An Ax to Grind Video

[Erich Weidner]

I have been obsessing about proper use of various types of axes today. I've still not gotten very far in the quest of understanding when to use different types... but came across this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22tBYD-HMtA

There is also a 20ish page publication by the same name from the US Forestry Service.

Pretty cool.

[Scott Winners]

I really really enjoyed the chapter on axe sharpening in Leonard Lee's _Complete guide to Sharpening_. Such a kind and thoughtful man on every subject he touched in that book. I am confident in person he was the warm sort of outgoing person lost puppies and little children gathered around. He let the axe head designers have it with both barrels though, wow. I am going to go read that chapter agian right now.

...the tool becomes such a mass of compromises that it performs no single function well. The third option is to get rid of the axe and buy what you really need.

The two axe head styles Mr. Lee respected are few and far between on my rust hunts. If anyone has a full wedge notching axe head laying around I have folding money and I can haft it myself.

[Erich Weidner]

I really really enjoyed the chapter on axe sharpening in Leonard Lee's _Complete guide to Sharpening_. Such a kind and thoughtful man on every subject he touched in that book.

Yes! I actually just reread that brief chapter tonight as well. Good stories there. This was actually the first woodworking book I ever bought. I didn't realize that he had passed. I'm saddened.

For the book, I wish there were more drawings of the axe head shapes. It is hard to visualize from the text only.

Chiefly, my current research is to understand when to use which axe/hatchet?

Clearly, a splitting axe and maul are for splitting.
A felling axe is for chopping down a tree. (And limbing?)

But, when to use a hatchet vs a boy's axe? Which tool for limbing a tree already down?

Having a look at the Gransfors product line... seemingly so much overlap. https://www.gransforsbruk.com/en/butik/products/

I have a burning need to know which tool is best for which purpose. There *has* to be a reason for each type of axe, right? :)

The only thing I'm clear on is that splitting axes/mauls are a different beast than chopping/felling axes. And they are not interchangeable. Well, except that one can split with a felling axe, but risk of getting things stuck exist. Seems clear that one can't go the other way around.

In hand planes a #5, #7/8, and #4 will do for bench work. I want to know what the axe kit equivalent are. :)

[Jerome Andrieux]

Ax-ddiction is real. Beware.

Axes vary a lot in function, in space and in time. There is no "reason for each type", but each and every axe variants have a context, in space and time.

As I have a small property with trees and a fireplace, I do use a set of a hand-long small hatchet for carving, forearm long hatchets for almost anything, arm long small felling axes for heavier property maintenance and mauls for splitting logs. Two of them are scandinavian, the others are local oldies I restored, rehandled and sharpened.

I really like the design of the large american double bit felling axe (or the Scandinavian single bevel carving axes) even though they have never been a thing in France and I would have zero use for them.
It is said that one bit was "finely sharpened" to cut deeply in the clean part of the tree, while the other was left coarser, to cut the dirty parts, roots, etc, where stones could damage the edge.

Restoring axes is rewarding. Axes heads usually comes cheap and the process of forming and fitting a handle is pretty easy for a woodworker. Nothing worse than losing a limb can happen from learning by swinging the real stuff :)

[Jim Koepke]

The .pdf of An Axe to Grind is here > https://www.fs.fed.us/t-d/pubs/pdfpubs/pdf99232823/pdf99232823Pdpi300.pdf

jtk

[steven c newman]

Hmmm...
A Collins "Dayton" pattern ax is in my shop...
439688
439689
Had spent a dollar for it...handle had more cracks than a city sidewalk...so
439690
New $10 handle...clean and sharpened the head...
439691
Almost like a new ax? For $11......( most barn sales around here have several axes and hatchets for sale....)

[Wes Mitchell]

When I hear specialized axe, this video is about all I can think of. This guy sure makes this look easy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uarkKxJkZs

[Barney Markunas]

I've found the Leonard Lee and Forest Service pubs to be great resources.

I'm willing to bet that video was not shot on the drywall guy's first day on the job! Kind of like watching Franz Klaus whiz through a set of dovetails or watching Jacques Pepin completely debone a chicken in a few seconds, it gives me a goal for my hand skills. They are fast AND clean. Sadly even on a good day I am usually fast OR clean...