Who knows Richard, it might be due to your getting the thread going again or it might be due to the new, (old) grindstone I got this week but just yesterday I took that axe to the sharpening room and got it ready to go, even set another stem on the trestle for squaring up in the next day or so. Once I get to edging I can say then how that one hold its sharpness, I'm not so sure at the moment to be honest so I'm holding my breath because it is no easy thing to get my hands on one of these axes.

You got a good eye to spot the character of that other axe right away. How do you distinguish constructed and forged, by the way? The iron and the steel on that axe are both really special and yes, it takes a mighty keen edge and holds it like that.

That axe has a pretty new handle of Hawthorn and I am still experimenting with it having cut it down in length from how it started and well, it still doesn't suit me in the least I must say - the handle that is - probably I'll have to start over. The curves are all in the wrong places and I got to stand on the opposite from the one I'm working. Actually the curve must begin abruptly as it comes out the collar and only upwards and none or very little skew at all. It's a special axe and it deserves an equally good handle, so I'm feeling bad about that up till now

Last edited by Cecile en Don Wa; 08/08/15 03:00 PM.