The "Ask Nathan a Question" Thread

With an axe possibly on the board and the R&D that will accompany its production, here's a question for you, Nathan:

I had a boys axe made up by a maker here on BladeForums. It's a terrific axe, being everything that I was hoping for when I commissioned it. It's a bit stouter and heftier than a GB Forest Axe but that suits my needs.

However, this axe has been poo-pooed by some of the purists because the maker opted to fully harden the head. Traditionally, axe heads have a hardened bit (sometimes the poll too) but everything else is left soft in order to better absorb the rigors of axe work. The experts claim that a fully hardened head speaks to the lack of skill and experience of the maker and that the axe will eventually and spectacularly fail at some point. However, contrary to their "conventional wisdom", it has also been noted that modern metallurgy has produced steel quality that no longer necessitates the need for differential heat treatment in these kinds of applications.

I imagine that your K20 work will certainly speak to this but do you think with your manufacturing standards and the quality of your materials, that you will even need to explore differential heat treating on your axe? I cannot think of a possible use case scenario where your axe will require any of the traditional methods. I don't think a D3V axe head is going to fail in any of the ways that a traditionally made axe would.

pwnJA3B.jpg
 
Pàdruig said:
With an axe possibly on the board and the R&D that will accompany its production, here's a question for you, Nathan:

I had a boys axe made up by a maker here on BladeForums. It's a terrific axe, being everything that I was hoping for when I commissioned it. It's a bit stouter and heftier than a GB Forest Axe but that suits my needs.

However, this axe has been poo-pooed by some of the purists because the maker opted to fully harden the head. Traditionally, axe heads have a hardened bit (sometimes the poll too) but everything else is left soft in order to better absorb the rigors of axe work. The experts claim that a fully hardened head speaks to the lack of skill and experience of the maker and that the axe will eventually and spectacularly fail at some point. However, contrary to their "conventional wisdom", it has also been noted that modern metallurgy has produced steel quality that no longer necessitates the need for differential heat treatment in these kinds of applications.

I imagine that your K20 work will certainly speak to this but do you think with your manufacturing standards and the quality of your materials, that you will even need to explore differential heat treating on your axe? I cannot think of a possible use case scenario where your axe will require any of the traditional methods. I don't think a D3V axe head is going to fail in any of the ways that a traditionally made axe would.

pwnJA3B.jpg
Click to expand...

Thanks, Elliott. It's been percolating a bit, especially since it seems confirmed that we just might see a CPK axe in the future.
 
Pàdruig said:
With an axe possibly on the board and the R&D that will accompany its production, here's a question for you, Nathan:

I had a boys axe made up by a maker here on BladeForums. It's a terrific axe, being everything that I was hoping for when I commissioned it. It's a bit stouter and heftier than a GB Forest Axe but that suits my needs.

However, this axe has been poo-pooed by some of the purists because the maker opted to fully harden the head. Traditionally, axe heads have a hardened bit (sometimes the poll too) but everything else is left soft in order to better absorb the rigors of axe work. The experts claim that a fully hardened head speaks to the lack of skill and experience of the maker and that the axe will eventually and spectacularly fail at some point. However, contrary to their "conventional wisdom", it has also been noted that modern metallurgy has produced steel quality that no longer necessitates the need for differential heat treatment in these kinds of applications.

I imagine that your K20 work will certainly speak to this but do you think with your manufacturing standards and the quality of your materials, that you will even need to explore differential heat treating on your axe? I cannot think of a possible use case scenario where your axe will require any of the traditional methods. I don't think a D3V axe head is going to fail in any of the ways that a traditionally made axe would.

pwnJA3B.jpg
Click to expand...
Seems like toughness is the main factor for that, which 3V/D3V excels at.
 
Is it possible we could see two axes/hatchets from CPK….?

A 2 - 3 pound model about the size and handle length of a Gransfors Scandinavian Forest axe and a much smaller hatchet like a Gransfors Small Hatchet or Wildlife Hatchet.

Ideally, the eye of any axe or hatchet would be the same size and shape as one of the Gransfors products so replacement handles would be easy to source.
 
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Pàdruig said:
With an axe possibly on the board and the R&D that will accompany its production, here's a question for you, Nathan:

I had a boys axe made up by a maker here on BladeForums. It's a terrific axe, being everything that I was hoping for when I commissioned it. It's a bit stouter and heftier than a GB Forest Axe but that suits my needs.

However, this axe has been poo-pooed by some of the purists because the maker opted to fully harden the head. Traditionally, axe heads have a hardened bit (sometimes the poll too) but everything else is left soft in order to better absorb the rigors of axe work. The experts claim that a fully hardened head speaks to the lack of skill and experience of the maker and that the axe will eventually and spectacularly fail at some point. However, contrary to their "conventional wisdom", it has also been noted that modern metallurgy has produced steel quality that no longer necessitates the need for differential heat treatment in these kinds of applications.

I imagine that your K20 work will certainly speak to this but do you think with your manufacturing standards and the quality of your materials, that you will even need to explore differential heat treating on your axe? I cannot think of a possible use case scenario where your axe will require any of the traditional methods. I don't think a D3V axe head is going to fail in any of the ways that a traditionally made axe would.

pwnJA3B.jpg
Click to expand...
Great questions. I was sort of wondering this myself as imagine it would be solid piece, not a traditional head with an eyelet that get's hung on hickory or something. Such a piece really lends to the imagination running wild...

I love axes/ hatchets though. And my favorites tend be solid 'hawks by RMJ.

One from CPK though... 🥹
 
Pàdruig said:
With an axe possibly on the board and the R&D that will accompany its production, here's a question for you, Nathan:

I had a boys axe made up by a maker here on BladeForums. It's a terrific axe, being everything that I was hoping for when I commissioned it. It's a bit stouter and heftier than a GB Forest Axe but that suits my needs.

However, this axe has been poo-pooed by some of the purists because the maker opted to fully harden the head. Traditionally, axe heads have a hardened bit (sometimes the poll too) but everything else is left soft in order to better absorb the rigors of axe work. The experts claim that a fully hardened head speaks to the lack of skill and experience of the maker and that the axe will eventually and spectacularly fail at some point. However, contrary to their "conventional wisdom", it has also been noted that modern metallurgy has produced steel quality that no longer necessitates the need for differential heat treatment in these kinds of applications.

I imagine that your K20 work will certainly speak to this but do you think with your manufacturing standards and the quality of your materials, that you will even need to explore differential heat treating on your axe? I cannot think of a possible use case scenario where your axe will require any of the traditional methods. I don't think a D3V axe head is going to fail in any of the ways that a traditionally made axe would.

pwnJA3B.jpg
Click to expand...


I'm not going to do a soft eye, poll. If one of these experts want to poo poo my heat treat, maybe they can show me how to do it better.

It's also going to be harder than a conventional axe. They'll probably poo poo that too. Maybe we could have a little competition where they cut something with their axe, and then I cut their axe with mine.

My goal will be to have an axe that cuts well and holds an edge better than anything out there.

It probably won't break much either.
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
I'm not going to do a soft eye, poll. If one of these experts want to poo poo my heat treat, maybe they can show me how to do it better.

It's also going to be harder than a conventional axe. They'll probably poo poo that too. Maybe we could have a little competition where they cut something with their axe, and then I cut their axe with mine.

My goal will be to have an axe that cuts well and holds an edge better than anything out there.

It probably won't break much either.
Click to expand...

Lead chain at 15 paces...
 
When talking about axes, people are going to talk about edge retention versus toughness and there is a common misconception about what toughness means to edge retention and the inverse correlation between them.

Obviously, you want an axe to be tough because you don't want it to break in impact.

That's not going to be too difficult to do with the right steel.

But, what you really need is durability. Which is not at all the same thing as toughness.

I put dings in my edges due to contact with hard things like rock or barbed wire etc.. A tough steel at a high hardness with good edge stability like optimized 3V is going to shrug off damage from this kind of situation where the old classic simple steels are going to take damage.

Lawn mower blades are made out of those same simple steels too. I am, no joke, putting Delta 3V inserts on my lawn mower blades, so when I'm mowing along my quarter mile gravel road I will pick up less damage from mowing the rocks.

The reality is, people want this. They just don't know it yet.
 
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