Pulaski tool question

B

BitingSarcasm

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Feb 25, 2014
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I am helping a friend take out most of the roots from two Liquid Amber trees. A small-bar chainsaw works good when I have the clearance, but I don't like dirtnapping the chain. I have been working mostly with a True Temper pulaski tool, but I am ready to optimize it a bit. I sharpened the adze blade when I took out a mulberry tree, but I basically gave it an axe profile. Now I am wondering if I would be better off with more of a chisel grind or a narrower bevel given that I am using it to cut roots outright instead of dig them up. Rather than use trial and error (the work has to be done soon and it's 100 degrees outside), I would like to pick the brains of the people most likely to have an informed opinion. After all, most everyone in this forum has an axe to grind.....
 
You want only the bottom face of the hoe blade to be beveled, ideally. That is to say, when holding the axe ready to use, the beveled face should be facing towards you and the flat side should be facing away from you.
 
You can make one of these as fanciful razor sharp as you want but they'll only revert to 'merely pointy' even faster if you do that when it's used on or below ground. Lightly touch the inside edge of the hoe end (as well as both sides of the axe blade) with a grinder to better define a crudely obtuse angle (don't look too close at the finesse of the edges or you'll wind up grinding one of these axes into metal filings in no time flat) and then leave it at that. Pulaskis are wonderfully durable 'down and dirty' elbow grease earth grubbing tools that should come with no expectations of making wood carver smooth clean cuts.
 
Yup. Gotta' put an edge on them fit for a digging tool. It's really more like beveling than sharpening in the conventional sense. You want an edge that won't nick too badly if it strikes a rock. Because it will strike them. Repeatedly and often.
 
Put a chisel grind on the side of adze that is closest to the handle. Leave the edge about 1mm thick. Thinner than that will just roll the first time it touches a rock.
 
Thanks for the quality input! I like being able to get that heavy Pulaski head crashing down, and a decent edge on the adze means I don't have to shift around very much to take out root sections. Gonna go hit the grinder tomorrow for a little touchup, and think merry thoughts about smacking the guy who thought Liquid Amber trees needed to be planted between a curb and a sidewalk.
 
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