New vs old

Woodcraft

Woodcraft

Joined
Nov 7, 2016
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I am currently gathering and hanging some vintage axes. In preperation to do some reviews. Specifically comparing the newly manufactured patterns to the vintage counterpart. Splitting, bucking ect. If people have some hands on experience new vs old. Or some observations. Or just pictures and videos, or perhaps have already done this, I would love to see hear read about it. Thanks.
 
Beg, buy, borrowing old axes is not really going to be a problem but finding folks that can proficiently use axes for these tests is going to be something else. Many enthusiastic 18 year olds can expend a lot of energy and appear to be very busy but very few 18 year olds will have 1000 hours of axe experience behind them. That's going to be the rub. You won't really be appraising tools.
I was fortunate to befriend a WWII vet 25 years ago, that fueled a wood heat/wood cook stove house most of his life. Even at age 75 he split firewood 2-3X faster than any of us young bucks (we were 40 year olds at the time) using his trusty 2 1/4 lb Walters pulp axe. For me that was quite an eye-opener about the disproportionate value of skill and experience over the shape, weight or quality of a tool.
 
300Six said:
Beg, buy, borrowing old axes is not really going to be a problem but finding folks that can proficiently use axes for these tests is going to be something else. Many enthusiastic 18 year olds can expend a lot of energy and appear to be very busy but very few 18 year olds will have 1000 hours of axe experience behind them. That's going to be the rub. You won't really be appraising tools.
I was fortunate to befriend a WWII vet 25 years ago, that fueled a wood heat/wood cook stove house most of his life. Even at age 75 he split firewood 2-3X faster than any of us young bucks (we were 40 year olds at the time) using his trusty 2 1/4 lb Walters pulp axe. For me that was quite an eye-opener about the disproportionate value of skill and experience over the shape, weight or quality of a tool.
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I will be doing the comparisons myself. I am a 39 years old. I grew up with wood heat and the only male child. That means cutting and splitting falls on your shoulders. I plan on using a specific diameter pine and hardwood for comparitive test in bucking and splitting. I can not use felling as I am not positive I can get simular diameter trees to fell. I will be the standard, as will the size and type of wood. Using different people would make the tests incomparable. I am shooting to be able to compare any of the axes tested against any others from the data. But hey nothing is perfect.
Were I grew up everybody heated with wood. The story of your friend reminds me of my grandfather.
 
Sounds good. You'll have developed favourites by now which means it'll be tough to remain impartial but if time vs productivity is what is being measured this shouldn't matter too much.
 
Woodcraft said:
I am currently gathering and hanging some vintage axes. In preperation to do some reviews. Specifically comparing the newly manufactured patterns to the vintage counterpart. Splitting, bucking ect. If people have some hands on experience new vs old. Or some observations. Or just pictures and videos, or perhaps have already done this, I would love to see hear read about it. Thanks.
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Since this is your test, asking for other's people opinions would only introduce bias in yours. In don't understand your point, I guess.
 
300Six said:
Sounds good. You'll have developed favourites by now which means it'll be tough to remain impartial but if time vs productivity is what is being measured this shouldn't matter too much.
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Very true. And hopefully.
 
Moonw said:
Since this is your test, asking for other's people opinions would only introduce bias in yours. In don't understand your point, I guess.
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I am hoping to test in a manner that my opinion beforehand does not affect the final result. While I will be the "tester" having multiple opinions and viewpoints to consider and refect on in the reviews will add a little flavor to them. As apposed to just the raw data. In other words the raw data will say one thing. My personal opinion may say another. Gathered opinion on the subject may say another. All can be viewed. The raw data from the tests will allow comparison from one axe to another. Across multiple tests. The rest is just personal preference and opinion, but no less important, and will possibly make it more interesting. Hopefully.
 
Consensus on here is that flat cheeked axes (Sweden/Germany) are not as inherently capable of breaking out chips (and therefore bind or stick more often) as vintage high cheeked domestic designs. There aren't too many modern axe copies of classics that feature this especially Mexican, Chinese and Indian versions.
 
That will get covered. I will also need to bring the old heads up to par with the finish level of the new heads. And sharpen to the same grit on the bit. To keep it about flat vs high cheek and eliminate any other causes of sticking. Thank you.
 
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