How sharp

T

Tjstampa

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Mar 25, 2019
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I posted this in maintainence and tinkering yesterday. I had not notice this sub forum until last night.

Tjstampa said:
not exactly knife related. I just purchased a fisckars pick mattock. I bought it to work on a palm tree stump. The prior owners planted a date palm in a courtyard like area by my front door. The palm was starting to lien against the house so I took it down. I cut it as flush as I could. Now my better half wants to plant some flowers where the stump is. I hired a company to grind it but the access was to small for the grinder. I checked with two rental houses and the same problem.

With that background how sharp should tHe mattocks edge be. Part of the factory edge is axe sharp. The rest of the edge is more obtuse. You can see an feel where the factory did not get rid of all of the bur.
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Tjstampa said:
I posted this in maintainence and tinkering yesterday. I had not notice this sub forum until last night.
Click to expand...
I've never worked on a palm stump before, but I have a couple of fir and birch tree stumps buried in the yard...... I use a pulaski, or pick and shovel to dig around the stump to a depth of about 16", then attack the stump with an axe (pulaski). A chainsaw (with a old chain, but sharp!) can be very helpful! I sharpen my pulaskis at about 30 degrees, and try to keep them sharp - even while working in the dirt!
 
Tjstampa said:
I posted this in maintainence and tinkering yesterday. I had not notice this sub forum until last night.
Click to expand...
A sharpened Pulaski tool or adz will work a lot better than a sharpened mattock, the steel will take and hold the edge better. Palm trees are a pain to take out if you can't grind them because they are so fibrous. They feel kind of "squishy" when hit, and the fibers are good at binding axe heads. The Pulaski, or sharpened mattock, cuts perpendicularly across the fibers a lot easier, with less binding. I have had some success using a 35 lb railroad bar, the kind with a big chisel on one end and a flattened disk on the other, to break fibers and lever chunks out. Whatever you do, it's gonna be a job... Good luck!
 
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