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Why is it you can't break a poor axe?

G

garry3

Joined
Sep 11, 2012
Messages
4,638
But you can sure break a good one!

Any body else notice this?
Actually I know why, but damn it just ain't right.

You can do anything to those axe shaped objects from the hard ware store and that recycled rebar just gets a little rolled edge.
Now you take, a good axe that can hold an edge and you can get some bad breaks.
Just saying.
 
Age old trade off; hardness vs. brittleness. It comes down to how often you want to resharpen and how careful you are with your tools. I give a novice the "cheap" one to abuse while he/ she learns but a skilled user appreciates the difference in how much faster and easier works gets done with a quality tool and knows (hopefully) how to treat it.
 
If you are going to be cutting sod take an inexpensive ax and a course file! That's what those axes were (partially) designed to do.
 
Are you guys saying that there's nothing wrong with the axes you can get in a hardware store?
 
Those hardware store axes are designed to be indestructible. But the trade off with steel reinforced fiberglass handles is a lack of comfort, and the trade off with super thick bits is chopping efficiency.
 
Also the steel won't hold an edge as well as a vintage or a modern quality production axe. The Lowesest common denominator tools err heavily on the durability side because most of the folks who use them don't know how to do so properly. You can still buy a high end, hickory handled framing hammer because there are still plenty of customers who understand that it's not a hand sledge or crowbar.
 
garry3 said:
But you can sure break a good one!

Any body else notice this?
Actually I know why, but damn it just ain't right.

You can do anything to those axe shaped objects from the hard ware store and that recycled rebar just gets a little rolled edge.
Now you take, a good axe that can hold an edge and you can get some bad breaks.
Just saying.
Click to expand...
Likely as not the old axe you were trying to abuse has already survived many times worse and that's why you now have it. A real survivor. Whatever recent version has not gone through a gauntlet of abuse for 50+ years and has likely not been as 'quality controlled' to start with as were the originals either.
 
I gave in to peer pressure and let liquor cloud my judgment.

I need new friends!:D

A newly hung 4lb Legitimus fell victim to a dead and well seasoned lilac. Damn if that ain't harder than I thought.

As a side note, I have many hatchets that would not have a problem with that at all. But you put a 4lb head on a 30" handle and the forces just are not the same.
 
Charlie_K said:
Are you guys saying that there's nothing wrong with the axes you can get in a hardware store?
Click to expand...

No!
There is nothing right about them. Nothing!

They will not hold an edge. Really poor performers. But you can't really hurt soft steel to much. It just bends. They are tough as in they just bend instead of break. I have had some that you could not even sharpen. At least to my standards.
 
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