Thread: Axe talk

Well, Council replied within 5 minutes of receiving my email with the offer of a replacement. Lifetime warranty and all that.

They say they've had one bad heat treatment batch and were very apologetic. They've found that a bit of filing back takes care of it.

That kind of response restores your faith in a company.

And leaves you with two axes ;-)

These are the two current projects.

Keesteel 4 1/2 lbs. An Aussie-made cast axe. I much prefer to file if the steel is amenable - much more civilised than the belt sander. I was able to salvage the spotted gum handle from this for rehafting properly.

Hytest Racer. This one has a cracked poll down half its length. Have read up on welding this kind of fault and had a chat with a welder. The advice is to cut right through with a 1mm wheel and then grind a V out.

Keesteel.jpgHytest Racer 2.jpgHytest Racer 1.jpg

The Keesteel has among the softest steel in an axe head that I've worked and unusually the eye has some horizontal grooves.

Keesteel b.jpgKeesteel a.jpg

Originally Posted by L.S.Barker1970

I recall having a Brades hatchet put away some where, and two of my Adzes are Brades as well, great gear to use.
Guys, I am really enjoying this post as I don't recall axes being spoken of here before ?!

I've got a brades hatchet as well. Very good tool. One of my favourites. Axes have been talked about on here before but I haven't posted in a long time .

I'm guessing the Market was Fryers Town? I missed that but I'll be definitely going to the Maldon one in a few weeks.

Not least because I want to catch up with one of the stall holders to buy some more stuff.

His name is Tetsuro and he has some beautiful gear.

I bought this axe of him a few years ago and recently put a new handle on it.

I did a video of making a new handle for it.
Long version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuYnoyGke7A&t=4s
Short version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvWl-8gFzJM&t=10s

In the video you can also see one of my hatchets. Its a German carpenters hatchet.

Originally Posted by weaver

I bought this axe of him a few years ago and recently put a new handle on it.

Nice job Weaver on handling that Japanese axe.

I have the carpenter size Ono and it sure takes a keen edge.

Stay sharp!

Neil

How big is your Ono?

He had bigger but they had what appeared to me to be very thin necks with beards about an inch longer than this one. Also had the other style which is what I think you are talking about with the same length of beard but deeper with a shorter neck. Poll to edge was the same length but very little gap between handle and the beard.

Originally Posted by weaver

How big is your Ono?

Its edge length is 5"

And, yes, it is the second style you describe. I mostly use it with my hand up behind the cutting edge.

There is a photo of it in post #108 and a video of a sharpness test of it in post #116. Sorry, I don't know how to hyperlink those back for you in Tapatalk.

Stay sharp!

Neil

Ahh no that'st the style I was talking about. This is. Well four of them anyway.

japanese axes.jpg

I found this picture here: Beautiful axes, Japanese carpentry tools

Originally Posted by IanW

Ern, most of the Fraxinus I've seen as street trees in Victoria are cultivars of desert Ash F. angustifolia, (Claret, Golden, etc.) are they not? It's a very different animal from the European or Nth American species that make good handles & wheel spokes. I've used it a bit for chair spindles, but it's quite brittle compared with the white Ash from Canada, which I have also used a bit. It's possibly ok for handles compared with some other woods (like Toona australis ) but not really suited to axe or hammer handles, I would think.

So leave the trees on the nature strip......

Cheers,

Since reading this statement I've been paying closer attention to the ashes in Bendigo and surrounds. So far I have only found F. angustifolia.

However, researching its properties has yield some good news. Apparently the slower growing material from drier sites is of comparable quality to F. excelsior or the common ash or European Ash.

I'd say then anything I find in Bendigo is going to be pretty good and explains why the handles I've made from the ash around here has performed really well.

That's reassuring, Weaver. The stuff I used was local to Benalla, not so far from you & a similar climate. As I've often said, one shouldn't draw too many conclusions from limited experience, so perhaps I spoke up too strongly. And wood can vary a lot from place to place & tree to tree, of course. In the end, the 'suck it & see' principle' is the most reliable, so if your handles are holding up, that's what counts.

What put me off was using some Claret ash for the back spindles on these two chairs I made to bring a set of four up to 6: Chair match.jpg

The originals were made in Canada, so I scratched around to match the woods as best I could. Elm for the seats was no problem, plenty of that around Victoria, and I had a bit of Canadian Ash I'd brought back with our personal belongings (bits of wood make great filler & chocking material when loading a container! ). However, I didn't have quite enough Ash for all of the spindles, and used some Claret Ash someone gave me for a couple of legs and most of the small back spindles. Two of the back spindles broke within the first year. They were clean, sharp breaks, and I couldn't see any defects that might have weakened the spots, so I did a bit of research & turned up the info that Claret Ash was considered brittle compared with the European variety (though can't find where I got that from, now). I replaced the broken spindles with more Claret Ash, since that was all I had, and there have been no more fractures in the 25 years or so since. Of course, kids have long since grown up & left home, so the chairs have had less-frequent & more gentle use for much of that time.....

Cheers,

That is beutiful work on those chairs. I started a set a rush seat chairs yesterday they won't be anywhere near as fancy as those.

Benalla is not exactly a wet area. Maybe the claret ash being selected as an ornamental isn't as good? The stuff I was reading said that the F. angustifolia when grown in wet areas is roughly equivalent to popular which isn't a bad wood but its not exactly strong, supple or elastic.

Since we are both in Victoria what woods could we source for axe handles? I've tried black wood but finding trees with lots of sap would is hard and the good straight grained stuff I would often want for furniture. The one handle I did make didn't work so well but it was one of my early handles so probably not the black woods fault. I've also tried messmate for a maul handle but one miss hit and it just snapped.

I've got a small amount of that my ash stash left but its all short lengths. I need to find something for longer handles.

Originally Posted by weaver

....Since we are both in Victoria what woods could we source for axe handles?
I've got a small amount of that my ash stash left but its all short lengths....
...I need to find something for longer handles....

Nope - see my header - been all gone from Benalla since '93...

As to what woods you can use from down your way, I don't have many ideas, as I only lived there a short while, but one wood that I do remember blokes talking about is "Hickory" wattle. There are also several species of wattle known as Hickory wattle, but I think this is the one they meant. Failing local woods, you should be able to get your hands on some Spotted Gum (Corymbia maculata), it's acknowledged as up there with the best...

Cheers,

Yeah I'll have to keep my eye out. The trick is getting it legally. I've also heard spotted gum is good but if I'm going to make a handle by hand I want to do it with riven stock. I think there is a good chance that many woods riven are at least as good as good woods sawn.

A few of my axes.
DSCF1054.jpg
The first is a French felling axe. Very old but hard to say exactly how old. I've got another one of these that I've fitted an Ash handle to which you can see in this video.

The next is a French Broad Axe. This one is a single bevel axe for right handed use. In this video I'm using another one which is double beveled.


The last one there is a German Broad Axe or Breitbeil or Breithacke. Often called a Goose Wing Axe but apparently that comes from an English book from around 1910 that first called them that.

DSCF1057.jpg