Just got this Austrian-made hatchet for under $60. It has an 800g (1,8 lbs) head with a really nice splitting geometry and an ash handle. The steel seems to be high quality. Only issue I have with it is that it's relatively dull and needs sharpening.
Any advice for sharpening axes? I've only ever sharpened my kitchen and pocket knives.
Youtube.
I’d get an automatic axe sharpener! It’ll wear down the blade faster but it’s a lot easier. If you don’t want that , a good old fashioned stone for sharpening may be your best move
>automatic axe sharpener
You mean a belt sander/angle grinder?
A file works the best, imo. Diamond plates or a sharpening puck are also good. Unlike sharpening a knife, your should affix the axe to something solid and work with the sharpening tool in your hand. Slower is better when you are learning, so don't use power tools until you know what you're doing.
$60? Muttbro... those are €10 here in Austria.
Lucky bastards.
where did you get it for that - they are like 50€ in Bauhaus
Years ago at Baumax before they closed down. Has held up pretty well, great steel.
Mine is ash and looks like picrel, but I agree OP looks like beech. Maybe they used beech in the past and then realised it's a poor choice because it absorbs moisture and swells up?
Beech is not a terrible choice, it´s just a little worse but cheaper and more available than ash.
Beech is my favourite firewood. Excellent BTU value, burns clean and long, few knots, smooth bark that doesn't make a mess.
unless you have one of those spinning wheel grinders, it's easiest to sharpen such tools with a file. watch a few videos on the proper angles and such, and practice on a cheaper tool if you're nervous. but it's pretty hard to frick up really, just pay attention to what you're doing and keep the file at a steady angle
frickin moron
Just sharpen it on a stone the same way you would anything else. I use the same stones for my kitchen knives as my machete that I use to btfo invasive chink honeysuckle, works great.
how is it?
Alright, so I just split 10 pieces of seasoned pine for kindling this afternoon and the steel is worlds better than the cheap soft shit Bahco use. No rolling or chipping and that was some gnarly 2 year old pine. Didn't even sharpen it yet. If what Austrian anon said was true and they can get them for 10 yuros that's an insane deal.
>Makes great axe, solid design and materials for certain pricepoint
>Saves on labour costs by not sharpening it before sale to maintain said pricepoint, therefore reserving use of it to those with experience
>Normies don't buy it because, why isn't it razor sharp already
>No gear whoring on reddit because blunt
>Brand doesn't get bought out by "lifestyle company" and turned to SHIT because no normie reddit consumer base
>The actual target audience still gets a solid axe at a low price, and then sharpens it themselves.
If they really did that it's pretty based.
with axes this is more a warranty issue. if they grind it shallow enough to be of use then it will get nicks at some point, thats the game.
instead they leave a big safety margin, enough so a moron can split with great effort but nothing more
either
>use a file
>use a belt grinder
if you use the beltgrinder, be gentle & don't let it get too hot to touch else you'd ruin the heat treatment that way
the youtuber pocket83^2 has a great series on hatchets (the second channel, not first)
thats not a splitting head, thats what the military pioneers used back then
>I just got this [item] which I can prove I actually own with this stock photo I saved from online
ok kid
Axes are not razors, it isnt supposed to be that sharp.
why though?
It would "stick" too much to the wood. Excessive sharpness is unneeded in hatchets.
he confuses sharp with polish. sharp is simply geometry
an axe needs a flat bevel that ends in a point, doesnt matter how rough, a bastard file is fine enough. usually new heads come with a rounded bevel that ends in a radius, this shit bounces off the thing youre trying to cut
>It would "stick" too much to the wood
for splitting, a head that doesnt waste half its momentum trying to penetrate is done in one blow and thus doesn't stick either.
Then, the existence of timber sports and their tight lips on this invalids his claim as boomer tale
You've never used a hatchet in your life, which is why you call a hatchet an axe. Go take your "timber sports", which are indeed boomer shite, up your ass.
>define: hatchet
he doesnt know himself kek
what is it senile boomer boy.
my carving hatched needs to be razor sharp, a slip is a huge injury risk when working at waist height, but thats not the point, anon asked about AXES
Anon asked about a hatchet, a heavy carpenter hatchet to be accurate, and you're talking to two different people. Open a dictionary if you don't know what a hatchet is.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hatchet
Now go write about "splitting in one blow" with your razor-sharp (but "unpolished") "hatched" in barely intelligible English.
What a collection of buffoons.
I'm not in the habit of suggesting MW to anyone because their definitions are up for sale, but the point stands. Hatchets are axes, but axes aren't hatchets.
Because wood is hard as frick, and you dont want to spend 20 minutes resharpening after each split. Dull edge is a lot more durable than a razor edge and you are splitting wood, not cutting wood anyway.
People in the first world have carving tools, only wannabe homosexuals like you want to carve with an axe of all the tools available for carving.
>only wannabe homosexuals like you want to carve with an axe of all the tools available
what a clueless homosexual you are
ever flattened rough split firewood before machine processing? yea show me how you do that with a high sweep gouge without killing yourself. But tell me more about working with a dull cutting tool, jesus
> dull cutting tool
>talks about a splitting axe
You massive moron
That is a fricking beech handle
It's ash
no it is not
this one is
Watch 'An Ax To Grind - Complete Video' on Youtube. USFS produced. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22tBYD-HMtA
cope
seethe
Where to get one?