How durable are cast steel heads with inserts?

[hank_rearden]

Is there risk of the high carbon edge insert failing? Is the thing strong enough to be used by a professional logger or for chopping winter wood?

 

[Brent Halverson]

That is how all axes were made at one time and they worked brilliantly. It is easy as pie to find old axe heads made with this method, but you wont' find any laying around that are broke unless they were abused by someone with fewer brains than the axe has.

 

[jake pogg]

Is there risk of the high carbon edge insert failing? Is the thing strong enough to be used by a professional logger or for chopping winter wood?

Hank,i'm sorry,but the Title of this thread is odd:

"Cast steel"(steel obtained by melting the ingredients together,crucible steel,et c.) was the material used for the Insert,not the "head".
The "head"/body/all other parts BUT the cutting edge was normally some sort of then-current low-Carbon steel,and the entire enchilada was Forged,and forge-Welded,the cast-steel edge likewise forge-welded in(or around)the other forging.

So are you asking how often the edge itself fractured?
Or how often it de-laminated from the rest of the head?
Or?...

In the very general scheme of things Brent is correct,Not often,and usually under extreme duress.
It was a good,reliable method of axe manufacturing,with many examples still around and fully functioning.