It's not that I would choose to place a nick in the blade of my axe, but after a bad fall from timber to concrete my beloved slick was used for some time with a nick in the blade, we worked it out eventually. There was an old church here in Machiasport that was taken down, the timber was hewn and on a number of the members you could see that the same axe was used on these timbers, the hewing was fine, the nicks, there were two side by side, did not destroy the work. I have ever since called them railroad tracks. I found appreciation and sympathy in those track.
The nick in Jim's axe is a rather large nick verging on a chunk. Does anyone have an opinion of the quality of the steel that would yield such a nick? I tend to favor a softer steel, one that a file will cut. I have seen a number of draw knives that are so hard they will dull a file and they are only sharpenable with a stone. All my tools must pass the file test.
Tim
