Metal wedges

[Zombiechopper]

metal wedges are important, useful and good. You have to know when and how to use them. That pic above was not the wedges fault, it was the doofus that installed it.

I find it pretty funny that now that axes are 'cool' metal wedges are bad. It's so silly it's ridiculous. Carry on cool kids. My personal experience tells me wedges are just dandy. Sometimes you don't need one, but what if you do? Can't use one because you don't need it says a book... but what if you need it to keep a wood wedge tight? Maybe it really does have a use? Critical thinking can do wonders to clear the mind.

 

[M3mphis]

metal wedges are important, useful and good. You have to know when and how to use them. That pic above was not the wedges fault, it was the doofus that installed it.

I find it pretty funny that now that axes are 'cool' metal wedges are bad. It's so silly it's ridiculous. Carry on cool kids. My personal experience tells me wedges are just dandy. Sometimes you don't need one, but what if you do? Can't use one because you don't need it says a book... but what if you need it to keep a wood wedge tight? Maybe it really does have a use? Critical thinking can do wonders to clear the mind.

I carry a couple metal wedges in my pack in case it comes loose. Doesn't usually, but I have had one come loose in the woods once. I have had a handle split due to a cross wedge that I put in. I must be a total dufus, and yet a cool kid. How about your cool your jets, eh? I don't remember anyone saying that they have no purpose.

 

[Zombiechopper]

I carry a couple metal wedges in my pack in case it comes loose. Doesn't usually, but I have had one come loose in the woods once. I have had a handle split due to a cross wedge that I put in. I must be a total dufus, and yet a cool kid. How about your cool your jets, eh? I don't remember anyone saying that they have no purpose.

I probably sounded grumpier than intended, but people need to think about why they are there and what purpose they have. I keep reading folks on here saying they don't use a metal wedge because they read it here or read it in a fashionable axe book. The advice given here and elsewhere is that they are not needed. It's bad advice.

I'm sorry you put your metal wedge in wrong. But yes, if you split the handle it's not the wedges fault. They come in a variety of sizes and one size does not fit all. They also do not go in perpendicular to the grain.

 

[cooperhill]

I took the handle off my True Temper Kelly Perfect today after a year of hard trailwork service (salutes!). The handle came loose from a poor hanging job but found this split upon taking out the handle from the eye. The split was isolated to inside the axe eye but it's there none the less. It matches up exactly with a diagonally placed metal wedge.

 

[trailmaker]

metal wedges are important, useful and good. You have to know when and how to use them. That pic above was not the wedges fault, it was the doofus that installed it.

I find it pretty funny that now that axes are 'cool' metal wedges are bad. It's so silly it's ridiculous. Carry on cool kids. My personal experience tells me wedges are just dandy. Sometimes you don't need one, but what if you do? Can't use one because you don't need it says a book... but what if you need it to keep a wood wedge tight? Maybe it really does have a use? Critical thinking can do wonders to clear the mind.

Wikipedia: "Critical thinking is the process of thinking that questions assumptions. It is a way of deciding whether a claim is true, false; sometimes true, or partly true."

That's what's going on here Zombie, people are questioning the assumption that metal wedges are necessary when hanging an axe. Some people are reporting first hand that it isn't always necessary. No one in this thread is saying that it isn't necessary because some book says so. You're idea that people are just trying to be "cool" by dismissing metal wedges in any situation is the only example of "unclear thinking" that I see in this thread. No one is trying to be cooler than anyone else, we're trying to learn something by exchanging our experiences.

 

[rjdankert]

. . . You're idea that people are just trying to be "cool" by dismissing metal wedges in any situation is the only example of "unclear thinking" that I see in this thread. No one is trying to be cooler than anyone else, we're trying to learn something by exchanging our experiences.

Well said, Trailmaker.