Has there even been an ax head made from "super steel?"

Hank i think you just answered your own.

My call would be is there a need?
Steel selection is just one of the many variables.
HT and all those bla blas..

On one hand, laminated steel on most axe heads have worked for many years.
You may have one high carbon steel head (or more) that built to be heirlooms.:D

I can't say the same for some tomahawks then. I have a hawk made out of CPM3V.
 
Council Tool uses 5160 steel for their Velvicut line. Not a super steel but different than the typical 10xx series steel used in most modern axes.

http://www.counciltool.com/DisplayCategories.asp?pg=displaycategories&category=77

I'm sure some of the 1 piece tomahawks are made from super steel, but I don't count those as axes personally.

An ax is ment to be sharpened by a file, it should roll the edge before it chips it, and the eye of the ax should be left soft. For these reasons a super steel would be wasted on an ax.
 
I've always wondered if 3V could be forge welded and used for an axe bit. I have a feeling it would be difficult.
 
Laminating softer metal over an edge of super steel would be handy. Making a whole head out of it would just be wasting a lot of good steel...
 
People have trouble with profiling the 1045 in their trupers and ascribe near super-steel attributes to the 1050ish steel in GFBs. I'm not sure the ax market is ripe for a metallurgical revolution :).

Seriously, 5160 is probably about as exotic as makes any sense for axes, mainly just because it can be tougher at a higher hardness than pure carbon steel, but as pointed out if you make the bit too hard sharpening gets difficult.
 
I think the old Forest Service Spec was pretty super steel.

3.2.1.1 Steel composition.
The tool head of each type of ax shall be forged from fully killed plain carbon AISI/
SAE steel containing 0.72 to 0.93 percent carbon, 0.30 to 0.90 percent manganese, not more than 0.040
percent phosphorus, and not more than 0.050 percent sulfur. Steel composition of the head shall be deter-
mined as specified in 4.5.1.1.

3.2.1.2 Hardness.
The ax bit shall have a hardness of 54 to 58 inclusive on the Rockwell C scale. This
hardness shall extend to a distance of 1-1/4 inches ±1/4 inch back from the cutting edge. Within 1 inch of the
eye of the tool, the steel hardness shall not exceed 45 on the Rockwell C scale. All hardness values shall be
determined as specified in 4.5.1.2. The specified hardness shall extend through the entire thickness of the
tool head steel.
 
I agree it would be a waste of good steel however there are a few just because ones that might be neat.

Of coarse they all should be laminates

S7 for chopping up small import cars etc
CPM-m4 would make for one heck of a felling axe
CPM-3v Brushcraft axe ?
CPM-154 jungle/rainforest axe
 
Since axes cut with a pushing stroke, a steel with a very fine grain is ideal. Properly hardened 10XX series usually performs so well as to make increased performance largely unnecessary.
 
I guess what do you consider super steel? The modern ones? Its all been done before in my opinion. It seems that the heat treat is more important than the steel used. I know that Helko's C45 has the quality's to make a very good axe. No powder steel technology needed. I kind of feel the same way about knifes.
But I can't help but wonder about a forge welded bit.:D

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I made a bag axe from a solid block of L6 once..Crucibles L6 with Moly at that..It was the most aggrevating forging I think Ive ever done..It took more than double the amount of heats to do the work and every time I worked on it to straighten,check handle symmetry Id have to let it cool..Because it was L6 with moly it would always air harden even is ashs..So whenever I wanted to grind o it I had to do a spheroidal anneal in the kiln..
It made a, well super axe head but was way tooooooo much trouble..
 
SamuraiDave said:
Wasn't there someone here making tomahawks out of jackhammer bits that were L6 or S7?
Click to expand...

I know Steve at Coal Creek was making hawks out of jackhammer bits. Never seen an axe head made out of it though.

Honestly I think Councils use of 5160 is about as high of an alloy steel as is needed. Me personally I will stick with a 10XX steel with a 53-60 hrc bit.
 
making an axe out of a super steel is overkill. won't look any different, all you can do is brag & people will ask 'why?'

making an axe out of pattern welded high carbon steel is more understandable. one of mine:
View attachment 521513
another
View attachment 521514

a number of mine are of mine are however a more ductile steel with hardened or pattern welded & hardened HC steel edges inserted.
here's one i had made earlier: a paul binn dane axe with a hardened insert edge
View attachment 521517

one of my tommyhawks has an inserted damascus edge: best of both worlds
View attachment 521521

closest i have is a 4140 tool steel boarding axe - is 4140 a 'super steel? can't trll by looking. sharp lil' devil tho.
View attachment 521526
 
jackhammer bits were never made from L6 or S7..Most were in fact made from modified medium carbon steel like 1045 or 15B30..thats straight from the late Grant Sarver who worked for years manufacturing and sharpening jack hammer bits..He contacted all the major manufacturers to find out what they were made of and had them spectrographed too..Only one company had a high carbon jackhammer bit and it was something like 1078 carbon steel..His were made from 8630..
 
Kentucky said:
jackhammer bits were never made from L6 or S7..Most were in fact made from modified medium carbon steel like 1045 or 15B30..thats straight from the late Grant Sarver who worked for years manufacturing and sharpening jack hammer bits..He contacted all the major manufacturers to find out what they were made of and had them spectrographed too..Only one company had a high carbon jackhammer bit and it was something like 1078 carbon steel..His were made from 8630..
Click to expand...

I stand corrected.
I'm always amazed at the wealth of knowledge here.

Just think about the saying "I have an axe to grind", then imagine that feat with hardened L6.
The idea is fun, the reality sounds too labor intensive for me.
 
I don't know what type of steel do you refer with super steel when you are speaking about axes, but you can fing pretty good steels in some head and a practical reason to use them or better ones in other heads. I will explain myself.

As Hacked has said you can find 5160 steel in Council Tool axes, you can also find L6 tool steel in a commercial but very expensive axe manufacturer, John Neeman, and unidentified tool steels in racing axes. Noone says what they use, but Keech uses a unidentified tool steel (those axes are very used in my country), Tuatahi says this in their website "hand forged from a block of the highest quality tool steel", Mike Osborne says this "Each axe starts out as a billet of high grade tool steel", Basque manufacturer Jauregi uses custom made steel close to a tool steel (I don't exactly know which) in his racing axes... As you can see there is a lot of secrecy, but there are more steels in the axe world apart of the 10XX or slightly modified 10XX steel families.

And there is a practical reason to use even better steels in the axes, there are axes made for anything more than chopping or splitting, carpenter axes. You don't have much demand of carpenter axes nowadays, but this is a unexplored world for tool or super steels. Those axes don't suffer so hard pounding, they are supposed to cut and any improvement in wear resistance would be a very good benefit for the carpenter. Any time he saves sharpening is a benefit of working time.

The same can be said about butcher axes, here hygienic laws say they have to be stainless. Any improvement you do to those axes would translate in business improvement.
 
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