Hard polled old 10-pound maul damaged

[Square_peg]

I loaned my old 10-pound maul to my neighbor who was splitting some tough wood. It's been my go-to splitter for wood I couldn't split with a 5-pound axe for the past 10 years since I retrieved it from an estate sale. It has a long bit with an axe like profile so it has excellent penetration in addition to the 10-pound mass. It also has an octagon poll which turned out to be harder than I anticipated.

My neighbor stuck it in a piece of knotty pine. He asked if he could strike it with a sledge and I assured him he could, knowing that the eye walls were sufficiently thick and presuming that the poll was soft enough to mushroom before it would chip.

I WAS WRONG!

He gave it a good whack with a sledge and immediately a chip flew off the poll! Examining the poll it's clear that the outer layer was very hard. Also, it had been rusted and pitted in the past at some point before I found it and before the red paint was applied. The red paint was faded when I found it.

Have you ever a seen a tool fail in this manner? Why do you suppose the outer layer was so hard? Just as quenched? Worked hardened? Hardened by weathering? What do you think?

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

An Iron City-branded antique splitting wedge at my family's little summer cabin had pretty severe wear and tear to it at one point, including chipping to the struck face, and when going to dress it on the grinder I was shocked to discover that I ground into a large void, and in trying to grind it out I not only discovered based on the spark pattern that it was HARDENED but also that it was seemingly a *cap* of sorts that had somehow been welded on in a manner that had bonded on all edges, but left a big air gap inside it. I had to straight up cut the thing off because it was dangerous to use. I have no idea why it had a hardened striking face when it was a simple splitting wedge, nor do I have any idea why they'd construct it in that manner, but all I can do is describe what I saw and how the material behaved.

I also have a vintage sledge hammer that belonged to my great grandfather that has a gorgeous shape and the slimmest handle I've ever seen on a hammer that size, but when I cleaned up the faces on it a spiderweb of hairline cracks was revealed. I'm gonna' guess that if I wailed on metallic targets that are more or less immobilized it could end up fracturing in a similar manner--it already displayed chipped edges to the face before I went to clean it up. I continue to use it, but am always mindful of what I use it for.

 

[junkenstien]

Had a chip on an old keen kutter carpenters hatchet poll I filed out was the same as 42 described above and I thought the same thing a cap or something

 

[Square_peg]

I’ve removed all the loose material off this one and continue to use it for splitting but it will never be used for striking again.

 

[Dusty One]

Nice size for a 10 pounder !

 

[shinyedges]

Could this be they case hardened the entire head and it's separating from the softer material?

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

Could this be they case hardened the entire head and it's separating from the softer material?

I don't think so. Not only would it be bizarre for them to case harden an entire head, but cracks shouldn't significantly perpetrate if that were the case. And the full-blown voids seem to indicate something unusual going on in the manufacturing process, in general. Maybe Larrin has some potential insight into how this kind of dynamic could possibly occur accidentally. I don't think that steel-on-steel impact, for instance, would generate temperatures high enough to induce air-hardening in steels unintentionally exhibiting that behavior. Clearly something is going on with these examples, but it's beyond me what causes it, as instances are seemingly rare.

 

[DocJD]

a *cap* of sorts that had somehow been welded on

This seems the most reasonable to me, just looking at it ,but I'm no expert . Some void was left and rust did the rest .

 

[shinyedges]

I don't think so. Not only would it be bizarre for them to case harden an entire head, but cracks shouldn't significantly perpetrate if that were the case. And the full-blown voids seem to indicate something unusual going on in the manufacturing process, in general. Maybe Larrin has some potential insight into how this kind of dynamic could possibly occur accidentally. I don't think that steel-on-steel impact, for instance, would generate temperatures high enough to induce air-hardening in steels unintentionally exhibiting that behavior. Clearly something is going on with these examples, but it's beyond me what causes it, as instances are seemingly rare.

Definitely odd, I do like a good mystery though.