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SC T100's Axe Projects (Pic Heavy)
- Thread starter SC T100
- Start date
- Joined
- Jan 29, 2014
- Messages
- 1,638
I think your maul looks great. I can only presume that the axe eye was there for this very reason - the curved handle maybe felt better to some people.
Square_peg
Gold Member
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2012
- Messages
- 13,854
They make axe-eye maul handles. House carries them. They're straight.
Yep! It's hard, but not super hard. Mine had some chips as well, so it may be a little brittle, but a decent profile should get it going. Mine has yet to split anything, but I just finished it. I will also likelt thin the bevels some as removing the chips made it a bit too steep.
Yep...some had sledge eyes, some have axe eyes. My guess would be the axe-eyes are for slightly lighter duty due to the thinner eye walls. But who knows. My 6-lb maul is an axe-eye maul. The Boss 8lb-er is sledge eye. Maybe use the axe as the hammer more, and the sledge eyes as the wedge.
I suspect that your wedges may be too long.
I believe the heart wood is much more brash than the sap wood. I have no scientific data to back that up just some experience with a draw knife, our ancestors insisting on sap wood for a couple hundred years and probably the support of the wood bow making community if I was to ask them. I sure do not recall seeing them use it. Still I think it is better than ash and ash is OK.
Yes, I think they were...they likely needed to be shorter and with a more obtuse angle.
"The Monster" Sager
I plan to be camping in the area I first found this head in a few weeks, so I wanted to bring it back now that it's up to snuff to use for gathering and splitting firewood. As I received it the bevels were pretty steep, and while I thinned it some previously, it was still very much thicker than the Ax to Grind gauge. So I grabbed it, and spent quite a while with the file. This thing has a very hard bit, so I had to use my Heller Nu-Cut. I brought the checks back a good bit, and while I need to practice getting a perfect banana grind, I came pretty close. The edge this thing has now is scary sharp, and I'm excited to use it now that the haft is thinned, and the bevels are good. Should be a beast of an all around full-size axe. As you can see I caught the side of the head quite a few times, but that was generally when the file would skip on the extremely hard oxidized layer as I worked it back. No biggie.
I plan to be camping in the area I first found this head in a few weeks, so I wanted to bring it back now that it's up to snuff to use for gathering and splitting firewood. As I received it the bevels were pretty steep, and while I thinned it some previously, it was still very much thicker than the Ax to Grind gauge. So I grabbed it, and spent quite a while with the file. This thing has a very hard bit, so I had to use my Heller Nu-Cut. I brought the checks back a good bit, and while I need to practice getting a perfect banana grind, I came pretty close. The edge this thing has now is scary sharp, and I'm excited to use it now that the haft is thinned, and the bevels are good. Should be a beast of an all around full-size axe. As you can see I caught the side of the head quite a few times, but that was generally when the file would skip on the extremely hard oxidized layer as I worked it back. No biggie.
Square_peg
Gold Member
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2012
- Messages
- 13,854
That looks great! I think it'll chop superbly.
Thanks! I think so too. I'm curious how the edge will hold up as it's pretty thin now. It may need a little convexing after some use, but it'll get used soon enough and I'll find out!
Haha! Thanks. It took me second, but I definitely see what you meant! They're really rare Sager voles.
Well, no new axes lately, but I did pick up some new stones. I grabbed some the new Baryonyx stones (the Sportsman's Puck and the American Mutt stone).
When new (along with a 1000 grit ceramic plate):
After some extended use over the last few weeks:
Some their handiwork (not pictured, a bunch of machetes I refined and sharpened):
All are hair-popping sharp. I finished with the 1000-grit stone and a strop, but they were all hair-popping sharp after finishing with the fine side of the puck. The Mutt was used to remove previous heavy file marks. I used water with the stones, and I typically worked in a circular scrubbing motion.
But holy moly I am very, very impressed. The mutt stone cuts fast with some pressure, but doesn't leave huge gouges like my Lansky heavy duty stone (pictured in the back) does. Then I follow that up with with both sides of the puck and you're ready to go with a great finish. On the bench I can then finish with the ceramic and strop, and these things are scary sharp. They are worlds better than the standard stones in the hardware store (which I have as well). The Mutt stone does require some pressure to cut aggressively, but a light touch allows a smoother finish... and it's *heavy* and should last a good long time.
When new (along with a 1000 grit ceramic plate):
After some extended use over the last few weeks:
Some their handiwork (not pictured, a bunch of machetes I refined and sharpened):
All are hair-popping sharp. I finished with the 1000-grit stone and a strop, but they were all hair-popping sharp after finishing with the fine side of the puck. The Mutt was used to remove previous heavy file marks. I used water with the stones, and I typically worked in a circular scrubbing motion.
But holy moly I am very, very impressed. The mutt stone cuts fast with some pressure, but doesn't leave huge gouges like my Lansky heavy duty stone (pictured in the back) does. Then I follow that up with with both sides of the puck and you're ready to go with a great finish. On the bench I can then finish with the ceramic and strop, and these things are scary sharp. They are worlds better than the standard stones in the hardware store (which I have as well). The Mutt stone does require some pressure to cut aggressively, but a light touch allows a smoother finish... and it's *heavy* and should last a good long time.
"Supergood" or "Superbad"
I grabbed this head from an estate sale recently. It came in rough shape, remnants of black paint, no stamp, and poorly hung. I initially thought it was a hatchet, but after getting the old handle off, it's definitely more of a XL hatchet or small boy's axe. It's eye is too big for my hatchet handles, and a bit too small for my boy's axe handle. It weighed in a 1.8 lbs. So it's a weird in-between size...kinda like a GB small forest axe. This leads me to believe, based on a post from Square_peg, that it's perhaps a house axe, that should be on a 20" handle.
So once I got the head off the handle (thanks for the epoxy PO!), I could inspect the head a little more.
The first thing I noticed was the chipped bit. I figured someone used for purposes other than wood. I may have been wrong (more on that in a second).
The top of the head seemed ok:
The bottom...not so much. The eye was deformed a bit, but without the usual poll mushrooming. Strange.
So here's the part where I'm trying to determine if this axe is really good, or really bad.
This bit is the single hardest piece of steel I've tried to sharpen...the only thing that came close was a few spots on a Harbor Freight hatchet from earlier in this thread. On this head, for the entirety of the bit, my files *all* skate, even my best vintage Heller and Nicholsons. My Sager and Plumbs are hard and take effort, but this thing is crazy hard. So I suspect this is a cheap import that's been hardened too high/not tempered. That may explain the chipping.
However, it actually has a bit of a high centerline, which I don't see on cheap imports.
So I'm stumped...it's either really good, or really bad.
I've begun reprofiling it with my Lansky Heavy Duty stone, but it takes some *work*. I thought the files would bit once I got into fresh steel a bit.
Nope.
I did manage to hammer the eye back some, so it should be good to hang.
Pics after a vinegar batch and some stone work...I have a long way to go.
So my main question...
Should I throw this thing in the oven a 450 for an hour to see if it tempers it back a bit?
I grabbed this head from an estate sale recently. It came in rough shape, remnants of black paint, no stamp, and poorly hung. I initially thought it was a hatchet, but after getting the old handle off, it's definitely more of a XL hatchet or small boy's axe. It's eye is too big for my hatchet handles, and a bit too small for my boy's axe handle. It weighed in a 1.8 lbs. So it's a weird in-between size...kinda like a GB small forest axe. This leads me to believe, based on a post from Square_peg, that it's perhaps a house axe, that should be on a 20" handle.
So once I got the head off the handle (thanks for the epoxy PO!), I could inspect the head a little more.
The first thing I noticed was the chipped bit. I figured someone used for purposes other than wood. I may have been wrong (more on that in a second).
The top of the head seemed ok:
The bottom...not so much. The eye was deformed a bit, but without the usual poll mushrooming. Strange.
So here's the part where I'm trying to determine if this axe is really good, or really bad.
This bit is the single hardest piece of steel I've tried to sharpen...the only thing that came close was a few spots on a Harbor Freight hatchet from earlier in this thread. On this head, for the entirety of the bit, my files *all* skate, even my best vintage Heller and Nicholsons. My Sager and Plumbs are hard and take effort, but this thing is crazy hard. So I suspect this is a cheap import that's been hardened too high/not tempered. That may explain the chipping.
However, it actually has a bit of a high centerline, which I don't see on cheap imports.
So I'm stumped...it's either really good, or really bad.
I've begun reprofiling it with my Lansky Heavy Duty stone, but it takes some *work*. I thought the files would bit once I got into fresh steel a bit.
Nope.
I did manage to hammer the eye back some, so it should be good to hang.
Pics after a vinegar batch and some stone work...I have a long way to go.
So my main question...
Should I throw this thing in the oven a 450 for an hour to see if it tempers it back a bit?