Dutch - Oregon Trail

What more can I add besides what Square_Peg already has?

Maybe this: go deep after those pits, (80 grit being insufficient), the robust composition of such an axe can absorb the loss of content.

Oh yeah, Square_Peg already said that.
 
Ernest DuBois said:
What more can I add besides what Square_Peg already has?

Maybe this: go deep after those pits, (80 grit being insufficient), the robust composition of such an axe can absorb the loss of content.

Oh yeah, Square_Peg already said that.
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Danke. I will pick up something coarser than 80grit today and see what comes of those pits.
Between sound, experience-based advice, a recent lapping tutorial/pictorial of this same procedure here on the forums, and other musings, I am confident it will succumb to my efforts.
 
Graag gedaan, and let's face it, the surface you are dealing with is somewhere in the small to mid range.
I recently did one with similar measures, the Dumstorfer, you remember, and was fairly pleased with the result.
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Now, wouldn't you know it? My camera dialing in on the background to automatically focus on the workbench top. Sorry for the blurring out of the intended subject matter. It sort of defeats the whole purpose doesn't it
 
I picked up a couple of packages of 60grit sandpaper and spent several hours working on it to this point. Doing a larger goosewing axe in this fashion will require a larger set-up for sure. As much abrasive as it takes to make a difference on it, it's more like the paper gets sanded/stripped rather than the steel. I might stop for the day to let my elbow loosen up some.

My under cabinet lighting is responsible for the dark on the toe and heel there in the picture.
Now that my sandpaper cache is restocked I am looking forward to making it smooth and shiny.

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It all sounds that familiar and you have it looking good, just the way it should. At some point will you switch to a nice flat stone?
 
Ernest DuBois said:
It all sounds that familiar and you have it looking good, just the way it should. At some point will you switch to a nice flat stone?
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I would definitely like to but I don’t think I have anything large enough that I can take the axe to the stone and not vise-versa. There was a recent thread here where I caught myself "coveting" some of the stones pictured (as well some I found searching online).

Any suggestions on larger stones? I value my "axe tending" tools almost as the axes themselves for the most part. A stone large enough to do what all that sandpaper did would be quite great - one large enough to lay it flat for finishing would be even better.
Also, lapping the back of this particular axe has made me realize that several others I have really need the same or similar treatment to excel.
 
Stones, it's a whole other thing isn't it? But I'm not going on and on about anything special just your average standard bench stone and since you seem content to go quite far with sandpaper the thought was perhaps at the final stage going to the stone and not even one dedicated to axe use, though wouldn't that be nice, just the stone you use normally for all those knives, chisels, plane blades and so on and so on. Only in case you do at some point go to a stone be sure you have surfaced it just before that otherwise you won't get a uniform polish on the back-side.
 
I lapped the back at 60, 80, 150, 180, 220, 320, and 400 grits. I can see myself in it but it is not quite a mirror.

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Had to mess with the edge some as well – 22.5-23 degrees finished at 400grit. There is a small spot that I could not bring myself to remove as it meant removing more from the overall edge. If it proves a major hindrance then I will do that as well.

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Also, I found a use for a handle that came on the larger German carpenter’s axe in a previous post here. It's feel and shape is very comfortable and has character. Just seated, not wedged at this point but I’ve run out time today.

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Agent_H said:
I would definitely like to but I don’t think I have anything large enough that I can take the axe to the stone and not vise-versa.
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For big jobs like that I like to use my big whetstone.

Broadaxe-bigstone2.jpg


Back in the 1990's I was doing a remodel of a factory that made airplane parts. Next door was a factory that made carborundum stones. I was outside having a smoke (I did that back then) with a guy from the other factory. He mentioned that they had a pile of chipped and damaged stones back behind their factory and that I could have some if I wanted. The pile was probably a cubic yard of various chipped stones which they couldn't sell. I grabbed the nicest of the very large stones and stacked a dozen or so smaller stones on it and took it back to my truck. All my friends got whetstones as gifts. I still have a few of the smaller ones around. The big one is 8-1/2" x 12-1/2" x 1-1/2". I've never seen another one like it.

But I got to thinking, a fellow could take grinding wheel out of an old treadle grinder and lay it on its side. If you found a nice flat one it would lap the back of a broadaxe just fine.
 
You have the axe looking good and ready to put into action. I have been enjoying my own carpentry axe, yesterday cutting down the cheeks of some tenons right to the lay out lines with only the minimal pairing work with a chisel if any at all needed after the axe work. My only suggestion is to reduce the arch of your cutting edge to the bare minimum as the way you have it now is looking like a KeenKutter or a Plumb Bob or something, it makes the toe so much more accessible to you when it's needed. Oh hell, I even have that one axe set up with a cutting edge having no arch at all and it's a fine axe.
 
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Kevin Houtzager said:
For less friction: Try lapping it from teh cutting edge to the back, in stead of up and down? All the graining goes the way the axe is not moving? And as for that small spot: Looked at your goosewing? Thats actually a bit convex at the flat side. So what you could do is make it the same, leaving a higher spot in the middle compaired to the sides. Should decrease friction a little to? But all in all, I kind of like the little rough spot for looks on the underside. As for the topside: Just leave it as is, shouldn't be much of a problem.
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The sweep has two main functions related to reducing surface contact. It eases the entry of the edge so you are never stuck with the difficulty of removing so little wood that your work becomes ineffective and incredibly difficult since the primary characteristic of using any axe is the thrusting action. The large(r) contact surface on that side exerts more force and draws the blade deeper into the cut which you must counter if you're after a "straight" plane so the curve provides a fulcrum for pivoting off from. It's basically the double bevel on an exaggerated scale. This feature is a trade-off between getting a flat surface and facilitating the action. A perfectly flat back together with a straight edge is the ideal condition for flatness but in the practical sense this is unrealistic. So even though we speak of the flat side, it's an oversimplification, or a kind of short hand to say so and it would never really exist on an effective axe. Maybe this is why we got chisels and planes and sniks.
 
Ernest DuBois said:
The sweep has two main functions related to reducing surface contact. It eases the entry of the edge so you are never stuck with the difficulty of removing so little wood that your work becomes ineffective and incredibly difficult since the primary characteristic of using any axe is the thrusting action. The large(r) contact surface on that side exerts more force and draws the blade deeper into the cut which you must counter if you're after a "straight" plane so the curve provides a fulcrum for pivoting off from. It's basically the double bevel on an exaggerated scale. This feature is a trade-off between getting a flat surface and facilitating the action. A perfectly flat back together with a straight edge is the ideal condition for flatness but in the practical sense this is unrealistic. So even though we speak of the flat side, it's an oversimplification, or a kind of short hand to say so and it would never really exist on an effective axe. Maybe this is why we got chisels and planes and sniks.
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That was quite well explained Ernest, thank you.
The convexity (if that is a word ) on this axe is more pronounced where the straight edge is sitting but is much less so near the bit. I didn’t check it before lapping- figured I was going to flatten to whatever the axe offered. Shooting for flat, while just taking enough material to make the corrosion disappear. The rest is tuning. It's not wedged yet - I prefer to do work on a head unhung.
 

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There was an existing crosswedge in the tongue. Knocking the handle on and off, trimming, kerfing, and then driving the main wedge in didn’t knock it loose at all. I just left it as opposed to removing it and attempting to fix what wasn’t broken. After the first four times on and off the handle for fitting it was solid/tight enough to conservatively use without a wedge.

I was fortunate this morning and found a couple of hours of quiet to work a Cherry wedge into it.

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