Council Tool Flying Fox

It's a radial convex grind. The bit and cheeks are on the slim side with just barely enough of a high centerline to prevent it from being sticky. The bevel should be pushed back a little and feathered out with a file. It should be pushed back a little more in the center where the cheeks are thicker.

It's not bad with the factory edge once the burr is removed.
 
Square_peg said:
It's a radial convex grind. The bit and cheeks are on the slim side with just barely enough of a high centerline to prevent it from being sticky. The bevel should be pushed back a little and feathered out with a file. It should be pushed back a little more in the center where the cheeks are thicker.

It's not bad with the factory edge once the burr is removed.
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So it's somewhere between a chisel grind and a convex edge? Do you think that was the intent?
 
Made a neat haft for it and got it hung. Need to clean it up and I'll post pics on the morrow. Hang went on perfectly aligned, with the ridges and exuberant application of force to the wedge to set the ridges it's never coming off/loose unless it's drilled out.

It's about 20", looks real cool, feels real good. Thwacked some stuff with the factory edge. Needs that final touch up on the edge, but it'll be a good camper and very good bushcrafter. Splits short apple and ash decently, sticks in cottonwood pretty good (no surprise there). I think the thin cheeks will be sticky in some stuff, to be honest. Not any worse than a riggers hatchet, though. We'll see! But I do understand the design compromise. It's very, very cool looking. I can't wait to finish it up and take it into the woods.

Pics are coming, promise.
 
Some pictures of the stock geometry on just one example.

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A nice hatchet made in America for around $40.00. Who cares if the edge needs a little work. Putting an edge on axes is something I enjoy anyway. I picked up a GB hunters hatchet years ago at a local gun show since it was priced Right. I spent some time on what looked to be factory edge on this hatchet too.
 
garry3 said:
Looks like a flat grind to me, just a sloppy one.
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It really isn't, but if you want to call a curve flat, that's up to you I guess. Not sure what the consistently negative attitude is all about. They're a neat little hatchet offering a combo of features that haven't been widely available in anything other than half-hatchets for decades. ::shrug:: :)
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
It really isn't, but if you want to call a curve flat, that's up to you I guess. Not sure what the consistently negative attitude is all about. They're a neat little hatchet offering a combo of features that haven't been widely available in anything other than half-hatchets for decades. ::shrug:: :)
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I don't know 42. I have heard it described as a chisel and it sure looks to be that way to me. Their last hatchet offering was also a chisel grind so not sure why the denial? But I am moving on. ;)
 
garry3 said:
I don't know 42. I have heard it described as a chisel and it sure looks to be that way to me. Their last hatchet offering was also a chisel grind so not sure why the denial? But I am moving on. ;)
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You were actually the first one to call it a chisel grind, soo...? I deny it because it's not an accurate description. ;)

It's a convex, but a shallow one. You can both see and feel it pretty easily. There's not a lot of room in the geometry for a high-altitude convex, and really the only way the degree of convexity could be made any more "high contrast" would be by blending back the edge shoulder just a little bit more.
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
You were actually the first one to call it a chisel grind, soo...? I deny it because it's not an accurate description. ;)

It's a convex, but a shallow one. You can both see and feel it pretty easily. There's not a lot of room in the geometry for a high-altitude convex, and really the only way the degree of convexity could be made any more "high contrast" would be by blending back the edge shoulder just a little bit more.
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No, not true at all, I was the first one to ask if it was chisel ground. And as a general consensus it appears we really don't know what it is or what it's supposed to be.
 
garry3 said:
I don't know 42. I have heard it described as a chisel and it sure looks to be that way to me. Their last hatchet offering was also a chisel grind so not sure why the denial? But I am moving on. ;)
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The word chisel did not even cross my mind when I go my hatchet 3 days ago (i could feel with my fingers the curvature of the convex grind). It is marketed as throwing axe so I assume chisel grind would be more prone to chip under hard impact stress.
 
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I guess some are slightly different? Mine was ground pretty flat. A radial grind (I didn't mean to call it a chisel grind yesterday even though I did). It was ground flat right up to about an 1/8th before the cutting edge where it did radius down. But I quite like that geometry for a hatchet. It's plenty strong the way it came and it was close to how I'd want it. Overall I'm very pleased. Also I'm almost done tuning it up. I'll post up some pics later!
 
A chisel grind is really only ground on one side. I think what we're talking about is it a flat ground vs convex. It's flat-ish and convexes near the edge. How flat each one is seems like it simply depends on its individual ride to the belt. For the price I'm happy enough that they got me in the ballpark.
 
Fmont, yours looks great! It'll be even more capable on that haft I'm sure.
I finished mine and took it for a spin. Here's a couple as it arrived;
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And after some work;
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I'm sure I filed it pretty much like everyone here will. Just knocked the steel down a little.
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I had a small dead spruce I chopped down with it and then limbed as well. It's a challenge to fall a tree one handed! A lot harder to make accurate strikes.
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I purposely limbed swinging from the top and I swung hard to test the edge.
I know this isn't much use but it bodes well for the tool that it'll still shave hair after some use.
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I also used my spring loaded center punch to test the poll prior to use. I was a little disappointed to see the size of indentation;
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That doesn't indicate very hard steel. I've tested a lot of temper with that punch. But after driving some 8 penny nails there's no marks whatsoever. So maybe that punch isn't a good reall world representation of hardness.
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It felt good driving the nails. We'll see how it holds up over time. I've got a good feeling about it. Money very well spent imho.
Even though this fox won't do any flying for me I wouldn't be surprised to see it fly off the shelves. A very good hatchet!
 
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