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257065 Dwight Beebe <dwb1124@g...> 2015‑11‑29 Completed my spoon carving hatchet
Gracious Galoots,

I finished the carving hatchet today.  I reground the edge to a radius of
about 7" and created an asymmetric set of bevels.  The long side, about
1/2" wide, is toward the work. The included angle is about 30 degrees.  I
used a billet of oak to hack out a handle (drawknife, carving knife,
spokeshaves, rasps).  I wouldn't do that again, as it was reluctant to
change shape.  Pictures are here, last few in the album:

http://bit.ly/1MW4U7g

Needs honing and the included angle may be too acute, but I was chopping
oak.  Green wood will be friendlier.

Regards,

Dwight
257066 Chuck Taylor 2015‑11‑29 Re: Completed my spoon carving hatchet
> Pictures are here, last few in the album:
>
>http://bit.ly/1MW4U7g


Dwight,

Looking at which side has the longer bevel I have to ask, are you right-handed
or left-handed?

Chuck Taylor
north of Seattle
257067 Dwight Beebe <dwb1124@g...> 2015‑11‑29 Re: Completed my spoon carving hatchet
Chuck,

I'm right-handed, so the long bevel is to my left and toward the wood.

Dwight
257068 Darrell & Kathy <larchmont@s...> 2015‑11‑29 Re: Completed my spoon carving hatchet
On 28/11/2015 9:34 PM, Dwight Beebe wrote:

> I finished the carving hatchet today.  I reground the edge to a  > radius of
about 7" and created an asymmetric set of bevels.  The long >
side, about 1/2" wide, is toward the work. The included angle is > about 30 
degrees.
Nice axe Dwight.

These are my carving hatchets.

http://galootcentral.com/components/cpgalbums/userpics/10074/Hatchets.jpg

The smaller one is REALLY small, made by James Smart in
Brockville, one of those $2 yard sale acquisitions.  It works
great for carving spoons, and is small and light enough to
take along even when I need to pack light.  It does not work
for splitting wood at all well, due to the lack of mass.

The larger one is a normal camp hatchet size, something
I picked up at one of the Tools Of The Trade sales some
years back.  The handle is way too skinny, and will be
replaced some day.  This one is nicely undercut so you
can get your hand up behind the center of mass when
using it for detail work.  That, I think, is the key requirement
for a carving axe.   The bevels are equal on these tools.
I may have to try changing that and see how they work
with asymmetric bevels.

Darrell
starting to clean the shop to get ready for the Galoot Xmas BBQ next weekend!

-- 
Darrell LaRue
Oakville ON
Wood Hoarder, Blade Sharpener, and Occasional Tool User
257069 Thomas Conroy 2015‑12‑01 Re: Completed my spoon carving hatchet
Dwight Beebe wrote: "I'm right-handed, so the long bevel is to my left and
toward the wood."

It seems to me that this asymmetrical bevel takes you about halfway to a side
axe, without having to spend an exorbitant amount of work in flattening the flat
side. What would the effect be of an even longer bevel, say an inch and a half
or two inches? Would the hatchet work worse or better for carving?
Tom Conroy
257070 Dwight Beebe <dwb1124@g...> 2015‑12‑01 Re: Completed my spoon carving hatchet
On Mon, Nov 30, 2015 at 10:47 PM, Thomas Conroy 
 wrote:
 What would the effect be of an even longer bevel, say an inch and a half
or two inches? Would the hatchet work worse or better for carving?

Tom,

It does seem rather like my hewing hatchet.  I had initially considered
trying to flatten the left side of my camp hatchet when I wanted a hewing
hatchet last summer, but it seemed to require a lot of modification.  It
was less effort to buy and restore to use a purpose made hewing hatchet.  I
haven't done much with it yet, as things have been set aside until the
class (you know how work always seems to interfere with life).  I think
this grind is somewhat unusual for a carving tool, unless I've missed
something in my reading.  I'll ask Peter about it during the class.

Dwight
257071 scott grandstaff <scottg@s...> 2015‑12‑01 Re: Completed my spoon carving hatchet
> Dwight Beebe wrote: "I'm right-handed, so the long bevel is to my left and
toward the wood."
    This is interesting. I always face the long bevel, when I have one, 
away from the work. Side ax has the flat against the wood.
I am left handed but I swing a hatchet righty. Go figure.
But anyway I have tried bevels on both sides and the best for me is the 
flat against the work, by far.

  That is swinging right, the flat of the ax on the left side and the 
bevel on the right, when you are up over top looking down as you work
       Oh like this
http://users.snowcrest.net/kitty/sgrandstaff/images/hometools/carving-ax.jpg

  I just recently put together a little double bevel carving ax. I could 
change the bevel if I wanted, but I am not even used to this standard 
configuration yet.
  I always wanted one with the elegant deep forged bevels in the blade, 
but never found one, So I ground this one from a standard hatchet.  :) ha

  http://users.snowcrest.net/kitty/sgrandstaff/images/hometools/carving-ax3.jpg

  I made this one pretty small and portable. For packing around.
        yours Scott
>
> *******************************
>     Scott Grandstaff
>     Box 409 Happy Camp, Ca  96039
>     scottg@s...
>     http://www.snowcrest.net/kitty/sgrandstaff/
>     http://www.snowcrest.net/kitty/hpages/index.html
>


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257072 scott grandstaff <scottg@s...> 2015‑12‑01 Re: Completed my spoon carving hatchet
You mostly get asymmetrical bevels after some idiot takes your side 
hatchet out and grubs rocks, and its all chipped to hell and gone.
   Or when you have a real dog of a pitted ax and have to grind a lot of 
steel off the flat side
.
   A side hatchet in decent shape is not the end of the world to work 
the flat side clean and true again.
   I have done it many times, and I will again.

  http://users.snowcrest.net/kitty/sgrandstaff/images/hometools/sideax.jpg
        yours Scott


-- 
*******************************
    Scott Grandstaff
    Box 409 Happy Camp, Ca  96039
    scottg@s...
    http://www.snowcrest.net/kitty/sgrandstaff/
    http://www.snowcrest.net/kitty/hpages/index.html



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Version: 2015.0.6176 / Virus Database: 4477/11095 - Release Date: 11/30/15
257073 "yorkshireman@y..." <yorkshireman@y...> 2015‑12‑01 Re: Completed my spoon carving hatchet
Tom asks about carving with a hatchet.

I frequently refer to our tools as ‘sharp on a stick’ and axes are right up
there with sharp and nowt else - so all the control has to come from the user.
No mouth, no jig, no adjustment for depth of cut.

But
The bevel is where all the control comes from when doing delicate work.
Consider a chisel plane.  The edge is lined up against a bevel formed by the
sole of the plane.  That’s what gives control, so a long bevel can be used to
produce an accurate planing cut, much as you would if using a chisel.
If you have a single tool, an axe with a long bevel makes sense.  If you also
have to use it to do some serious roughing out before you can ‘chisel’ the finer
pars of the work, then a short bevel makes sense too, to add some strength to
the cutting edge.

Scott would say ‘takes ten minutes to re grind your axe’  and I’m sure he’ll
also say ‘and the rest of your life to become competent in it use’

(OK - if you’re 14, maybe not the rest of your life)

As for me - I ‘discovered’  more axe heads than I expected just this weekend, so
this thread is particularly fascinating, seeing a hewn chest coming up fast over
the projects horizon.

Richard Wilson
a Yorkshireman, in a raining Newcastle on Tyne, 
in Northumbria
257074 paul womack <pwomack@p...> 2015‑12‑01 Re: Completed my spoon carving hatchet
Dwight Beebe wrote:
> Gracious Galoots,
> iy s
> I finished the carving hatchet today.  I reground the edge to a radius of
> about 7" and created an asymmetric set of bevels.  The long side, about
> 1/2" wide, is toward the work. The included angle is about 30 degrees.  I
> used a billet of oak to hack out a handle (drawknife, carving knife,
> spokeshaves, rasps).  I wouldn't do that again, as it was reluctant to
> change shape.  Pictures are here, last few in the album:
>
> http://bit.ly/1MW4U7g

A while ago (good $DEITY, it was 2013) we had a thread
about a guy making and selling modified axes
on eBay.

The archive hasn't threaded it nicely, so here's a google search for the title
"not a saw painter"

https://www.google.co.uk/search?num=20&safe=off&q=site%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fs
wingleydev.com%2Farchive%2F++%22not+a+saw+painter%22&oq=site%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fswin
gleydev.com%2Farchive%2F++%22not+a+saw+painter%22&gs_l=serp.3...1626.1626.0.1914
.1.1.0.0.0.0.85.85.1.1.0....0...1c.1.64.serp..1.0.0.UgRX3iPUYMs">https://www.goo
gle.co.uk/search?num=20&safe=off&q=site%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fswingleydev.com%2Farchive
%2F++%22not+a+saw+painter%22&oq=site%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fswingleydev.com%2Farchive%2F
++%22not+a+saw+painter%22&gs_l=serp.3...1626.1626.0.1914.1.1.0.0.0.0.85.85.1.1.0
....0...1c.1.64.serp..1.0.0.UgRX3iPUYMs

He's still at it, under the name of "peeledmouse", and his skills
have improved. I *think* there are enough old axes that he
won't harm the axe-eco-system, but I am in two minds about it.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/peeledmouse/m.html?_ipg=50&_sop=12&_rdc=1

  BugBear
257076 Mark Pfeifer <markpfeifer@i...> 2015‑12‑01 Re: Completed my spoon carving hatchet
SNIP:
> On Dec 1, 2015, at 3:46 AM, yorkshireman@y... wrote:
> 
> The bevel is where all the control comes from when doing delicate work.
Consider a chisel plane.


I read “swedish carving techniques” early in my woodworking and was 100% bought
into the single bevel idea for hewing.

Three years later, I have 4 hatchets, a 6” Plumb broadax on a short handle, and
a Pfeil bowl carving adze.

One hatchet is very light, and bearded. One is an ugly fiberglass handled True
Temper that I bought 20+ years ago before I had any interest in woodcarving;
when I took an interest, I ground the vibration reducing “0” off the sides of
the head to make it lighter. One is a light “camp axe” with a steel tang and 2
beech handle halves held on with rivets. The metal is good but I hardly use it;
the handle is atrocious but original and I can’t persuade myself to re-do it.

Obviously the adze and the broadax are single bevel. All but 1 of the hatchets
are long beveled Willi Sundqvist style.

I’m not speaking for anyone else and I don’t claim to be technically correct in
any way shape or form. . . . .

The single most effective hatchet I have is a no name “camp hatchet” I got on
eBay for about $5. It’s double beveled.

The head is the shape of a “Delaware” style felling axe. The bevels are very
very small. Less than a quarter inch. It took and continues to hold an edge as
fine as anything I can put on a plane iron or a chisel. For balance, I put a
long handle on it. I tend to hold it near the poll for most work and the long
handle puts the COG right around my ring finger for slicing. For more aggressive
chopping I hold it 4-5” in from the end of the handle and don’t have to swing
very hard, just let it fall like you’d do with a felling axe, with a slight pull
to shear fibers.

With that hatchet I can quickly rough dimension a green oak plank to where it
only needs a jack plane to get it square. (My scrub plane was getting lonely so
lately I let them share the work.)

If sharpen pencils with that hatchet; 4 strokes max. I shape pegs with it for
draw bores.

Some planes are bevel up. Some planes are bevel down. I have grooving and
beading planes that are double beveled from years of being badly sharpened, but
which are still razor sharp at the edge where it matters.

I’m going to need to go find a half decent crook now to see if that $5 eBay non
name hatchet is also useful for spoons. Based on experience I bet it kicks the
ass of the expensive carving hatchet. I may do a bowl too because I bet it also
does better than the Pfeil bowl adze . . . . results when I have them.

Mark Pfeifer
Weddington NC
Contrarily promoting love of cheap no name tools and unloved hatchets

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