The Art Of Axmanship:

Cool thread DB.
I'll try to dig up some grind mods for axes.
Im soon purchasing a tiny Marbles #0 hand axe just to regrind into a full convex.

I have found that the easiest way to get the stub out of a broken axe head is to use a drill with about a half inch drill bit. Drill a few holes through the remaining stub and then it will tap out fairly easy. If you do need to burn it out because you have no other option, the axe head may need to be re-tempered. How will you know if it needs to be re-tempered? It will no longer hold an edge.

Another thing I like doing with my axes; is to wrap some decent gauge copper wire around the handle up by the head of the axe. You know, where it takes all the abuse. Wrap it a few turns then solder it and continue wrapping. When you get to the end (about 6 inches) clamp the wire in a vice pull it taught and solder the last bit. My handles last twice as long by doing this. Also adds a little weight which I like.

One last thing, if you are out in woods and your axe head is getting loose, soak it in some water. The water will cause the wood to swell and it will be tight again. Not a permanent fix, but should last the day.

Excellent Post, took me at several months to discover the same method. I have to also add, when chopping dead tree's down.

ALWAYS WEAR A HARDHAT.

A while ago i was felling a dead tree and debris hit me square in the noggin. Ambulance called, blood everywhere, thought I was a goner, fortunately no real damage, although a rather harsh case of post concussion trauma. (I was sick for about 10 days with one mighty headache).

If your chopping wood for future firewood, green tree's can be much easier and safer to fell. After you fell the tree's, chop it to say 8' lengths and stack it up, use the straight ones for posts and the rest will be ideal for the next cold sessions firewood.

hey daddibear do me a favor and DO NOT BECOME A MOD you crank out some very good stuff on here...nice work big dog!
some points idk if mentiond or not

*if you ever have trouble spliting a log i was taught to take little practice swing and find the center, as you lift your ax inhale and as you make your swing exhale just as you hit dead center of that stuborn log.

*oh find a massive stump log to rest you logs on when slipting

*if you can afford it a spliting mall is even easier spliting wood its blunt side can be used as sledge
First thing i pack when heading out is my ax! cuz if i had to take one thing it would be my ax.

ETA yeah when we got few familys at our camp i notice the wifes seem to congregate in the "safe area" as i chop for an hour or so thats why i love to chop haha it gets chicks

Thanks again, DaddyBare! I have been a fan of your articles since I first read your insightful used bow buying guide! Your stuff is always well thought out, and informative!

S&F great thread, helpfull information, thanks.

reply to post by DaddyBare


Excellent post, DaddyBare! I can add but little to it, I think. I'm one of those folks who grew up with wood stoves rather than thermostats. 3 stoves to be exact, a heating stove in the living room, and a heating stove and a cooking stove in the kitchen at the other end of the shack. This was in the Appalachians, so you may want to take the difference in environment into account to explain the differences in experience.

I generally used a double-bitted axe out in the woods, and a single bit or "poll axe" at home for splitting and such. With the double bitted axe, sharpening is cut by half out in the green, and you can generally get it up to spec back home beside the fire in the evenings, rather than taking the time out in the woods to resharpen it.

Thick edges on poll axes are better for splitting activity. They don't tend to get hung up in the block as often as thin, cutting edges do. If the axe gets hung any how, a sharp rap or two downward on the very end of the axe handle away from the head with your palm with generally free it up. The poll (flat side) on a poll axe works wonders for driving wedges, too, so it does double duty in splitting. Getting a wedge hung up can be a problem, especially in wood with a tight, twisted grain like black gum. You may have to use 3 or 4 more wedges to free the stuck one. In one novel case of a black gum block, I got 4 wedges stuck in the block, and had to cut them out with a chain saw.

That brings me to another trick learned from my dear old dad. Wedges can be made from chunks of hard wood, rather than buying iron wedges at the store. There are disadvantages as well as advantages to the use of wooden wedges. A stuck wedge isn't as big an issue (just chop out another), but they don't last as long under the pounding as an iron one does. One also has better luck by starting the split with his axe for wooden wedges, then driving the wedge into the pre-split.

I also learned how to split wood with a double bitted axe, but it's not for everyone, and requires practice. CAREFUL practice. The goal is to slightly "flip" the axe as soon as it makes contact, which will cause the block to fairly jump apart. Flip it too soon, and it skates across the top of the block, into the next available thing - which may be flesh and blood. Don't flip it soon enough, and it embeds in the block, often getting stuck. Of the two, getting stuck is preferrable to skating, but neither gets the block split. Timing is everything.

Double bit axes are also usually lighter than single bit axes, meaning you can swing them longer with less fatigue. Not worth a crap for driving stuff, though. I've got a "battle axe" that I got from Cold Steel a few years ago that is the lightest of all. Real thin blade, and weighs probably 2 1/2 pounds, handle and all, on a 36" handle. Cuts like a dream, not worth a damn for splitting, but you can swing it all day long, without a lunch break.

I've got a couple of tomahawks that I use for camping chores. One from Cold Steel on a 30" handle, and one a hand-forged one on a standard 21" handle. They're light and portable, hold a good edge, and that's why I use them for camping. The back sides of the eye are used for tasks like driving tent pegs and such.

When I was 14, i got into a scrape with the law. Dear old dad let me stew in the detention center for a week or so, reasoning that the experience and "cooling off time" would do us both a world of good, which it did. When he finally came and got me out, he informed me that as part of my punishment, I had to clear off 3 fields that were choked with cedar. "Sure" says I, not yet knowing what I was in for. "Where's the chain saw?" Pappy grinned then, and said "WHAT chain saw? Who said anything about chain saws? You know where the axe is".

Oops. I learned a LOT from that. Can't burn cedar (actually it "juniper") since it gums the chimney up something awful, and doesn't last long any how, but it makes pretty fair fencing, laid on it's side and entangled together. Even cattle won't cross it, it's such an unpleasant experience.

Heating the house with wood warms you 3 times. Once when you gather it, again when you split and stack it, and at last when you burn it. I can recall being out and splitting wood in 20 degree below zero weather, with no wind blowing, and having to strip down to my tee shirt, still sweating.

Next week's lesson: how to get that wood out of the forest using horses. Hint: it involves a horse, a harness and singletree, a chain, rope, or grape vine, a spike (optional but very useful), and a log.

Yup, I've done that, too.

I have a hatchet. I like to carry it, you know, you never know when your going to need it. A situation may come up say.. um for example someones been drinking and about to drive a loved one home.. then i like to know i have it. not to kill just maim Take a little off the shoulder. the elbow. shave a little meat off the old knee cap.

I like to keep mine razor sharp too! Sharp enough so you can shave with it. Why I have been known to circumsise a gnat. You're not a gnat are you.. .

reply to post by DaddyBare


I am thinking of myself as a survivalist, but all of Your threads have been informative, and have taught me some new tricks. And I am forever grateful for it! Cheers, brother!

reply to post by jplaysguitar

hey daddibear do me a favor and DO NOT BECOME A MOD

Don't worry about that... been there done that... have the souvenir tee shirt coffee cups salt and pepper shakers....yaddy yaddy yaddy...

No I'm much happier being your normal ole hit and run author.... I love to write... has become my form of therapy...
still got to love our Mods... lots of work, no respect, they do a great job here at ATS... and I surely dont make their jobs any easier... nods and winks to our Mods...

oh okey . yeah i noticed you fancy your witting keep that coming daady bizzle! hah i just gave you the coolest nick name ever
DADDY BIZZEL.
i have a feeling that might stick
you can thank me later -much love

Originally posted by yaluk
I have a hatchet. I like to carry it, you know, you never know when your going to need it. A situation may come up say.. um for example someones been drinking and about to drive a loved one home.. then i like to know i have it. not to kill just maim Take a little off the shoulder. the elbow. shave a little meat off the old knee cap.

I like to keep mine razor sharp too! Sharp enough so you can shave with it. Why I have been known to circumsise a gnat. You're not a gnat are you.. .

Hahah, nice one, although i couldnt really see an axe being a very useful weapon. Its taken me years to become somewhat accurate with an axe and even then you'd probably only get 1 or 2 swings in because an unarmed person contested the weapon.

On the other hand, people these days a like frightened children and run at the site of somebody holding a tool. OMG its a chisel.. RUN RUN.. police save me from the man with the jewelers saw.

reply to post by Gravity215


I dunno, man. Back in the day, an awful lot of burly, brawny, rough and tough fightin' men were cleaved asunder with axes, so I wouldn't discount the notion altogether.

I wouldn't take one to a gun fight, but I wouldn't saunter up to a guy with an axe and a crazy gleam in his eye and ask for a light, either...

Razor sharp is okay for smaller belt axes, but when large axes are Shaving-sharp, they will stick in the wood.
It's all in the "grind/bevel".

Originally posted by nenothtu
reply to post by Gravity215

 

I dunno, man. Back in the day, an awful lot of burly, brawny, rough and tough fightin' men were cleaved asunder with axes, so I wouldn't discount the notion altogether.

I wouldn't take one to a gun fight, but I wouldn't saunter up to a guy with an axe and a crazy gleam in his eye and ask for a light, either...

Yeah as a weapon of surprise i suppose they are ideal, walk up to a nazi and no problems, however a hatchets not much more effective than a hammer and is top heavy so not very fast, an axe, i can drive my axe sometimes up to about 1.5" into a solid tree exactly where Im aiming, but that has taken alot of practise, maybe a year or two daily till i was accurate with the thing and had rock hard hands to deal with the grip etc ;p.

But i truly do love felling tree's. I was thinking about making a video of tree's falling and putting it on you tube and calling it 'Green Solution Here'.. ehehe. All those city dwelling morons who have never spent more than a few days in the woods would definitely have a cow ;p