Wednesday, May 1, 2013

trial run for my new "old" hatchet

Well I got the old Collins hatchet out for a little trial run to see how it performs.

The good; the handle was very comfortable in full chopping motion and for choking up on the head for finer work and about midway grip for carving.  So comfortwise I was very happy.  The steel held up pretty good.  After the tasks I did below I really swung it hard into some well seasoned wood and no damage at all.  The steel held up great.

Now for the bad;  I didn't get the edge thinned quite enough.  The feather sticks and curls weren't as good as I was hoping for but that's just 15 minutes or so with a file and I think I can have it performing those tasks well too.  I thinned out the bit some before using it but i like to do this in moderation.  You don't want it too thin so I like thinning and checking it's performance so it's thinned just enough to where I like it.

Overall though I liked it and after a little more filing I think it will be as good as anything on the market today

Well here's the pics for you axe folk

first was felling a dead tree that was around 4" wide





finally down,  this felt like it took forever compared to the boy's axe I've been using a lot lately.  But it was biting good and deep.


Next up was some more chopping on the tree I felled, I bucked a log out of it and it did pretty well.  Better than I thought it would actually.  I forget to take a picture of the split log but it did fine in this role for a hatchet.


Next were trying out some curls and feather sticks.  The bit needs to be thinned out a little more for this to be done well.  I managed some but it felt like a chore


Well that was about it.  I gave it a run through the tasks I will be doing with it.  It'll be a great user for me when I don't need an axe.



thanks for looking




1 comment:

  1. Yep, edge profile can make a huge difference. :) Seems like after a little more work it'll perform well in many different areas.

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