Comparing axe handle shock between hard rock maple, yellow birch, and hickory.

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It appears that hard rock maple has a lower toughness test number in the tangential orientation than hickory and yellow birch.
I am not sure what conclusion I can draw from that.

Is the impact bending strength test also in the tangential plane?

From what I understand, radial is edge grain, and tangential is face grain. Wood has the highest impact bending strength (toughness), when it is stressed on the tangential or face grain. However in that orientation ring porous woods tend to fail from annual ring separation or flaking on direct impact.


Guess there is a MLB 09 rule for bats that both the radial and tangential slope of grain be less than 1:20, which is 2.86-degrees.

I am not sure if baseball bat test conclusions can be applied to axe handles or not though.

They are both levers being held on one end and striking an object with the other end. The axe uses a weighted object on the very end, and stops completely when it impacts the wood.

Where a bat hits a hard small object directly against the wood grain but not as far out on the end, and the bat keeps traveling through the swing.

It seems that having some shock absorption would be more important for an axe than a baseball bat though.
Having run many wooden arrow shafts across a spine tester I can tell you that wood will be stiffer bending against the edge grain. With all things wood there might be some exceptions but I have never seen it.
 
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