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grinds on competition axes

idroptapul

idroptapul

Joined
Nov 23, 2006
Messages
120
I've been looking for a felling axe to use for trailwork in wilderness areas and in my research came across "Tuatahi" axes out of New Zealand. They offer a number of fairly involved grind styles and threw me with some of the terminology they use. They refer to a "rolled" edge not as an edge failure, but as a type of intentional bevel. They also say "banana" grind. Anyone familiar with these? Additionally, anyone tried one of the work axes manufactured by the racing companies?
 
Not being familiar with theses axes or the terms it sounds like a description of a convex edge.

No experience with racing axes, or any other axes in the past few years.
 
Hi.

I'm generally just an axe/hatchet forumite, but I found this thread while playing around with the search function that my new gold membership has opened up for me. I am also a competition chopper, and I am familiar with Tuatahi's axes and grinds.

The "rolled edge" is indeed what you might call a convex edge. It is the least brash of any axe edge, but is the strongest. In competition, rolled edges are on;y common where extremely hard woods are expected, such as silvertop ash in Australia. The Banana is definitely NOT an axe grind you will want in a work axe. It will allow for pretty good penetration in soft woods, but is a style very prone to wedging and is very difficult to repair, when damaged.

The Tuatahi work axes are flat grinds, with a short chisel edge - both their older style (supposedly not available right now, due to re-tooling for the product line) and the now-available Chinese-made work axe. These Chinese axes are a pretty good deal - the head is $60 or so, but shipping is pretty steep if you only want one. Be warned, they will be very large and very heavy if you are not used to competition style axes. Probably a better axe for you would be the Keech Timberman or David Foster Work Axe (basically the same axe, with different branding.) There are several outlets for these, but I think Carson Bosworth is the cheapest/fastest, right now.

Let me know if that helps, and if you have any other questions.

-Chuck
 
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