Wetterling camping hatchet made in Sweden

C

Cliff Stamp

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The axe head is hand forged most likely out of Swedish bandsaw steel (15n20)
and the edge tempered to 57-58 RC. The head of the axe is left in the
as-forged state except for the edge which has been shaped, sharpened and
polished. The head weighs 1 1/4" lbs, the total weight is 600 g. The
overall length is 12.25", the distance from the center of my grip to the
center of the head is 7.75" (for reference it is 8.75" on the Gransfors
Bruks Wildlife Hatchet). The head is centered on the handle, wedged in
place and secured with a metal locking ring. The handle is hickory,
vertical grain and has a slick finish that needs to be removed.

In regards to the quality of the forging, it is far below that seen on the
Gransfors Bruks Wildlife Hatchet. The Wetterling hatchet shows numerous fold
lines throughout the head and basically it is not well shaped. For example
the tip of the head should be flat, however it is not, there is actually a
dip present, more of a wave actually. As well most of the transitions are
not very smooth but are abrupt and angular. As well there has been shaping
done by a grinder along the underside of the head. The lugs are also
mishapen. Note most of these aspects are cosmetic.

The bit of the axe is a little thick. For comparison here are three
thickness measurements in inches taken along the bit of the Wetterling
hatchet as compared to the same place on the Gransfors Bruks Wildlife
hatchet; 0.440 (0.365), 0.295 (0.232), 0.205 (0.172). Note how the Gransfors
Bruks hatchet is significantly thinner. However what is interesting is that
the primary edge grind on the Wetterling axe is thinner than that of
the Bruks hatchet. Specifically the Bruks hatchet hits 0.25" in thickness at
1.35" back from the edge, on the Wetterling axe this thickness is hit
further back at 1.50", which is very good indeed.

However the edge has a significant problem in that there is a secondary
bevel about one mm or so wide. This bevel was measured in multiple places
and found to vary from about 21 to 30 degrees, the latter is far too obtuse
for wood work. The edge is also not evenly ground, the bevel is wider on
the heel of the bit than it is on the toe. A very light burr can also be
felt along the edge. However the hatchet is decently sharp. Getting
specific it will push cut light thread taking between 180 and 440 g.
Cutting 1/4" poly under a 1000 g load requires between 2.75 to 4.75 cm. The
heel of the bit is much sharper than the toe. For reference a sharp blade
will cut the thread at about 100 g and slice the poly under that load in
under one cm.

The handle design is very strong. The top of the handle in the grip region
should be an "S" shape. It should curve up to fill out the center of the
palm and then hollow out to give a smooth transition across the edge of the
hand. The bottom of the handle in this region hould have a very pronounced
hollow which is used both for security as well as for driving against for
very powerful snap cuts. This is exactly how the handle has been shaped. The
only negative aspect is that the end knob has extremely square edges which
should have all been rounded off.

I will sharpen this axe this evening, considering the decent quality of the
existing edge that will only take some work on fine sandpaper (5 Micron SiC)
and a quick polish on CrO loaded leather. I hope to get some use with it the
weekend. Assuming the steel quality is good, the secondary bevel will be
removed as that is only required if you are cutting really thick bone.
However even with this problem I still expect very good performance from the
hatchet and look forward to using it.

Ref :

http://www.garrettwade.com/images/26D1201.jpg

Note the hatchet also comes with a small pamphlet, a short version of the
"Axe Book" that Gransfors Bruks produces. As well I am not 100% sure I have
the "Campers Axe", the head weight does matches the specs as does the
length, however the poll is polished and curved for use as a flay poll, yet
square corners are left which would prevent such use.

-Cliff
 
I look forward to the rest of your review Cliff. I got one of the small felling axes (20" handle) for a gift and have not tried out much yet. I have no experience with other axes to compare it to either so I want to see how it rates. It seems solid enough to me, but as I said, I have no basis of comparison.
 
I sharpened it last night. The small secondary edge bevel is convex and it went to a shaving sharpness polish without a lot of effort. I also sanded the handle in the throat to improve the grip.

A couple of problems I forgot to mention in the above :

There was a fair amount of rust of the head when it arrived. With a finish this rough you really want to ship the blade with a good coat of oil or wax. No its not a major problem, and it can easily be cleaned, but when you warn about letting your axe rust with the instructions that come with it, and it arrives rusty - well that doesn't make a lot of sense.

The edge doesn't have the right curvature. The edge should sweep out in a nice circular arc. The profile on this hatchet is kind of square, not as flat as you would see on a carpenters hatchet but not as round as you want for fresh wood hatchet.

-Cliff
 
Thanks for a great review Cliff: I'm looking forward to the rest of it!
A couple of questions:
How much did the hatchet end up costing once you got it to Canada?
The Gransfors axes and hatchet have wood grain that indicates by the curvature - that the wood was cut from young trees. Supposedly this is the prime wood and better. Is the Wetterling handle like this?
 
Hi Cliff,
It sounds like this one may be a bit of a disappointment :( I'm still hoping that it will preform well, since I'm considering buying one. I'll be watching for the rest of your review.

Patrick
 
Jimbo :

How much did the hatchet end up costing once you got it to Canada?
Click to expand...

You will get hit by duty going through customs, and the shipping costs from
Garrett Wade was expensive as they use really large boxes, it was almost as
expensive as the hatchet itself. I only ordered from them because I could
not find the Wetterling axes anywhere else as they are also really slow in
shipping,

[question on wood]

Is the Wetterling handle like this?
Click to expand...

Yes.

Patrick :

It sounds like this one may be a bit of a disappointment
Click to expand...

The problem is that the Gransfors Bruks line gives so much quality for the
money. It would be like if Reeves started selling the Sebenza for $150,
suddenly all those folders that were once through of so strongly would be
seriously downgraded. They did not get any worse of course, but the
standard for a $150 folder just recieved one hell of an upgrade and
everything else now suffers from a very skewed grading curve.

Any, enough speculation on to a discussion of some actual use :

Saturday was fine and I got to spend a decent amount of time with the
Wetterling Campers axe and the Gransfors Bruks Wildlife hatchet. I chopped
45 pieces of wood in total with each axe, for a total of ~500 chops each.
The wood was mostly Fir, harder than average as it was in a low light area,
which contained a lot of dead wood which is what I was clearning out. I also
used the occasional piece of Black Spruce when I wanted some knotty wood to
check edge durability and Pine when I wanted to relax and just plow through
some sticks. The wood ranged from about 2.5 to 5.5 inches in diameter and
about 15 to 35 feet long. I didn't go under 2.5" as then the hatchets could
pretty much chop right through the sticks so comparisions would be really
noisy and I didn't go much over 5.5" as I didn't want to burn a lot of
energy carring the sticks out of the clearing over to the chopping block (a
high stump I left for exactly that reason).

Getting specific I was chopping using full powered swings from the shoulder
with hard wrist snaps. i was not drawing on my back or hips because my off
hand was on the wood holding it in place. A couple of times I used a heavier
chopping swing, usually when a large knot was through the center of the cut
and I wanted to clear it out quickly, as well as to look a the edge impacts
from a worse case senario. Most of the cutting was done when I was fresh
with little or no fatigue so I could see how the axes would perform in
optimum conditions, cut placement, power and control. This meant that I took
short breaks inbetween the cuts (30s to one minute), and five minutes every
dozen or so cuts. I also did some runs with heavy fatigue to see if there
was any difference in the performance as well to see if the grip was
effected any differently (it wasn't). Along the lines of the latter I did a
few runs using sweat as well as a lubricant (Deep Woods Off) on my hand to
see if I could still control the chops.

Past the description onto the performance :

The Wetterling hatchet immediately brought a smile to my face as soon as I
used it to slice open the starting notches for the cut on the first stick.
The penetration was high, using just light wrist action it easily went in
about 1/2" or so, in the same class as the Gransfors Bruks Wildlife hatchet.
Moving on to actual chopping the performance high in regards to penetration,
it sank in deep and did not wedge excessively (with one exception as noted
below). It stayed with the Bruks hatchet on all the wood and was never
outclassed. I have done a lot of chopping comparisons and some of them were
difficult as the blade being compared to the Bruks hatchet didn't fare well,
but in this case the hours went by smoothly and I only went home because I
ran out of water. Only brought 2L along with me, didn't think I would need
any more.

Once I got home I cleaned up the edges and examined them both by eye and
under a 10x scope. No damage was visible to the edge. I didn't expect any on
the Wetterling because of the additional micro-edge bevel which is fairly
obtuse as noted in the above. I also did some light cutting tests, on paper
and such and both axes performed about the same, which impressed me in
regards to the Wetterling as the Bruks axe uses a quality steel and forging.
I'll comment in more detail later on about edge retention issues and ease of
sharpening. This run was just to get a decent grasp on the relative chopping
ability. I also viced the heads and tried some twists and bends on the
handle to see if the heads had loosened. I could detect no movement at all.

Ok so were there any negative aspects? Yes :

irst off it was immediately obvious that the sheared off handle design on
the Wetterling axe is a problem. If my grip relaxed a little during a chop
it would slip down over the butt and then the sharp edge would come in
contact with my palm and the small contact area would produce rather high
pressures and thus discomfort. In contrast the handle on the Bruks hatchet
has a full formed butt which is comfortable even when center hand gripped.
In regards to the compromised grip work mentioned in the above, I would use
neither in such a manner as they are too unstable, you would want a more
aggressive texture to retain a secure grip in such conditions (I actually
use high friction grip tape on the throat of my axes and on all heavy
chopping blades for this reason).

In regards to the chopping, while the penetration was high there were a few
problems with the nature of the cuts. For maximum comfort and thus
productivity, you want the edge to enter smoothly and continue in the same
manner throughout the wood, this gives the minimum amount of shock which is
good for both blade and user. The release of the blade out of the wood
should also be smooth as to reduce fatigue and allow the chopping to be done
at a fluid pace. The Wetterling axe had a few problems in these regards.
First off all the face of the bit is really square, much like a Carpenters
hatchet, this means that the impact onto the wood is not as smooth as it
should be, as well the penetration is lowered (but just a little, not overly
significant), and more importantly the ends are far too sharp and will bind
excessively on partial cuts. The thinner primary grind on the Wetterling
also made it bind just a little more than the Bruks, but this was just
significant enough to be noticable, it was not a functional problem.

I want to repeat the above chopping which will only take one or two more
sessions given the high performance of both blades. Once this is done I have
some standard cutting to do (hard wood dowel), to give a reference for the
cutting ability of the hatchet as this is equally important as chopping for
such a small axe. Once this has been completed I will smooth out the edge
and remove the secondary edge bevel and then repeat the chopping and
hardwood dowel cutting. This will only take about another week or so
assuming I get the hardwood soon, it was ordered some time ago. Once that
has been performed I might actually reprofile the edge and give it the
correct smooth curvature. Once this is done the hardwood dowel cutting and
chopping will be repeated. All of this assumes of course that no major
problems are encountered in the process.

Getting specific about the chopping performance the Wetterling axe ranked at
87 +/- 3 as compared to the Bruks Hatchet which is the baseline at 100. This
is very strong performance and basically means that you would need to be
closely counting chops to see which one is higher. I think that the rank is
actually a little low because my notes indicate that the Bruks hatchet
seemed to draw the better wood more often. Once I do another 50 cuts with
each blade that will average out and I expect the Wetterling axe to climb in
rank to the low ninties.

Some subjective and biased comments as to the question of "worth" :


The Wetterling products are significantly cheaper than the Bruks versions.
Specifically ~$30 vs ~$55 for the smallest hatchets and ~$45 vs ~$65 for the
limbing/forest axes. Would I buy them? No, the extra money you spend on the
Bruks versions is not just getting a name brand axe. The differences are
both small, like an edge ready to go out of the box, as well as large (edge
geometry issues noted in the above, as well as more secure head/handle
attachment etc. ). However for its cost is the Wetterling a quality product?
I think so yes. It is in a cost bracket that is not that much above general
hardware store fare and it is a league above them in terms of performance.
Its biggest failing is that it has to compete with a product that gives
outstanding performance for the dollar.

However I realize that I might be judging the Wellerling products too
harshly because the possiblity exists I am using a non-standard product, I
will contact them and see if I can get a responce after about another month
or so of use. I'll also ask around and see what other people have recieved
as a I know of a couple who have them and the Bruks axes and see if I can't
get a decent size sample to work from. If I get an indication that the
regular fare should be a little better formed, I will probably pick up the
limbing axe. This won't be until early next spring however.

Note, I also used the Wetterling axe lightly on Friday evening (a half a
dozen cuts through wood similar to the above) and the performance was
horrible, it bounced out of the wood and in general was outclassed by the
Bruks hatchet. At that time I thought it was due to the square face and
slightly malformed head, however I had no such problems on Saturday and am
at a loss to explain what I saw on Friday. Maybe it was something in the air
as my dog was acting more retarded then usual and seem to be chasing
invisible rabbits like a maniac.

-Cliff
 
Originally posted by Cliff Stamp
At that time I thought it was due to the square face and
slightly malformed head, however I had no such problems on Saturday and am
at a loss to explain what I saw on Friday. Maybe it was something in the air
as my dog was acting more retarded then usual and seem to be chasing
invisible rabbits like a maniac.

-Cliff [/B]
Click to expand...
LOL! This is why we do science, Cliff - to explain the inexplicable!

Overall, this is an excellent review. Frankly, I pleasantly surprised that it did so well. I agree that one might expect some (possible substantial) differences in a handforged item. While the Bruks does raise the bar, I suspect it might be the difference between a good tool and a great tool. Taking this into account, the wetterling still seems like a good deal for the money. I look forward to seeing more side by side comparisons in the future.

Patrick
 
Thanks very much, Cliff!

I guess that the Wetterling will wait a little while - hopefully someone in Canada will begin carrying them.
 
Patrick :

the wetterling still seems like a good deal for the money
Click to expand...

Yes, I would say so as well. I definately look forward to using it this weekend. My brother was equally impressed with it after doing some cutting and chopping the last few days. In retrospect the secondary edge bevel does make me a lot more comfortable in lending it out as it really makes the edge more durable. It is excessive for normal use, but if you wanted to be able to give the blade to people who are not as careful/skilled as they should be, then it is a good idea. Also to be clear, it is not like it effects the chopping perfomance that significantly, I would be surprised if the rank went up by more than 10 +/- 5 % once I remove it, the cutting rank will go up more however.

Jimbo, that would be very nice indeed. I dropped Lee Valley an email about this some time ago. They carry a decent range of axes so I can't see it being a problem. Anyone who feels similar should do the same, the stronger the responce they get the more likely they are to seriously consider adding them to the product line.

-Cliff
 
Cliff:
I'll email Lee Valley and add my vote to carry them. There aren't many axes at the high end carried anywhere now - at least out here. Iltis and Hults are the only high end axes I've been able to find - most stores just carry junkers.
 
Jimbo :

There aren't many axes at the high end carried anywhere now - at
least out here. Iltis and Hults are the only high end axes I've been able to
find - most stores just carry junkers.
Click to expand...

The main problem I would assume is just demand and thus all you tend to see
is high volume mass produced cast heads with overly thick bits. This leads
to a very skewed perspective of axe geometry. For example on the forums you
will often see people describe a knife with a very thick and obtuse edge
bevel as having an "axe-like" edge yet actual wood cutting axes have very
thin bevels, from about 15 to 25 degrees *included*, depending on the type
of wood, skill of the user and climate.

Anyway more use of the Wettlering axe :

On Saturday I did another 25 cuts with both the Bruks axe and Wetterling. As
expected the performance of the Wetterling elevated slightly and after
including Saturdays work alongside the previous (so it was ~75 cuts made,
~750 chops total) the chopping rank was raised to 93 +/- 3. This means
basically that you can see a difference chopping but it is very small, for
every 10 of the Bruks chops you need to take about 11 with the Wetterling.
However while the raw performance is very close indeed, as noted in the
above, there is a difference in ease of cut and binding. However I think
Patrick summed it up best by saying it is simply a case of a good vs great
product.

Note there is a large difference in regards to the quality of the sheaths.
While the Wetterling comes with a belt loop, which is a very nice feature
that the Bruks axe lacks, the leather of the Wetterling sheath is not of the
same class. The Bruks leather is quite supple and pretty much looks the same
as it did when I bought it about two years ago. However the Wetterling
leather is quite stiff and acts more like cardboard than thick leather. It
did not strike me as very solid and in fact on Saturday evening as I was
sliding it off my belt (not very carefully), I tore the belt loop leather in
half. I then took the pieces and could quite easily tear them in pieces. It
split in layers without much effort.

Later that evening I took out a file just to check the hardness and see if
the edge could actually be shaped easily with a file. It could indeed and
before I actually realize what I was doing I have removed the additional
convex bevel from one side and basically turned the edge profile into one
smooth convex taper. Of course then I remembered I was supposed to do some
cutting with the NIB edge to verify an optimal sharpness and cutting ability
as compared to the Bruks axe - too late for that. I then cleaned up the
other side in a similar manner. The process took a few minutes. I then used
an 1000 grit waterstone to smooth out the bevel and finished with a 4000
grit waterstone and a CrO loaded strop for a fine shaving finish. The whole
process was about 10-15 minutes.

In regards to the cutting ability with the NIB edge, I had performed some
rough comparisons against the Bruks axe earlier that day. Basically
periodically while chopping I would take one of the larger wood chips and
carve it up with both axes. I didn't record any numbers however it was
readily obvious that the Wetterling axe was not in the same class as the
Bruks one in regards to whittling ability. I would expect this expect given
the obtuse nature of the additional edge bevel on the Wetterling axe, 20 to
30 degrees, which is about twice that of the edge on the Bruks axe. The
slightly more acute forming bevel would raise its relative performance
slightly but not nearly enough to compensate for the overly thick edge
bevel.

On Sunday I got some free time and was able to complete about 25 cuts (~250
chops) with both axes again (same class wood and method as described in the
above). With the modified edge bevel it was readily obvious that the
Wetterling now suffered no performance impairment as compared to the Bruks
axe. The relative performance just tended to bounce around one showing both
were equal, the nature of the wood had a much more significant effect than
which axe I used. I also did some whittling and the Wetterling axe showed a
great improvement in its relative cutting ability. About ~250 chops were
done in total with both axes on Sunday, again a decent number of knots where
chopped through to check edge durability and neither axe showed any edge
damage.

The chopping will be repeated a couple of more times to get the total up to
about 75-100 cuts each (~750 - 1000 chops). Once this is done I'll have a
stable rank and then do the dowel whittling which will enable a comment on
the relative cutting ability. I should also be able to make less vague
comments then on the edge retention and ease of sharpening issues. I
definitely think I'll alter the edge profile on the Wetterling and remove
the square face as it is proving itself to be a very decent tool and it
doesn't deserve such an obvious glaring flaw.

I should point out that both of these axes carry a very serious flaw. It is
so bad that if you gave these to an experienced woodsman about one
generation ago around here he would pass them back to you after a quick
inspection pretty much with disgust. His review would be very short and he
would not cut nor chop anything with the axes at all. If you take an axe and
sight along the handle you should see the edge being straight and splitting
the end knob of the handle. This is not the case with either of these axes,
both bits skew off, the Wetterling to the left and the Bruks to the right.
The Bruks is more skewed, the bit aligns up with the very far fight of the
end knob.

What is the effect of this skew and why would you want to avoid it? Well
when you are chopping you are driving along the center of the handle,
therefore for maximum performance the edge should be presented to the wood
in line with this thrust vector which means it should split the end knob of
the handle. There are two main problems created if this isn't the case. The
first one is that the penetration will be lowered because the edge will not
receive 100% of the thrust as a drive but a portion of it will be wasted
fighting the skew produced in the cut thus the cuts will not be as deep. The
second problem is that since the axe goes off line in the cut it is much
harder to get the chops to follow each other smoothly and the probability
for glances is increased.

How serious is this? Well on a small hatchet it is not fatal. On a small axe
a lot of the power can come from the drive after the axe hits the wood and
thus you can control the skew easily so you are only losing maybe a few
percent of penetration. As for the second, glances are not a problem. I have
done a few thousand chops with the above two axes in the past couple of
weekends and glances are far and few in between and generally just caused by
a lack of concentration. There is some skew but your skill level would need
to be very high indeed to notice it. However in a full sized axe it would be
much more serious as if they glance you can't regain control. I have sent an
email to Gransfors Bruks asking for a comment along these lines, if I get
one I'll update the thread.

-Cliff
 
Cliff,
Thanks for the explanation of skew and it's importance. I had seen my father (who worked as a laborer for many years) test the blade/haft alignment in this way, but never knew what he was looking for. When he did this test, generally his comment was a gruff "good handle" or "bad handle".

Patrick
 
To clarify the problem can be one of a misalignment between the head and the handle, a skewed handle, or a skew in the head. The latter is the most serious as its the only one you can't easily fix. This is the problem both of the small axes have. On a rather ironic note, you don't find this problem in cheap cast heads because they are very uniform because of the means by which they are made. Just consider hand forging a head and making sure that the edge of the axe is perfectly vertical and bisects the poll perfectly, far from trivial. The cheap axes often have skew in the head/handle attachment however.

I discussed them matter with Gransfors Bruks yesterday. It is quite impressive than you can speak directly with the people forging the axes. In any case my basic concern was with the larger axes as when working with them the forces are magnified many times over that of a hatchet. In short there are much tighter tolerances in this regard on the larger axes, which are by their very nature easier to get perfectly aligned. I think I'll pick up the forest axe and felling axe next spring.

-Cliff
 
I'm surprised that the Gransfors has misalignment but I had mine picked out by my buddy. He only saw a small sample but all were perfectly aligned and so selection was based on grain.
About the only decent axes available locally are the Iltis and Hults. I've seen lots of the latter since they're used in logging operations, and quite a few of the former. Head alignment is a big issue with the Iltis now and personally selecting your axe is vital. It's less of an issue with Hults, but some of these come with misaligned heads too.
I believe that you'll be very impressed with the Scandinavian Forest Axe, Cliff. It's exceptionally well balanced.
 
Jimbo, I don't doubt it, most well crafted tools are quite a pleasure to
use as they perform their jobs almost effortlessly when correct technique
is used.

I got to take the Wetterling out again this weekend, not as long as I would
have liked to, as other things came up, but I managed to get another ~40 or
so cuts done with it and the Bruks Wildlife hatchet. This brings the total
up to 60 with the modified profile, with the number of chops being about
~650 with both hatchets. As noted in the above post, the performance of
both hatchet in regards to raw penetration is pretty much identical. There
is far more variance induced in the comparison by the wood and the
technique used. If you are interested in some statistics, here is a
histogram showing the performance ratio over the 60 cuts :

http://www.physics.mun.ca/~sstamp/images/bruks_wetterling_mod.jpg

Note the strong cluster around one, which means equal performance. For
those interested the median of the ratio was exactly one with a standard
deviation of 3%, thus the relative rank of the Wetterling (with the Bruks
at 100), would be 100 +/- 3. This therefore indicates that the performance
is virtually identical. I will add one more day of chopping, hopefully
getting around ~25 or so more cuts done with each blade before doing
further modifications to the Wetterling axe.

Basically all I have left to do with the Wetterling is change the flat face
of the bit to a more sweeping curve. This should reduce the problems I have
with the excessive binding on the heel and toe and as well make the cuts
more smoother. It should also raise the gross performance by a few percent
as the extremes of the edge will not cause as much fracture. You will
really only notice this performance gain on wood larger than the face the
axe. I have the hardwood dowel cutting to do with it however before I do
any further modifications. I should be able to get around to that this
week.

It is interesting that after using the Bruks axe for awhile, it came to
mind readily how the performance would be altered if the profile was
slightly different. Specifically I was interested in a thinner hollow grind
with a slightly thicker edge profile. The latter part because I was
experiencing problems with knots on frozen wood. This is pretty much the
exact profile of the Wetterling axe. However after using it for some time,
I have come to the conclusion that I prefer the Bruks profile. While I have
no doubt that the Wetterling has a more durable edge, the thinner hollow
grind does make it bind a little more readily.


Which brings me back to the durability issue. After using the Bruks axe on
about 1000 pieces of wood since I altered the edge profile slightly (gave
the edge a bit more sweep about ~two degrees), I have not seen even one
chip and have cut through a lot of knotty wood. However all of that
chopping was performed in the summer and spring, I was seeing edge chipping
in the winter with the NIB profile. However I don't really expect the
temperature drop to have that much of an effect. I think my technique was
the more critical problem. I look forward to checking this out this winter
on some more knotty wood.

One comment regarding balance, both of these axes are head centered balance
which means if you hang them upside down they will stabilize with the head
perfectly perpendicular to the handle. An axe balanced in this way (all
double bit axes are), will generate less torque on the hand when in use and
thus produce a much lower fatigue rate and higher precision, which in turn
also lowers fatigue by simply reducing the amount of work being done thus the fatigue rate is doubly reduced.

-Cliff
 
Hi cliff:

I found that honing back the edge on my GB hatchet improved things tremendously too. I've really come to be a big believer in some vague idea that the factory edge is decarburized in many tools. I especially find this with cheap stuff like Mora knives: by the time I've got the edge straight, a constant profile, and well honed back they do very well in terms of edge holding and resisting chipping. Apparently some woodworkers grind back the blades on cheaper planes - believing the same, and even have a set of general measurements of how much to grind back on various makes of old planes. Maybe it's a myth, but it sure works for me. The inital edge on my hatchet wasn't great compared to a GB SFA bought at the same time, but with honing back it meets or exceeds what you reported.
I have some scans from Dudley Cook's book here:
http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/Rapids/5404/survival/aas.html
which show some simple tests of axe balance. I find the SFA to be excellent, and perhaps Cook's sketches show why. I've had to upgrade my account at geocities so when all kicks in I'll be able to show the details of the sketches in actual photos which might make more sense.
 
Very informative comments on balance. Some things are easy to understand as they are just simple trig (bit length and such), however one thing that I don't quite understand fully is how head mass effects performance in terms of accuracy. It would seem that more would simply be better as it would be more stable in flight, however there comes a point where too much mass is not a good thing because you can't swing it with the necessary control. However if you go too light, the axe does not have the necessary stability and problems arise. There is a sweet spot where performance will be optimal, that should vary a bit from individual to individual depending on their physical characteristics.

The comments on edge performance are ineteresting. I have never noticed a dramatic difference in that regard, however I don't pay a lot of attention to NIB performance generally. It is easily possible that NIB edges are damaged as they are often sharpened very quickly on power tools, especially on the cheaper blades. No cooling of any sort is usually required, as that would simply prolong the process, and the time cost is what is critical in those cases as the materials cost is usually much less. In any case there are a few ways to check this out, I'll drop you an email on the matter shortly.

I never got to do any work on the Wetterling this weekend, as a change of pace I did about eight hours of chopping with the Bruks hatchet and a couple of large blades. I did completely refinish the edge on the Wetterling from scratch, first a file then waterstones to examine the process in detail. It behaved pretty much identical to the Bruks hatchet in that regard. After the 4000 grit waterstone it had a fine shaving finish. The very edge is still a bit more obtuse than the Gransfors, but just a little. I will probably bring that down a little the next time I work the edge.

I will do the hardwood cutting this week, I would have done it already but had to redo the baseline blade work to make sure it was consistent with when I did it earlier this summer.

-Cliff
 
I got around to doing the dowel and rope cutting this weekend. The Wetterling did ok on the dowel cutting, the median performance was 18.6 +/- 1.1 cuts to point the one inch hardwood dowel. This is decent performance. For comparison the Cold Steel large drop point Twistmaster does the same thing in 12.2 +/- 0.8 cuts. The difference is influenced a little by the thicker edge on the axe, more importantly the axe is at a large leverage disadvantage because of the length of the head.

To see the difference this makes I did the test cutting on the 3/8" poly. Because this is just a straight vertical push cut, the only factor is the edge geometry, there is no influence from grip. On the poly the hatchet required 41 +/- 2 lbs to make a complete cut. For reference the Twistmaster came in a just a little bit lower, 37 +/- 1 lbs. Thus the hatchet is much closer in performance, which is expected given the edge angles are within a few degrees of each other. I just checked the Wetterling, the last bit of the edge is ground at about 14 degrees. This is just a hair under the grind on the Twistmaster, but the Cold Steel blade has a thinner edge, as well as greater curvature so overall it adds up to a slightly greater performance, about 10% .

I'll post up the performance of the Bruks hatchet on the same stock tests shortly.

-Cliff
 
Recently after resetting the head, I radically thinned out the Wetterling hatchet to see how much performance could be gained. Here was the final profile :

http://www.physics.mun.ca/~sstamp/images/wetterling_hatchet_mod.jpg

This took two sessions of about 45 minutes each with a 4 1/2" grinder. I found that by grinding on ice cubes I could speed up the process as the ice prevented excessive heat build up, though you still have to water cool very frequently.

Using the hatchet with the as ground finish (very rough), I spent some time chopping as compared to the GB Wildlife hatchet. I could note no difference in chopping ability through limbing, or bucking. I then did some side by side cutting recording the cuts and paying attention to the numbers, and in the end the performance just bounced around 1:1 .

The Wetterling is a little lighter (~5%), and has a shorter handle, so the cutting ability of the pure profile is a little greater. The penetration I was getting was from one to two inches, as I worked on hard to soft wood, so I was getting a good bit of the bit profile involved.

I figured out awhile ago that the effect of binding or wedging was strongly nonlinear, and that it was concentrated at the edge dramatically, this being rather strong proof of that. I have seen the same thing with edge bevels before though, however not on such dramatic differences.

In any case, to be short, I would recommend that with axe modifications (or blades in general), the edge profile is critical, and that a few minutes work on the edge can equal literally hours of work on the primary grind.

I will be polishing the bevels on the Wetterling shortly to see how much of an effect that makes, though to be fair, the primary grind on the Wildllife hatchet, which it was being compared to, is very rough as it is left as forged.

-Cliff
 
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