The Mechanical Lumberjack

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...