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