Regards
 
hollowdweller said:
GB's are good axes. However I broke one mini(the replacement they sent is holding up) and my GB Hunters edge chipped pretty bad till I took the edge back a bit.
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On what work did the damage from both occur? And what broke on the mini? How deep was the chipping on the hunter?

-Cliff
 
cegga said:
Hey

Here is my mini
cegga
http://www.antracit.se/cpg/displayimage.php?album=lastup&cat=11564&pos=5
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WHOA~~~~~~~~~~~~~:eek: :eek: OMG I am in love! :D Absolutely stunning, dont be shy, lets have the details!

Gramps, Thanks for 'outing' me as an anal retentive nerd ;)

I had to come back after realising that there were more pictures in the album. Holy smoke, did you make those Cega? They are absolutely stunning, my hat comes off to you sir! I think I actually drooled on the keybaord. :o :thumbup:
 
Cliff Stamp said:
On what work did the damage from both occur? And what broke on the mini? How deep was the chipping on the hunter?

-Cliff
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Cliff,

On the mini it broke after I was chopping some very dried hard chestnut oak at night while backpacking. I speculate that I struck it on the "beard" where there's not much steel behind it. Here's a pic:

hollowdweller_gbsnap.jpg


The chipping on the hunter was first chopping a pine and just fine chipping. The second time was chopping a deer leg bone it was worse but I managed to sharpen the edge back and it's been fine since.
 
Bet that was a surprise. Defective steel regardless of type of impact. You simply can't generate enough impact energy to break that class of tool steels in that manner.

It would take a full shoulder swing from a framing hammer to crack a 1cm square piece with a big notch cut in one side (standard impact tests). That is defective steel. Ironically they promote hitting that part of the bit with a "heavy hammer" in evaluation.

I chipped out my GB Wildlife on frozen wood, mainly on knots, it never happened again after I sharpened it. Not sure if it was the steel in the edge, or I just got better. I have cut a lot of wood with it since then with no problems.

-Cliff
 
cegga said:
Thanks
Yes I make the axes my self I have work as axe smith for 15 year and before that I work whith dropforging .
Here whith handle http://www.antracit.se/cpg/displayimage.php?album=lastup&cat=11564&pos=0
Thanks again
Cegga
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Absolutely breathtaking work! I am truly impressed and that happens very rarely.


As for the others It is only a matter of degree of finishing. Either ax works equally well. The GB is finished a little more and you pay a little more for that.

As someone above said if you use the ax you will have to sharpen it. If you don't have the skill and tools to do that don't but any ax.

Wetterlings works well for me. 15-20 minutes of tune up that I will do every season anyway is well worth the money saved.
 
Cliff Stamp said:
Bet that was a surprise. Defective steel regardless of type of impact. You simply can't generate enough impact energy to break that class of tool steels in that manner.
-Cliff
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Cliff,

Interesting. I had heard somewhere that that was why they charged more for the mini, that for some reason they were harder to forge right (size?) and they replaced more of them.

The new one is doing ok, but I haven't used it on anything that hard yet.:D
 
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