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Zeke

Can you shave with your axe?

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An axe should not be shaving sharp. Because it is an axe. It should have a convex sharpened edge, and be sharp enough to bite when striking at a reasonable varieties of angles, but not so sharp it causes chipping, edge folding, and other premature wear to an edge. 

 

 

That is unless you are entering an axe in a competition for sharpness. Which is a thing, and in many of them one of the judging criteria is shaving. A good shaving edge is usually 15 degrees total. That's totally inappropriate for an axe. 

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What about Apple seed?

 

wtf are you talking about? 

 

The folk lore character, the marksmanship class, the anime? 

 

After hitting up the third search engine, there's apparently a johnny appleseed festival in PA that is timber sports. I'll assume that. In the futre, perhaps try more than a sentence. 

 

Racing axes are racing axes. They are typically thinner overall, with a hollow grind behind the cutting edge, but with the cutting edge usually a flat grind (but radiused along the curvature of the head). 

 

They may be double ground or chisel ground, although examples I have seen of the latter are IMO not named properly because the "flat" side of the grind is not flat, it's just not really honed and then some approximation of it is used for the angle reference for the chisel grind. Since they show up with a variety of axes, and they are given relatively clean logs of a consistent species in timbersports, you can find axes down to about  "13 degree" angle. They may be shaving sharp, they may also have a toothy filed edge at that angle. You may also find double bevel sharpened axes at 15/30 to 20/40. They'll likely still be hair popping sharp, but that's not a proper shaving edge. Some may have a banana grind. 

 

 

Normal working axes will not have that broad a head with that thin a tper though and are completely different creates as far as care and feeding go. As to exact specifics of the grind in timbersports, you are getting into ergonomics, voodoo, personal preference, etc.

 

My own personal preference for things choppy is a approach a nice 20/40 (20 degrees to the centerline, 40 degress from face to face) grind, convex and brought to a polish. But my chopping needs are mostly big knives or hatchets and I'm not using an angle guide, and I tend to err to the acute side in general, so... I'm probably not too far off a general purpose beginners timbersports grind. 

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wtf are you talking about?

 

The folk lore character, the marksmanship class, the anime?

 

After hitting up the third search engine, there's apparently a johnny appleseed festival in PA that is timber sports. I'll assume that. In the futre, perhaps try more than a sentence.

 

Racing axes are racing axes. They are typically thinner overall, with a hollow grind behind the cutting edge, but with the cutting edge usually a flat grind (but radiused along the curvature of the head).

 

They may be double ground or chisel ground, although examples I have seen of the latter are IMO not named properly because the "flat" side of the grind is not flat, it's just not really honed and then some approximation of it is used for the angle reference for the chisel grind. Since they show up with a variety of axes, and they are given relatively clean logs of a consistent species in timbersports, you can find axes down to about "13 degree" angle. They may be shaving sharp, they may also have a toothy filed edge at that angle. You may also find double bevel sharpened axes at 15/30 to 20/40. They'll likely still be hair popping sharp, but that's not a proper shaving edge. Some may have a banana grind.

 

 

Normal working axes will not have that broad a head with that thin a tper though and are completely different creates as far as care and feeding go. As to exact specifics of the grind in timbersports, you are getting into ergonomics, voodoo, personal preference, etc.

 

My own personal preference for things choppy is a approach a nice 20/40 (20 degrees to the centerline, 40 degress from face to face) grind, convex and brought to a polish. But my chopping needs are mostly big knives or hatchets and I'm not using an angle guide, and I tend to err to the acute side in general, so... I'm probably not too far off a general purpose beginners timbersports grind.

Appleseed edge

I use my worksharp on axes.

Belt tension makes a nice uniform convex edge,

Ergo Apple seed( looks like an Apple seed)

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All of my axes, hatchets and tomahwks are razor sharp AND they get used. I have never had a problem with chipping. If its quality steel it should'nt chip just because its razor sharp. If you under/over swing and hit something other then wood or use a cold axe on a cold day maybe; but if its properly sharpened and properly used it is safe and dependable.

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All of my axes, hatchets and tomahwks are razor sharp AND they get used. I have never had a problem with chipping. If its quality steel it should'nt chip just because its razor sharp. If you under/over swing and hit something other then wood or use a cold axe on a cold day maybe; but if its properly sharpened and properly used it is safe and dependable.

See, I agree with you 100%

My chiseles and planes are razors. A dull tool is not a good tool.

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But an axe is not a plane.  Axes should be sharp.  You don't need them razor sharp.  After the first cut, they aren't razor sharp any more and I'm not sharpening between each cut. 90% of the way to razor sharp takes only 10% of the time and is good enough for an axe head.  Spending the extra 90% of the time it takes to get razor sharp is just inefficient use of time.

 

Now maybe, we're actually talking about the same thing using different terms.  To me "razor sharp" really means razor sharp.  Maybe to others, it just means sharp.

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But an axe is not a plane. Axes should be sharp. You don't need them razor sharp. After the first cut, they aren't razor sharp any more and I'm not sharpening between each cut. 90% of the way to razor sharp takes only 10% of the time and is good enough for an axe head. Spending the extra 90% of the time it takes to get razor sharp is just inefficient use of time.

 

Now maybe, we're actually talking about the same thing using different terms. To me "razor sharp" really means razor sharp. Maybe to others, it just means sharp.

It's still wood. And they dull over time as well.

 

You're saying " sharp enough " me thinks.

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You can reach apex at any tooth/grit.
You;ll get razor sharp once you refine the edge, no matter at 200, 400, 800, 1,000 grit refined edge.
Its just how easily it will be shave.

Wood ... does not care over 200.
The rest is for show, as are many knives.

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