While watching tv last night I started flattening the back. This is a bit premature since it will need to be redone once the cutting edge has been reshaped.
Far out is the steel hard. I got a number of hatchets and axes european and japanese and the steel is this axe is way harder than any of them, feels even harder than my chisels. When running my diamond sharpener over it it felt like drill bit steel or electric planet blade steel. The diamonds where cutting the steel but it had that same sort of skating feel that HSS has rather than sifter steels where you can really feel the steel being cut away.
