Sharpened Prybars vs Axes

Not2,
You're right. I knew I should have kept quiet on the axe issue. However, as a woodcarver, I see an awful lot of useless tools being offered for sale to would be carvers. Most of them give up, never realizing that their failure had less too do with them, and lots to do with the poor quality tools they were sold.

[This message has been edited by Paracelsus (edited 28 November 1999).]
 
Paracelsus :

hardware store type axes are mostly designed to collect your money, and little else
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Pretty much, the edges are thick and very blunt, they are too narrow across the face, too light and the steel is usually very poor quality. They are "beater" axes, the kind you would use to rough out a garden by removing a layer of sod for example or as John mentioned splitting at which they do fairly poorly but better than a felling axe.

If you grind the face down you can make a decent enough axe for felling, but the face would still be far too narrow for me and the overall geometry still off which would probably lead to excessive binding. It would however make a decent limbing tool, then again a fair sized knife will do that with little difficulty.

Johno :

I would consider an ax as offering more leverage as it allows for greater speed and impact energy due to the longer handle, and the weight being concentrated at the end of the handle.
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I would agree that is what it does, but I would not call that leverage. There is a gain in impact force by two main factors; one the longer arm results in a much greater velocity, and two, the concentration of mass at the end requires a greater force to generate the necessary torque to stop the head upon impact.

-Cliff

 
On suitable edges for chopping ..... most of the hardware store axes that I've seen lately do have poor edges, much worse than even a few years ago. I guess the effort to keep costs down has resulted in very little finishing being done. Some stores around here have what appears to be older inventory, one even had a nice Plumb double bit, a model that I hadn't seen for awhile. I've also seen some nice full size Collins single bits and 3/4 double bits that were well done, some Norland (?) Hudson Bay I think they're called, and a few others including some nicely finished tools at Sears. At one store there were some Plumb builder's hatchets with 18in handles, a bit pricey, and other customers must have heard me growling like Tim Allen when I was handling them . Anymore I always look at the axes, machetes and such in addition to knives in stores, being the edged tool geek that I guess I am now. Even with 'edges like they use to make in the good not so old days' one still needed to watch the edge thickness and keep it thinned if one wanted good chopping performance, something that one of my Scout Masters taught me back in the mid 1960s when I was trying to chop a large log in half with my official Boy Scout Plumb hatchet. I thought he cheated when he zipped thru that log with a saw :^)
 
I work with some serious search and rescue people.
They recommend a folding saw and a small utility knife.
I agree.
Not as much fun as carrying a giant Sasquatch Slayer, though.
If you want a short sword, you don't need to justify it by pretending it will do double service as a survival knife or all-in-one log cabin hacken-maker.
As an adult male, you not only have a right to a sword, you have a duty to own one.
You don't need no stinkin' excuses.

------------------
Luke 22:36, John 18:6-11, Freedom

 
IMHO I always carry my #5-5' Randall Made for CUTTING chores and have quite taken to the McGowan Belt Axe for CHOPPING chores. A large knife is only a happy medium at best. try chopping for 15 minutes with a battle Mistress (as I've done) or a small hatchet (the McGowan) and see which cuts more wood. You'd soon leave all of your Ramboesque delusions aside and opt for the hatchet.
 
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