trying out my new axe

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I was feeling rough yesterday. Old age and 30 plus years of manual labor catching up. It is also the first cool day of fall. I thought a fire may help. So I grabbed the latest axe/hatchet I've been working on to try it out it did fine splitting the elm limbs I have for fire wood. I also cut some limbs up and does a decent job
That is maple the axe is in I am trying to burn up the tons of elm I have and save the maple for cooking fires

 

Got a fire going again tonight. I am really impressed with this axe splitting wood . For its size it does great. This was a tinkering project that has turned out better than I expected
I also worked on the handle of my Norse hawk most of the time it is on a 14 inch handle. That handle was a little snug fitting for the hawk. A little sanding and now it comes off the handle better. I keep it sharp enough to use the head like an ulu 14 inch handle makes it handy to pack and is enough for things I would chop with a hawk . I have a full length handle too if needed

 

What I was splitting is limb pieces 4-8 inches in diameter 18 inches long easiest parts to split but as you say any elm is tough. I have a slide hammer splitter that I use for trunk sections. A friend came down and took down both the maple and this elm I got the maple cut and stacked and part of the elm health issues slowed me down. This elm was at the edge of my yard leaning towards my neighbors yard . my friend dropped it opposite of the lean. I have cut my share of trees but I couldn't have dropped this tree where I needed it to fall . Carl has been a tree trimmer for 30 year. There aren't many people who could have dropped this tree where he did. He cut this tree and the maple which he had to climb. He drove 90 miles one way. I snuck a $100 bill in a thank you card and he was upset that I paid him .

 

It started out as a harbor freight firemans hatchet that I modded it has decent steel for a $16 hatchet (with 20% off coupon)
This
https://m.harborfreight.com/2-lb-firemans-hatchet-94549.html

 

Yes it holds an edge. I bought 2 of the fiberglass handle hatchets on sale a while ago. I got them to chop roots and stuff. While back I went on a sharpening binge when I got to the cheap harbor freight hatchet to my surprise it is harder than my estwing and fiskars hatchets and almost as hard as my Vauhan . I was looking for a project and saw these. You need to look them over though. Out of 3 on the rack one had a loose head and one had bad grain orientation . Heat treat is great, it takes and holds a good edge yet the body is soft enough that I cut the spike off with a sawzall

 

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As I said I am not splitting big stuff. But even smaller stuff is tough on elm . I will say this I am not a novice at splitting either having both heating with wood for years and helping split wood to sell before splitters were common