Thread: Some tips about DMT

Did you get any pictures or video of the axe shave?

Bruno, that is a great story! I guess your FIL learned not to split stone with an axe! Anyway, I split a fair amount of wood each year and occasionally get a nick in the blade. I use a file to take out the nick. I can't imagine a splitting axe being harder than a file as the axe would shatter when in use due to being too hard and not tough enough (good tempering takes care of that!). My favorites are Nicholson files and a number of my old machinist buddies say everything else is "also ran". To more finely finish off the file I use a Norton carborundum stone. It's a combo stone and I use it dry although some folks use it with oil. Then it's back to splitting wood. BTW, I split outside my garage on the edge of my garden which is tilled up by the time it's cool enough out to split wood. At the edge of the garden I put in an old mail box on a post and keep a number of tools handy in the mailbox. I know you're not in the U.S. so if you want a picture of this setup I'll take one for you (don't know if there are rural mailboxes down by the road where you are). In the box I keep a file (with a wood handle) and a carborundum stone as well as hammer, pliers, and some small garden tools. Beats going back and forth to get tools when I'm out puttering in the yard. I've gotten plenty of guff over the years for having a mailbox by the garden but the last laugh was mine this past summer when I went to a yard sale of a Swedish machinist who had died. The guy must have been a real mechanic and I wish I had known him. Anyway, next to his shop there was an overgrown garden and whaddyaknow . . . a mailbox full of tools. At least my eccentricities are not novel and shared by someone with some insight into tools and their use.

Now, there's a fellow named Michael Nelson who is on SRP and is a competitive woodcutter out of Perth, Australia. He told me a number of things about axes which I didn't know! He finishes his axes with a coticule handheld and out in the field. His axes are sharp enough to shave with but I don't know if he's done that. A picture is attached. The guy is awesome.

No photos and I don't know if Mick actually has ever shaved with his axe. However . . . the Guinness book record holder for fastest shave with an axe is John Juranitch who is a honemeister of international repute and one of my heroes. Google him up. His son sometimes wins the annual competition. Full shave with a double bitted axe in 7 or 8 seconds. Oorah!

Originally Posted by Howard

No photos and I don't know if Mick actually has ever shaved with his axe. However . . . the Guinness book record holder for fastest shave with an axe is John Juranitch who is a honemeister of international repute and one of my heroes. Google him up. His son sometimes wins the annual competition. Full shave with a double bitted axe in 7 or 8 seconds. Oorah!

I just checked, and the record was 8ish minutes, not seconds.
And I was already thinking of challenging that record, but sadly guinness discintinued it on account of being 'too dangerous'. Bunch of snot brained braun shaving pansies...

Originally Posted by Howard

I use a file to take out the nick. I can't imagine a splitting axe being harder than a file as the axe would shatter when in use due to being too hard and not tough enough (good tempering takes care of that!).

Well, it's not that the file didn't bite. It did. But is was really not very convincing.
What didn't help is that I set out to maintain the angle of the bevels.

This axe was really like a big half hollow, and I wanted to keep the bevels the same angle as the edge-spine line. This means that the contact surface was reasonably big.
But what made it even harder to use the file was that I found it very hard to maintain that angle while filing and using some pressure.

I found it much easier to hold a stone to the axe. I wanted to get a perfect edge on that axe so that my friend would
a) be impressed
b) not feel bad about having lent it to his FIL.

My own axe is hand honed as well, but freehand and that takes a lot less time. For that I use a 230/320 grit synthetic, and a belgian blue. Between the 2 of them, they put a wicked edge on anything.