Questions about axe handles (fawns-foot to start with)

[rjdankert]

 

[300Six]

Certainly the oval-shaped back end and swell x-section on an AxeBat forces the wielder to hold the implement in only one of two possible positions but really does nothing else of any consequence.

 

[Skweeker]

Not to mention that improving a baseball bat could be accomplished a thousand ways, but a game requires standards, chopping trees doesn't. The object of a game is not to make it easier, or else we would have seen the baseball bat change completely.

Agreed. Without standards or "rules" everything devolves down to war. I'd be a great baseball player if I could use an Uzi.

Golf, as near as I can tell, shares few commonalities with axe use. But baseball swings are similar and very well studied, so it is useful to attempt to understand the forces at work.

You haven't seen me play golf.

 

[G-pig]

Try this. Let your arms hang down at your side. Grasp a pencil in your hand. Bring your arm up until it's pointing straight out. Is the pencil pointed straight forward or up at an angle? That angle is why a curved haft is a more natural grip than a straight haft.

As Idaho_Crosscut said in the first response to this thread, "the fawns foot typically feels better on the wrists as you are chopping all day, because it doesn't over extend your top wrist as much."

If you are getting fatigued from overextending your wrist while chopping with a straight handle, I think it's almost universally attributable to the handle being too long, the axe being hung too open for bucking (the prevailing situation where wrist fatigue of this sort happens), and not using the bottom third of the axe to lead into the cut. If you try to belly flop with the edge, you are going to have to reach out and over extend your wrists. But it's not necessary to belly flop. Lead in the bottom third/heel of the axe, or rehang your axe with a more closed hafting angle to make that kind of edge presentation more attainable without straining the wrists.

I've said this again and again. It's more of an issue of how well the axe is put together than any kind of intrinsic advantage to a curved handle.

 

[G-pig]

First of all, congratulations, that was an epic tirade. I love it.



This is precisely my point, so well done again. I don't take issue with the idea lengthening the distance of the pivot from the bit, increases the deviation if a twist were to occur (I think I said that but that's ok). I take issue with the fact that it's not real world. The real issue is that the lack of accuracy has to exist. Why should it? A race car driver wants more response from his car, why, because he's a professional. Someone who swung an axe all day every day is a professional IMO, therefore what Cook calls a negative, I am calling a positive. You said it yourself. So Cook wanted to find something wrong and he looked at the problem from an amateur's perspective - ie someone who didn't have accuracy to begin with. But for someone who does, they want better response from their tool with more minute input.

This is somewhat silly to me. An axe is not a race car. If anything an axe less sensitive to deviation will hold an accurate course throughout the swing. Why would someone be changing the angle of their strike during the swing? That implies that the person is changing their mind about what angle they want the axe to take during the strike. A good axeman starts the swing out correctly and only requires his axe to keep that course or change very slightly. A hyper sensitive axe has more potential to be unnecessarily wobbling than it does to suddenly assume the right course at the last possible second to achieve a good blow.

Why does a chopper need to constantly adjust his angle of strike throughout his swing?

There is really no situation where an axe needs to turn like a race car, as far as my admittedly feeble intellect can reach. If anything, it should go in a more or less straight trajectory, and the less likely it is to deviate from that trajectory, the better.