2 axes just fell out of my shopping cart. back to researching.

Almost bought one, after seeing so many bad reviews with rolled edges, chips , I went another Ochsenkopf , their splitting axe. Very glad i did.

Fascinating review !!!  I live in a hardwood Only area and my Hults Bruks hold up great. They do have a completely different grind though. Thank you for your time and effort. Your camera and audio quality are excellent.

What a thorough, comparative analysis that comes only from one with a deep understanding of the subtleties of this ancient craft. You demonstrate that the angle of the grind explains the edge distortion when chopping hardwood rather than the quality of the Swedish steel, which is legendary. The ease with which you work through your investigative process is as enjoyable as it is educational. The clucking of the chickens in the background adds to the experience. I would venture to guess that your father has no problem with you exchanging the first axe, and that he is proud of your mastery of this topic and your skills at communicating and educating others. If the sales people had your knowledge and experience, the angle of the grind would have been suspected at the outset.

This is the third video I’ve  seen on this rolling issue. I was looking forward to purchasing a Gransforth.. definitely rethinking. Fantastic analysis! Earned my sub.

Plus if you’ve filed flat bevels on the scandi Forest axe then you’ve made it into a giant carving axe. The forest axes are designed with a narrow concave for reasons that will present if you chop and hew large blanks. I only keep flat bevels on my carving axes for the control and accuracy of the cut. With a working axe in timber you’ll need the thin bite of the convex for efficiency.

I have the small splitting axe and the Scandinavian. Don't have the other, one. Beautiful axes, and a great video. My Scandinavian keeps rolling on me too, I thought it might be my technique. Thank you for this information 🙏🏻

I have GB Small Forest Axe and been using it for over 10 years and have had no issues.

Interesting finds. My Scandinavian Forest axe came with a 25 degree chisel grind out of the box. I used it at 20 degrees for quite some time with no issues. Then I took it down to 17.5, which causes the top and bottom corners to roll over. With a microbevel it takes no damage. I’m personally not a fan of these axes, because I think my council tool boys axe is a better performer at a quarter of the cost. I do think that their edge retention is fantastic, but unless you just use it for felling and limbing, you’re likely to bang it up on some rocks like I did, and filing these axes is not a fun experience. I resort to a belt sander for Swedish steel.

Really good video, I like the line-up! Hopefully you can find a good use for that Scandinavian axe. It really is a good looking tool. Thanks for testing and sharing👍👍

Interesting

Convex the Scandinavian Forest Axe by means of wet-dry sandpaper placed on a mouse pad and you will see a different axe!

I see the chips on that first axe, blade looks like an 1800s hewing axe I have

Just use it as is with the wood in your area, if it starts rolling on you just add a little more convex when you sharpen it until it is stable. That’s what I did with mine and it holds up really well and still cuts great. same thing with convex knives I’ve had.

I think the overall thinness and flatness of the main bevel are more relevant. This thinness make it great for green softwood limbing and minor felling of 6” trees or less. It’s average at bucking for its size and weight, terrible at splitting and fantastic at carving.

It’s a very light and portable high performance bushcrafting and light limbing axe not a heavy use camping/working axe. I’m not sure that they make that clear in their marketing and that’s a shame.

My Scandinavian forest axe is about 8-10 years old. It’s my only regular camp axe and landscape axe around my house. Can’t recall if I have ever rolled out my edge but after the factory edge dulled I’ve only convex sharpened it and never had a problem. I have oak trees, pines and lots of dead ash. No problem on any of them.

All axes will fail at some point, chipping, pitting, edge rolling, cracks even corners snap off - the steel gransfors use is fine just some o1 type, but it’s ease of maintenance far outweighs any minor damage, what is the point of owning an axe that you’re not going to use after it gets wear because a normal stone won’t touch it? my gb wildlife hatchet I’ve now had for 30 years, lots of use, wear and tear, and I’ve put that little axe through some extremely tough hard wood, green, seasoned and frozen, oak, ash, plum, hawthorn, ebony, bamboo, buffalo horn, conch and bracket fungus all sorts- and all it ever has needed is an occasional sharpen and hone with a water stone 800 grit, or the little dc4 stones, but these two tips have made all the difference - maintain them often, and use them sensibly.

canadians love the grasfors all soft wood up there

When I looked into the Scandinavian forest axe it did recommend for resinous woods such as spruce and Pine. It says it's a very thin profile in the descriptions from what I have seen advertised. In my experience of forging axes I find it is sensible to have general splitting axes at a lower Rockwell as these are more likely to strike a hard surface such as a nail embedded in a tree or be struck with a hammer if stuck so you would not want them to split/ shatter. Carvers I tend to forge to a higher Rockwell around 58 as like you said they are used more as a chisel. Nice video, always interesting to see reviews.

Great analysis. Could you run the Rockwell test on the other ancient hewing axe that you made a bent handle for? Would be interesting to know, would probably fall in between 55 and 60 :)

Bit late to this video but I have a GB Small forest axe I bought 10 years ago in a Australian GB dealer and I use it on all sorts off gum trees including iron bark which is one off our hardest Timbers and it has never taken any damage but the bit is a full convex grind and at about 22 degrees so do they do different grinds for different country’s?

Very interesting. I normally set my axes up with a microbevel anyway so if it were my axe I would add a secondary bevel that is maybe a bit too big to call a 'micro' bevel.