The Mechanical Lumberjack

I'm going to go into significant depth about ceramics, and really, the composition of most ionic solid materials, hopefully without dragging on forever. So, let’s start with the basics. Grinding stones are made from ceramics. Ceramics are a class of materials (just like pure elemental metals, metal alloys, non-metals (such as oxygen, nitrogen, carbon), and polymers (plastics and rubbers) are all classes of materials) that are composed of metal elements that are combined with non-metal elements. There is a large difference in the electronegativities (the strength at which they hold onto electrons) of the elements, so one element  (the metal)  give up an electron  (or a few electrons in some cases) to the other element (the non-metal). This is called ionic bonding, and ceramics have ionic bonds. The particular ceramic that grinding stones are typically made from is a mineral (minerals are generally ceramics) called corundum, which is chemically known as aluminum oxide...

First and foremost, some definitions are required. Ancient Damascus blades were not made from Damascus steel, they were made from Wootz steel that was produced in India and exported to Damascus where the blades were made, so really, Damascus STEEL isn't a thing, but Damascus BLADES are. Modern "Damascus Steel" is not produced in the same way that the ancient Wootz steel was (it's still a mystery, but the microstructure found in the ancient blades shows a significant difference in elemental composition and microstructure found in modern blades), and it uses a process called Pattern Welding. Pattern Welding is, essentially, a process where different types of steel ( see this post about steel phases ) are welded together and heated, folded, and stretched (kind of like kneading dough ingredients together) repeatedly to create a visible pattern of the different steels and work-harden the steel (I guess I'll have to do a post about work-hardening) to improve its mechani...

From the title of this post, you should suspect that I'm going to focus on wood handles, and I will save composite handles for another post. There is some overlap between the two, like how in a wood handle a continuous straight grain makes the handle stronger than a discontinuous grain, and similarly in a composite handle, straight continuous fibers (usually fiberglass) will be stronger than discontinuous (short/chopped) fibers. An axe handle should be split from a stave (a narrow piece of “raw” wood) instead of cut out of a board. The grain of the wood should be continuous from end to end, or the shock from use will cause the handle to break apart (think baseball bat). Long, straight-grained woods such as hickory or ash are traditionally chosen for axe handles because they are strong and produce long, straight staves, and they have good mechanical material properties, like many other hardwoods. An axe handle should be from a log that is straight, without twists, branches, or bur...

I'm going to focus this post on the steel used to make an axe, but the principles apply to all steel products (like knives) because I'm just going to be talking about the properties of the steel itself. Firstly, I think it's prudent to define what is steel and what is not (i.e. variations, like stainless steel). Steel is a mixture of iron, which is soft yet tough, and carbon, which is very brittle and stiff in most of its many forms (allotropes as scientist like to call them - diamonds, graphite, graphene - they're all pure carbon, but have different molecular structures) and when a small amount of carbon is mixed into iron (~0.5-2%) the resulting mixture is called steel. Stainless steel is very different - it will not corrode as easily, but still corrodes in harsh environments like acidic and basic solutions, it is significantly softer than steel, and it has 10-20% of nickel and/or chromium added to the iron/carbon mixture, which makes it more expensive that regular ...

If you buy a Gransfors Bruks axe you also get The Axe Book, which is highly informative, especially for the novice woodsman/bushcrafter/lumberjack/generally burly man. Now, Gransfors Bruk axes ain't cheap, so you've really got to be into some type of woodsmanship before throwing down the cash for one. Since I moved into a house in the woods that had a large pile of rounds, I figured a nice splitting maul (an axe designed for splitting wood whose poll can be used as a hammer or be struck with a hammer to drive the axe deeper) was worth the investment, especially since I'm a quality over quantity type of person, and I've heard of people leaving Gransfors axes to their grandkids. I'm sure people leave all brands of axes to their grandkids (along with tons of useless crap), but you get what I mean. So, the basic parts of the axe are the axe head and the handle. That's it, right? Wrong. Since axes have been around along time, there's a name for every feature, o...

On this, the first day of 2018, I've decided that I want to integrate my interests in mechanical engineering, materials science, carpentry, and forestry/horticulture into a blog where my knowledge (and lack of knowledge) can be on display. Essentially, I plan on reviewing axes of all types, with a particular emphasis on wood splitting axes and mauls, and seeing if I can integrate some 3D printing projects as well. It might be a bit of a hodgepodge of tangentially related topics, but such is life. I've had an interest in the above topic areas for most of my life, with formal education in mechanical engineering and materials science, and an apprentice like education in home maintenance/carpentry from my dad. Both of my brothers flip houses for a living, which I feel is at least partially a result of us working on projects with our dad around the house. I went the more formal technical route to become an engineer, but I like taking care of my own home and now live in the stick...