My German axe from the UK - NOW WITH SHEATH

Thanks, Steve. That's the kind of info that I've been finding. I had a VERY dense handle (many growth rings) with virtually perfect grain orientation snap on me. Since then, I've been wondering what really is best.

OutdoorEnvy said:
That's very cool M3mphis. Did you come up with that design on your own or have you seen in somewhere? It looks very handy for the multiple carrying and/or lashing options it has. That really has turned out to be a very unique axe you have. I can't wait to hear how it performs for you.
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The sheath design was sort of in my head, and partly just worked out as we made it.

Everything performed very well for my fishing trip with one exception. I had generously applied Elmers wood glue to fill in some thin cracks in the handle. A little bit of moisture made the glue become a tacky mess. Definitely would not do that again.
 
M3mphis said:
Thanks for the compliments, Frank. Many arborists adamantly insist that the faster growth, wider grain sapwood is a more durable tool handle than tight grain. I've been wanting to research this, but have not put much time into it yet. One of these days I'll start up a thread with some of the things that I've found. I'm not sure who's right, but it is interesting.

Thanks, again.
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Tight grain is the correct answer here.
 
I know that tight grains are harder and denser woods but I've never actually done any shear analysis on them in comparison to wider grains. Intuitively, I would think that the tighter grains are tougher. But I'm open to it if the science says I'm wrong.
 
Spring and strength are two separate points. Denser growth rings might be stronger, but its not as springy I don't think and can often be brash. wider growth rings means faster growth, which as far as I know equates to springy wood. A good handle needs to be a bit whippy or springy or else it will beat the crap out of ya swinging it all day.
 
PayetteRucker said:
HW Means HELKO Werk Axe. It is stamped on the Helko I just purchased. They are made in Germany. Nice piece. This is a Helko axe made of Sandvik steel, not a Sandvik made axe.
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I'll try to clarify this here, this axe was probably sold under the sandvik brand, possibly made out of sandvik steel but probably german steel. The sandvik stamp has nothing to do with the steel. As far as I know sandvik or bahco never manufactured their own axes, back in the 60's and 70's Wetterlings used to make the axes for sandvik and later on they bought them from china and as we see here, germany.

You can read more here: http://www.wetterlings.com/history/

Sandvik and bahco never got famous because of their axes, sandvik built their reputation as a producer of great steel and saws and bahco had their wrenches. Other products came later, most of the time they just bought other famous manufacturers like E.A. Berg the chisel maker and Öberg the file maker and took over their products, or they just outsourced the production like in this case.
 
Sweden has long been famous for making first class steel. Springfield Armory, when it was developing the first USA smokeless powder military rifle (the Krag-Jorgensen), imported Swedish steel for the rifle barrels because of it's superior properties. If you look at the current Henckels (or is it Wusthof?) lineup of commercial kitchen knives you'll discover they proudly use Swedish steel. Presuming Sandvik and Bahco to farm out the manufacturing of tools doesn't necessarily mean they don't supply the steel that goes in them.
I have a Sandvik-stamped Canadian style axe from the early 1960s (been in the family since new) which has Sweden stamped on it.
 
300Six said:
Sweden has long been famous for making first class steel. Springfield Armory, when it was developing the first USA smokeless powder military rifle (the Krag-Jorgensen), imported Swedish steel for the rifle barrels because of it's superior properties. If you look at the current Henckels (or is it Wusthof?) lineup of commercial kitchen knives you'll discover they proudly use Swedish steel. Presuming Sandvik and Bahco to farm out the manufacturing of tools doesn't necessarily mean they don't supply the steel that goes in them.
I have a Sandvik-stamped Canadian style axe from the early 1960s (been in the family since new) which has Sweden stamped on it.
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Yes sandvik makes great steel, but I still think that it would be most likely that Helko used the same steel for this axe as they use for their own products since this is nothing more than a rebranded Helko axe. As far as i have heard Helko has a great reputation and I do not see why they would change anything when working as a subcontractor.

Your sandvik axe was probably made by wetterlings, check my link above, I have two swedish made too, one 1-1/2 lbs hatchet and one 1-3/4 lbs boy's axe and they are fantastic. Those axes however almost certainly has sandvik steel because all wetterlings axes probably had, Storvik the place where Wetterlings has their factory is just a few miles away from Sandviken.
 
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