Cliff Stamp
BANNED
- Joined
- Oct 5, 1998
- Messages
- 17,562
This weekend I was comparing the performance of some axes, using the recently sharpened GB Wildlife hatchet to benchmark the performance of the other axes.
After cutting a lot of knotty spruce I finally got to chop into a nice piece of clear pine, six inches thick, or at least I thought it was clear. About the sixth hit I heard a "ping" and hatchet rebounds right out of the cut.
There was a very hard knot in the center of the soft wood, at an angle so the hatchet hit is basically right across the grain, the edge simply folded right across the knot.
I try the hatchet out near the heel and toe and again it folds (the metal was all going to be ground off anyway, just checking for consistency).
This is the worse wood combination, very hard angled knot in very soft wood, all the force of the impact goes with the knot contact, if the wood was harder it would be easier on the axe, which is why ironically pine is generally more dangerous to cut than spruce when knotty.
The damage was slight, the edge was only dented ~0.005" thick at back, a tribute to the performance of the steel that it took such a heavy dent (~90 degrees) without fracture. The angle in that part of the edge was 12 +/- 1 degrees.
Reground the damage, resharpened and ready to go again next weekend.
-Cliff
After cutting a lot of knotty spruce I finally got to chop into a nice piece of clear pine, six inches thick, or at least I thought it was clear. About the sixth hit I heard a "ping" and hatchet rebounds right out of the cut.
There was a very hard knot in the center of the soft wood, at an angle so the hatchet hit is basically right across the grain, the edge simply folded right across the knot.
I try the hatchet out near the heel and toe and again it folds (the metal was all going to be ground off anyway, just checking for consistency).
This is the worse wood combination, very hard angled knot in very soft wood, all the force of the impact goes with the knot contact, if the wood was harder it would be easier on the axe, which is why ironically pine is generally more dangerous to cut than spruce when knotty.
The damage was slight, the edge was only dented ~0.005" thick at back, a tribute to the performance of the steel that it took such a heavy dent (~90 degrees) without fracture. The angle in that part of the edge was 12 +/- 1 degrees.
Reground the damage, resharpened and ready to go again next weekend.
-Cliff