Stihl hatchet question

The Washington Trails Association takes a lot of tools into the woods. We've lost plenty of tools over the years. Now we paint bright colors on all of our tools. We clean, sharpen and repaint our tools every year.

Pile_o_Pulaskis.JPG
 
Square_peg said:
The Washington Trails Association takes a lot of tools into the woods. We've lost plenty of tools over the years. Now we paint bright colors on all of our tools. We clean, sharpen and repaint our tools every year.

Pile_o_Pulaskis.JPG
Click to expand...
This room leaves me in AWL! Dang!
 
You all have shown me the light. The bright light. While OD is my favorite color, it doesn't belong on a tool you might take into the woods. I think I'll leave the Stihl for tasks around the house. It's a tad heavy to backpack anyway. I'll leave that task to my lighter Fiskars hatchet. I might wrap the top of that handle with blaze orange or toxic green.
 
nhobo said:
If I was in the market for a hand axe I’d get a Japanese one.

View attachment 2261292
Click to expand...
Why is that? Because of some mythical properties of Japanese steel? Or because you believe the geometry is better for some specific use?

Do you understand that strikes on a long beard put an eccentric load on a short eye and stress the wood very rapidly?
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
I like bright blue myself. There are very few truly blue things in nature so it sticks out at all times of the year while being less harsh on the eyes than a lot of the "high-viz" options.
Click to expand...
This is truth.

Blue and then white stand out the most in the woods. This may be why a prominent Appalachian Trails crew called themselves the 'Blue and White Crew'.

 
Square_peg said:
Why is that? Because of some mythical properties of Japanese steel? Or because you believe the geometry is better for some specific use?
Click to expand...
No mythology required. After a lifetime in fine woodworking I've found that Japanese hand tools are superior. As to geometry, a craftsman sets that as required for the task at hand.
Square_peg said:
Do you understand that strikes on a long beard put an eccentric load on a short eye and stress the wood very rapidly?
Click to expand...
Do you understand that all bearded axes have the same basic design? Do you understand that the durability of the handle is the result of type and quality of the wood and the manner in which the tool is used?
 
whatever the color is , this haft seems way too thick. you can slim it down and paint it back a bright color of your choice....
 
nhobo said:
Do you understand that all bearded axes have the same basic design? Do you understand that the durability of the handle is the result of type and quality of the wood and the manner in which the tool is used?
Click to expand...

For a general use hatchet a bearded design is a poor choice.

Read this to learn more about the mechanics of an axe eye and how forces act on them.

The drawback in the Hudson Bay pattern

Several times I've mentioned that I prefer the boys axe pattern over the Hudson Bay pattern because of its deeper eye, hence stronger connection to the haft. I've meant to elaborate on this several times and just never got around to it. I'm still just coming to understand this and I would...
www.bladeforums.com www.bladeforums.com
 
Uncle Timbo said:
Thanks for your input everybody. I pulled the trigger and bought one. The edge was a tad toothy but I straightened that out. The streak down the head is from the acetone I used to get the label adhesive off.
For a sub $40 dollar hatchet I'm well pleased. View attachment 2255065It cuts good enough for me and feels good in the hand.
Click to expand...

A couple things I've noticed about the Stihl hatchets and axes, the palm swell is too gradual and doesn't create a 'hook' for the pinky as traditional American hickory hafts do. I also find the grip to be overly round. I'd prefer it was a little more oval shaped.

They are pretty decent choppers, especially for the lighter tasks you would perform with a hatchet. But they are a little sticky for splitting because of the slim cheeks and the abrupt transition from thin cheeks to the fat eye. The fat eye is necessary to accommodate enough European ash to match the strength of a slimmer piece of American hickory. With ash you just need more wood. This could be influencing the thickness of the grip and palm swell but I really don't think all the thickness is needed down there.

I think it would feel better in the hand if the swell were rasped out a little as I've tried to illustrate in this image.

Stihl%20hatchet%20modified.jpg
 
Square_peg said:
A couple things I've noticed about the Stihl hatchets and axes, the palm swell is too gradual and doesn't create a 'hook' for the pinky as traditional American hickory hafts do. I also find the grip to be overly round. I'd prefer it was a little more oval shaped.

They are pretty decent choppers, especially for the lighter tasks you would perform with a hatchet. But they are a little sticky for splitting because of the slim cheeks and the abrupt transition from thin cheeks to the fat eye. The fat eye is necessary to accommodate enough European ash to match the strength of a slimmer piece of American hickory. With ash you just need more wood. This could be influencing the thickness of the grip and palm swell but I really don't think all the thickness is needed down there.

I think it would feel better in the hand if the swell were rasped out a little as I've tried to illustrate in this image.

Stihl%20hatchet%20modified.jpg
Click to expand...
That's a very interesting observation. I kind of like the way the handle is but I have big hands. I'll look at it closer when I get back down to WV where it is. But thank you.
 
It's great to have an axe with you when driving back roads like those around Mt. St. Helens. In my SUV I make do with a 1-1/4 pound camp/scout hatchet made with 1080 American steel and a 16" Silky saw.

When I worked for the local DNR and helped manage local forests we patrolled in teams. My partner and I kept boys axes and Stihl chainsaws in the truck. When using the saws our employer required us to suit up, put on our chaps, helmets and ear and eye protection. So if a tree blocking the road was small we'd just use the axes so we didn't have to suit up. For a large tree we would both suit and grab our saws. For a medium tree one would suit up and the other would go with the axe. As the better axe man I typically grabbed an axe. But we would challenge each other. The axe man would attempt to reduce the fall to moveable pieces before the the saw man got his saw fired up. lol 😄

I would occasionally succeed in doing this but my partner never did.
 
Square_peg said:
A couple things I've noticed about the Stihl hatchets and axes, the palm swell is too gradual and doesn't create a 'hook' for the pinky as traditional American hickory hafts do. I also find the grip to be overly round. I'd prefer it was a little more oval shaped.

They are pretty decent choppers, especially for the lighter tasks you would perform with a hatchet. But they are a little sticky for splitting because of the slim cheeks and the abrupt transition from thin cheeks to the fat eye. The fat eye is necessary to accommodate enough European ash to match the strength of a slimmer piece of American hickory. With ash you just need more wood. This could be influencing the thickness of the grip and palm swell but I really don't think all the thickness is needed down there.

I think it would feel better in the hand if the swell were rasped out a little as I've tried to illustrate in this image.

Stihl%20hatchet%20modified.jpg
Click to expand...

S Square_peg is exactly right on this. modern axe handles have become very bizarely shaped. I guess because of ease of manufacture and cost. They know they have to expand something and the end of the handle, so they make this big goofy angled thing that lacks any side to side flare at all. the front to back shape can sometimes be corrected as S Square_peg has well described, but the side to side shape can't be fixed as new axe handles are basically just made out of rectangular stock that is minimally shaped and rounded at the corners. a far cry from the functional handles from a hundred years ago.
 
Last edited:
you still can cut a little bit off the swell to gain space in a rucksack ... i have no talent for drawing with computer but someone else could do it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top