What Did You Sharpen Today?

I always think of pitting of the backside as the pot holes on my drive, beginning unnoticed and imperceptible, by the time they are apparent quickly getting out of hand making it a rough ride.
It's the geometry along the length, toe ta heel, determining the keenness and durability of the edge where maintenance has most influence, the rest more or less pre-determined, largely unalterable, at the production stage. It's a reason some axes are simply better than others, all else being equal. How good your maintenance is becomes indirectly observable through the character of the burr when sharpening and honing being measurable in an effective way only with high-powered expensive special equipment and skills.
 
I think I went far enough back with it. I could still go back further of course. I didn't use a straight edge while filing. Just by feel and by eye. I'm curious if you think it'll work fine as is. Here's a few pics of that;
RCmZEJG.jpg

The other end has an identical flare.
The end on the back that had the worst pitting isn't perfect but it's close. Here's the back with a square placed on it at varying distances;
Y5mvNI1.jpg
XD873Zh.jpg
9FiD2IH.jpg
A8CwDlL.jpg
w4L0Wge.jpg
jCdUx0j.jpg

Another thing I'm curious about is that black paint. I immersed this in evaporust twice! And it hardly touched that black paint. Could it be lead based? It's always removed any and all paints before but not this time.Tough stuff!
And I know it's not perfect but I think it's serviceable, no?
Edit; in the 3rd photo I had the square slightly tilted away from me. I just repeated that placement and it sits flat to the edge. The 1st one however is tapered down slightly. :( Almost! :p

You're good. It should work fine. You're plenty flat in the bit-to-poll direction.

Old Axeman has spoken of the benefit of having some curve from heel to toe. This raises the tips in relation to the center of the bit and prevents the heel or toe from digging in. It makes it easier to create a smooth finish on the work.
 
Oh, and the black paint is likely japanning.
I know Japanning was used on many woodworking tools but I have not seen it said it was used on axes. It wouldn't surprise me though. Just exactly what Japanning is can be a little confusing also. I have some antique tins that are called "Japanned" but it's not the traditional black varnish.
Is that rust color on Josh's axe a primer and does varnish need a primer? I really don't know.
Here is a article from Oct 7 1915 Iron age "A Brushless Paint Shop". They use Japaning on mostly Aluminum parts it seems and describe the process.
https://books.google.com/books?id=j...DYC9H54APa-IG4Dg#v=onepage&q=japanning&f=true
 
I always think of pitting of the backside as the pot holes on my drive, beginning unnoticed and imperceptible, by the time they are apparent quickly getting out of hand making it a rough ride.
It's the geometry along the length, toe ta heel, determining the keenness and durability of the edge where maintenance has most influence, the rest more or less pre-determined, largely unalterable, at the production stage. It's a reason some axes are simply better than others, all else being equal. How good your maintenance is becomes indirectly observable through the character of the burr when sharpening and honing being measurable in an effective way only with high-powered expensive special equipment and skills.
I don't think I need high- powered expensive equipment(or cheap for that matter) to tell me if I have a good edge and burrs are just the result of over honing that must be removed. Sharpening just isn't that complicated.
 
Embarrassed to admit how much time I spent on trying to polish this one...
lfGMSW5.jpg

HRC 58 and I can attest to that. Quite hard steel that takes a long time to do anything with. It has an interestingly shaped hamon line as well. I'm trying to picture what tempering method would result in such a shape. I drew a picture of how it looks because it's not all that easy to see until you know where to look.
SJwlZwM.jpg

Now you can see it easily in this photo;
YMCrFDN.jpg

It gets thicker where it turns up there. So I don't know why it would do that?
I wanted a polish on it because being thin it wanted to get stuck a lot. And since I've polished it, albeit imperfectly, it releases very easily now.
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It's basically a giant razor.
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It's an easy to swing axe that bites deep and I think it looks cool too. Take care guys! And for God's sake be careful with your edged tools...;)
sXxxYW1.jpg
 
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It gives you the feeling the makers expect the toe and heel to get rounded off over time during the repeated sharpening process during it's working lifetime. Does the 5 stamped into the blade indicate 5 pounds? It looks pretty cool, Josh.
 
Does the 5 stamped into the blade indicate 5 pounds? It looks pretty cool, Josh.
Thank you! It's almost 3lb w/o the haft.
I think during quenching heat would roll off the sides a bit, bringing the line up a bit higher. Just a guess, J jake pogg might know exactly.
I was hoping he'd chime in regarding that.
I'm not sure why, if your thought on it is correct, we don't see that on other axes? It's the only one I've seen that curls like that. Normally they're either straight or gently curved right to the edge. It's interesting anyway. I'll mention @42blades because maybe he knows too!
Here's the specs;
Head Dimensions: 8 & 1/4" x 9 & 1/4"

Overall Length: 34 & 3/4"

Steel: Silicon Manganese Spring Steel at 58RC
 
J jake pogg might know exactly.

I only WISH i could take one look at (photos,at that;notoriously hard to judge from photos,thanks Josh for making an effort to make the best of it).
IF:The hardness changes as abruptly as it looks(does hardness follow that line?),then chances are it's been heated using an Induction coil...(unless it's a bi-metallic juncture).
But it's fairly natural for many types of heating,whatever's closer to the edge would heat easier/faster,having more area from which heat will penetrate inside the plane of blade.Especially so if the edges are also thinned down some relative the field of blade...

It's extremely difficult to unravel the HT sequence as judged by outwardly visual factors,post factum...
Sometimes easier to call the company and ask...But then other risks are involved...(i once had an entire office at Caterpillar in an uproar,some lady hollering over the phone at me...:)
 
I only WISH i could take one look at (photos,at that;notoriously hard to judge from photos,thanks Josh for making an effort to make the best of it).
IF:The hardness changes as abruptly as it looks(does hardness follow that line?),then chances are it's been heated using an Induction coil...(unless it's a bi-metallic juncture).
But it's fairly natural for many types of heating,whatever's closer to the edge would heat easier/faster,having more area from which heat will penetrate inside the plane of blade.Especially so if the edges are also thinned down some relative the field of blade...

It's extremely difficult to unravel the HT sequence as judged by outwardly visual factors,post factum...
Sometimes easier to call the company and ask...But then other risks are involved...(i once had an entire office at Caterpillar in an uproar,some lady hollering over the phone at me...:)
Thanks for your input! Yes the hardness clearly follows that line... It is mono steel construction. I'll have to Google induction coil tempering to see if I can visualize how it would make it look that way.
Where it turns its heading into thicker steel btw...
 
Yankee Josh Yankee Josh , I feel your pain on slow going sharpening.
I have a Hults Bruks that is hard to sharpen. It takes twice as long as my other 'normal' axes. But I like it as it's a good general purpose
ax and the poll is hardened. DM
If my memory serves David you use regular stones right? Not diamond stones?
I've mentioned the other ones that have been difficult to file and hone. 3 of them are almost impossible with hand tools.
Another 3 or 4 are almost that hard and this is near that hardness. So I'd say in the middle of the really hard ones.
For me there's average hardness, quite hard, really hard, damn hard and almost impossible! This one is the middle of really hard. It took SO long because it's a fairly large bit. I used a mechanized dremel, non orbital, 2" palm sander (just spinning) for most of it.
This is a pic of how it looked before I touched it;
mfTM6fQ.jpg

Those grooves are deeper than they appear.
This was after a couple hours per side with files and diamond stones;
RTg0msE.jpg

Probably have to zoom in to see the depth of the grooves from the factory. I like a challenge so this was a worthwhile and fun undertaking. You should see this thing slice into wood.. I'll have to do a "how sharp this is post"! It's almost sickeningly sharp. It slices through 2" branches with a wwhhTInnggggg.
 
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