Does anybody else find Hultafors axe steel a little too soft?

L

Londinium Armoury

Joined
Jun 2, 2020
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Or is this just my limited experience with their lines of axes?
I have a couple of their larger felling axes and the steel on them seems overly soft, from what I can gather they use reclaimed medium carbon steel, roughly equal to 1045. Which seems fine if tempered to suitable hardness, can take a good edge and is plenty tough, but even when cutting into lower hardness woods it dings out and deforms a bit too easily. It dulls on hardwood faster than I'm used to as well.
Is this common with their axes, I have no complaints overall of the tool, it came well hung and with good quality fit and finish, it's a decent user, but the steel seems slightly too softly tempered, maybe even below 50 HRC.
 
While the Swedish axes tend to be made of lower carbon steel than American (especially vintage) axes they are typically able to perform the tasks you describe with little or no deformation. I think you may have recieved a couple with bad heat treats.
 
Square_peg said:
While the Swedish axes tend to be made of lower carbon steel than American (especially vintage) axes they are typically able to perform the tasks you describe with little or no deformation. I think you may have recieved a couple with bad heat treats.
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They perform fine and are easy to maintain, just seem a little too soft.
 
I have a preference for the harder steel also. Very irritating to have good steel with a softer than expected heat treat. Not that any of the manufactures that are doing it care about my opinion.

I have a couple of GB's from back (and have owned a few more) when they made the change over that are for sure on the hard side. Vintage can be a real crap shoot but in my experience the True American and Ligitimus stamped axes tend to be on the harder side.
 
garry3 said:
I have a preference for the harder steel also. Very irritating to have good steel with a softer than expected heat treat. Not that any of the manufactures that are doing it care about my opinion.

I have a couple of GB's from back (and have owned a few more) when they made the change over that are for sure on the hard side. Vintage can be a real crap shoot but in my experience the True American and Ligitimus stamped axes tend to be on the harder side.
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Flint Edges are pretty nice. Just right. Vintage Plumb is pretty sweet, too.
 
Londinium Armoury said:
Or is this just my limited experience with their lines of axes?
I have a couple of their larger felling axes and the steel on them seems overly soft, from what I can gather they use reclaimed medium carbon steel, roughly equal to 1045. Which seems fine if tempered to suitable hardness, can take a good edge and is plenty tough, but even when cutting into lower hardness woods it dings out and deforms a bit too easily. It dulls on hardwood faster than I'm used to as well.
Is this common with their axes, I have no complaints overall of the tool, it came well hung and with good quality fit and finish, it's a decent user, but the steel seems slightly too softly tempered, maybe even below 50 HRC.
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I've got a Hultafors Agdor myself, and a good friend has one as well, and I feel the same as you do. The axes perform well enough, but the steel of the bit does seem to be on the soft side. It's not too much of an issue for us because our axes are both 2.5# heads used mostly for limbing and light chores, but if I had that kind of performance in a main axe I'd definitely be disappointed.
 
AaronGP said:
I've got a 70 or 80 year old Plumb that is ridiculously hard! I had to buy a crazy hard/sharp file just to scratch the temper on the bit. Thing's a beast!
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You weren't scraping the temper off the bit. You were filing off the very hard oxidation layer. Rusty old axes grow a layer of oxidized steel that is very hard and resists the file. Once you get through the oxidation layer you'll discover the axe's true hardness. No doubt your old Plumb is a very hard and fine axe.
 
Square_peg said:
You weren't scraping the temper off the bit. You were filing off the very hard oxidation layer. Rusty old axes grow a layer of oxidized steel that is very hard and resists the file. Once you get through the oxidation layer you'll discover the axe's true hardness. No doubt your old Plumb is a very hard and fine axe.
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I was definitely scraping through an oxidation layer! Surprisingly little of one, though. The previous owner of the axe had given it a preliminary clean up.
 
AaronGP said:
I've got a Hultafors Agdor myself, and a good friend has one as well, and I feel the same as you do. The axes perform well enough, but the steel of the bit does seem to be on the soft side. It's not too much of an issue for us because our axes are both 2.5# heads used mostly for limbing and light chores, but if I had that kind of performance in a main axe I'd definitely be disappointed.
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I would be more bothered by it if I needed the axe for my job, or had to use it everyday. I only really need it for felling a few trees here and there, so it's fine for my infrequent use. Just happened to notice it's pretty soft, it came without an edge as well, so I noticed how soft it was when I began to file bevels on.
The largest one is my main felling axe now, im not too unhappy with it, just wish it was a few points harder, it's a nice axe other than that, i'll grab a picture of it.
Hultafors felling axe
https://imgur.com/a/aeZDqhd
 
Londinium Armoury said:
I would be more bothered by it if I needed the axe for my job, or had to use it everyday. I only really need it for felling a few trees here and there, so it's fine for my infrequent use. Just happened to notice it's pretty soft, it came without an edge as well, so I noticed how soft it was when I began to file bevels on.
The largest one is my main felling axe now, im not too unhappy with it, just wish it was a few points harder, it's a nice axe other than that, i'll grab a picture of it.
Hultafors felling axe
https://imgur.com/a/aeZDqhd
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I'm often out on four and five day backcountry trips with my axe, so as long as it'll hold an edge for that time that's all the matters. On the other hand, hitting a really hard knot on day two and then having to work with it bent or chipped bit is a real drag.
 
AaronGP said:
I'm often out on four and five day backcountry trips with my axe, so as long as it'll hold an edge for that time that's all the matters. On the other hand, hitting a really hard knot on day two and then having to work with it bent or chipped bit is a real drag.
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Mine took a ding on an apple tree trunk.
 
I would like to see a video of someone deforming an axe head while cutting wood with it, but I am not going to worry about it because it will never happen, ever.
 
Square_peg said:
That'll do it in a hurry. Either chip it or roll the edge depending on how hard the bit is. Some of those hemlock knots are glass hard.
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Sure, just show everyone where it has been published in a list of materials showing their hardness and other physical characteristics where any wood is superior to heat-treated cabon steel. Because in engineering terms you are actually stating that you could make an axe head out of hemlock that would perform superior to a carbon steel axe head, which is ridiculous. And don't say that wood saturated by sap, epoxy or anything else is superior to carbon steel tools either until you show yourself drilling a hole through an axe head with a drill bit made of one of your wood inventions, or turning carbon steel on an engine lathe with a wooden tool bit. LOOOOOOOOL.
 
Brent Halverson said:
Sure, just show everyone where it has been published in a list of materials showing their hardness and other physical characteristics where any wood is superior to heat-treated cabon steel. Because in engineering terms you are actually stating that you could make an axe head out of hemlock that would perform superior to a carbon steel axe head, which is ridiculous. And don't say that wood saturated by sap, epoxy or anything else is superior to carbon steel tools either until you show yourself drilling a hole through an axe head with a drill bit made of one of your wood inventions, or turning carbon steel on an engine lathe with a wooden tool bit. LOOOOOOOOL.
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A complete misrepresentation of material properties and physics. By your interpretation I should be able to bulletproof myself by encasing myself in aluminum foil.
 
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