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That Wetterlings Woodsman Axe is my all-time favorite Backcountry axe - especially because of its splitting capability compared to Gränsfors.

Another potential use for the spike on the reverse of some hawks is as an ersatz picaroon for hooking/picking up logs or branches.

Just discovered your channel. Thanks for the good video’s!

Axes are a combination of push cutters & chippers with higher blade strength requirements than other knives. Axes with attentional mass/weight may test out better on larger trees, with more stability to withstand the force necessary to penetrate deeper. I am currently building testing systems to quantify push cut force requirements for knife blade of various behind the edge thickness. So far the thinner blade tested on high density tough sweet potatoes yield impressive data. but i have the brittle carrot tests coming up which may yield different results.

In just after reading quite a bit from Science of Sharp. Curious to play around with this, and I see you've already done some of the work for me. :D I also saw the article on your dual grit edge. I'd like to try it at some point, I have plenty of good steels for it. Magnacut, Rex 45, and Cruwear are 3 out of my 4 knives.

Paracord handle wrap will make a comfortable grip.

I sometimes run the edge down wood at the end to remove burr like you did and notice improvement.

Interesting. As a muslim we believe the same that our wealth is for almsgiving and we should be mindful of our blessings and God will increase our provision, or, bless our provision if we recognize only God can help us acheive any goals. Not our own skills, or intelligence or lineage etc. I struggle to create parameters that limit my spending and fortunately ive managed to keep a handful only at a time and sell off what doesnt fit in the 6 knife roll.

Behind the edge thickness defines real world cutting performance in many ways. One of the factors for axes is the rate of deceleration which impacts the shockwave sent through the hands, arms & body. Thinner behind the edge axes not only cut deeper, they also decelerate slower.

Hey Gabe, its made by American Tomahawk company which is owned by RMJ tactical. The design was made famous originally as the Vietnam tomahawk model. I'll have to try and thin it out a bit more on my grinder and see if I can fix that chunky grind 😅

I had a Kizer Maverick Harpoon in 10V and lost it, I'm so sad. Was perfect for $80 but they disconned it and its $200 second hand. So i got the 3V mini for $70 and I'm excited. I like tough high carbon over stainless personally so im happy to see them do so well. Though love Nitro V too cuz its so tough and takes a wicked edge. Thank you for such diligent testing, you rock!

When all else fails.... microbevel, push the burr to one side then use a ceramic rod to edge leading tip to heel, other side tip to heel, back to the first side heel to tip, other side heel to tip, then use alternating damn near paralelle to the edge strokes to really shear off the burr sometimes though it' just a bad heat treat, a lemon from a batch of otherwise good heat treated knives that due to position in the oven or whatever just didn't get the same HT as the ones around it

I love when your excitement kicking in seeing the results as you test! Great work. I have a Hogue Deka myself but couldn't stand the stock scales feeling toy like and replaced them with aluminum. Overall great EDC. Curious if you still have yours and if so with all your new sharpening and stropping test since this video, do you still work it the same way or has it changed since?

Can we talk about the time and calories exerted to find and attempt to sharpen a knife. Time and calories are super valuable in survival situations which is why a small pocket stone would be the best choice.

My favorite single stone. It has some really, really weird properties though. Oiled, it produces a fine hazy scratch pattern like most other hard Arkansas stones. Like you said, between hard and fine. Dry, it produces a polishing effect on finished edges that's almost impossible to replicate without metal polish, power tools or a long line of grit reductions. All you have to do get this effect is sweep the edge in small half circles across the stone. I don't know how or why this works. But it definitely does. One note: this stone is hard to use once clogged. If it does clog, use Barkeeper's Friend and dishsoap to clean it. Or just the soap and a Magic Eraser. When this stone dishes (which usually takes years) I flatten it on a medium grit DMT plate. I experimented once by adding the powdered stone to strop already loaded with coarse compound and it improved the feedback and finish of the strop for nearly 2 years. Like I said, it's a really weird stone. But good.

I enjoyed listening to this video a lot. Humility is a deeply underrated character trait, regardless of what path you tread to find it in yourself. I’m an atheist myself but don’t begrudge anyone their faith, especially when it provides such a benevolent moral compass. Al

Unless it's just really poorly done 12c normally responds very very well to abrasives. If your foiling up on the burr my suggestion is to remove some steel and see if it tightens up. so far imo petrified fish hasn't given me any thing but decent heat treats on any steel I've had from them d2/k110 and 154cm but haven't had their 12c27. cork works well for tearing a burr off but that's something I don't like to do. If it's a foil burr a few passes on my 20um compound and leather will remove it within a few passes. If the burr isn't foiled but giving you trouble a Spyderco ultra fine is your best friend.

I had a s90v carbon fiber milie until I lost it fishing. Wouldn't hold a fine edge. Held a working edge forever.

I wish spyderco ran there s90v at 63+. I have a cutom edc fixed blade in s90v at 64rc and it way better than anything in s90v from spyderco. They do a good job but not as good as people think.

Oh cripes. Another small sissy knife🤮🤮🤮

I could build you all the same models but in different steels

Man I would love to get you some of my knives to test

I prefer using 10V over s90V.

I have that s90v wasp. It has good geometry

Manly Knives are unbeatable value!

The scratch pattern in first close up is why I suggested using the combination square.

Hello from Bulgaria 😊 I've been using the dual grind method and getting amazing results on various steels. Thanks for the fun and educational videos!

that's an awesome serration on that s90v....but it held up well. Do you think it was the stone stripping the carbide out the matrix ? is that how the 400 grit usually sharpens up ?

Interesting to hear your results with serrated H1, I know Sal and Eric Glesser at Spyderco have claimed that it's the longest lasting edge they've ever tested. It seems crazy but they would know and your experience seems to back it up. Work-hardening austenitic steel has secrets to tell...

I’ve tried a lot of different sharpening systems, some of which are bad and others are really good. The Sharpmaker is absolutely excellent.

Manly does S90V extremely well. Mine is 63 HRC. Spyderco's s90v wasn't even coming close to that until the CF Yojumbo sprint that's been tested around 62. If I had to pick a single favorite steel, it would be s90v Edit: my old BBS exclusive S90V Millie was low 59's, and my kw exclusive cf/ti Millie is 60.5.

S90V is a fav of mine for EDC. I like 800 and 1,200 grits (diamond) on mine, personally. Offers plenty of bite and edge retention, without being too “rough” feeling. Manly make good stuff. Their heat treatment (from previous experiences) is pretty dang good.

Well done!

Relative incremental testing angles considering the . . . atomic structure of metals are in the 5º to 20º range. Knife sharpeners seem to have come to a consensus of 17º... as a starting point. This seems plausibly correct looking at the geometric models & calculations.

Most people are worried about the edge angle which is extremely important but worrying so much they foget how to improve it more . A extra tool you will need is found in any decent lumber/hardware store, it is a bevel square. To use it for your benefit ,start out like you would normally would do . Now when you place your knife on the stone just before you move it mark the stone following the edge completely across the stone. Take the bevel square on the stone then move the blade on the bevel square to match the angle and tighten the screw. That was the hard part , take the square flip it over and mark the otherside now you have true sharpening angles and all the serrations should line up . If this was done with all your stones the serrations shouldn't crisis cross all over the place. Not only that all your knife edges would be the same. Just remember when guiding the knife down the stone when moving the knife keep the knife straight down the stone while drawing it across it.

Love it! Thank you! I think I would take 1095 over 14c28n as I value toughness over corrosion resistance. The level of toughness I might need could be unpredictable while corrosion is more avoidable.

Why do you have the stone and the angle guide separated. Try putting the guide against the stone measure with measuring tape subtract 1/8 and cut a thin board to that length. Set the board on your bridge, the stone on top then your angle block. If the tapered edge is below the stone either cut the end or shim up the stone till the angled end is a hair above the stone then you can sharpen with more easy consistency. Sharpening should be easy, fun but accurate. 🤔

Time to do a GAW and start with this knife. Seems like trying to make chicken soup from chicken sheets. If you persist maybe destroy the apex twice and start over.

Booooo! No conclusion.

If the heat treatment's bad then there's nothing else to do, unfortunately. Even re-heat-treating might not be an option, since the final machining was probably done post-heat-treat and now the thinner parts of the blade are too thin for another austenitizing and quenching. I assume that you've sharpened it enough to get past a burned edge, if that was the problem. On a more helpful note, I see that Ruike makes an identical knife in 14c and G10, the P865 model.

Thanks to all who have contributed to this research. From a mathematical/geometrical perspective & all I have learned from this video/comments . . . My relative thoughts . . . - At an atomic level, material structures, yield 14º to15º &/or 19º to 20º surfaces/faces. - With this concept & the issues this steel presents . . . 21º to 23º may be a good starting point. Removing the burr . . . my thoughts. - With scraping method . . . . Small, lightweight, abrasive rods, stones &/or diamond plates may yield desired results. - Use a pencil or abrasive perpendicular to the knife blade . . . This will push burr to far side of last sharpening pass. - Progressively push the burr further over . . . creating a tiny micro-bevel with a ultra fine abrasive at a 30º angle, with one edge leading pass. - If this yields a burr on the far side repeat with courser grit abrasives ( not more pressure).

I am able to get my edges to easily slice paper towels, shave, and cut all manner of paper and food with ease, have a nice sticky edge, but have never gotten a hair whittling edge as of yet. Suggestions? Sincerely, JS

I recently had the same drama with a 14c28n Kitchen knife. Incredibly stubborn foil burr that was a pain to remove. In the end I did some micro bevrling on a wood strop with rather aggressive Diamond compounds. Burr removed, shaves well but has virtually no bite left... In the end i found that electroplated diamonds can be a bad start for those softer steels and I had better results with more gentle traditional water stones (Naniwa Chosera).

Interesting that this one is causing so much trouble. I'll find somewhere I can get one in the UK and hardness test and sharpen it and share my results with you.

i sharpen a lot of cheap knives for work (not on stones but on a bench grinder with a belt attachment). With sharpening softer steel, i find doing progressively lighter passes on the belt (slack side for convex edge) helps minimize the burr then finish of on a very light passes on polishing wheel to keep pushing the burr side to side to slightly work harden the apex. not sure how it will it will apply to you but i'm hoping it will help inspire a solution to your problem

Well the first thing I’ll say is thank you for givin up some of your findings, I think it’s great that there’s an audience for this sort of thing ya know,,, also I think we should give Alex from outdoor 55 a shout out and thank him as well , after all if it wasn’t for him we wouldn’t even know what hair whittling is right !! Thanks again man !!

I'd be interested to see if you could fix the knife blade with a heat treatment to harden it up and try to remove any retained austenite like a commenter suggested it might have in the other video.

That was more interesting than sharpeners being successful. Thanks for the frustration you went through. Maybe it's the edge angle you're going for. Completely different beast but I'm thinking of outdoor555 doing his ceramic sharpening. What a pain. It's an elegant looking knife.

Hi Gabe! How I understand 12c27 is that it’s more tough than hard. Maybe you have an apex stability problem and you need to sharpen your apex to a higher degree? From 17° to 20° so the steel has a chance to be stronger, more stable and not fold over. Just a theory?!?!? And maybe stop on a pine/softwood stick with polish on it. It might be a test worthy theory?!?! Good luck keep it going!!

Firstly I don't have a Bess tester. However I've been here before with burrs that just will not come off. Firstly re the wood scraping method, imo that should be done with a pencil using only the weight of the pencil. Pencil pushes the burr to one side and then 1 pass edge leading on a ultra fine stone burr side down. Lift and wipe the pencil the other way, one pass on the stone burr side down. Repeat until the burr is removed. Re the plateau sharpening imo that should be done with a flash light. Remove the edge so a light reflects from it. Sharpen edge leading one pass each side until no light reflects. This can be as course as a 600 stone, then just 5 alternating passes on a much higher grit stone and at a much higher angle to create a super small (micro) secondary bevel. Finally i've also found a gentle stropping at a higher angle can sometimes work. Hopefully you'll sort this conundrum and make another video of your success.