Council tool FE-6, standing block. First time with a close to racer weight axe chopping.

modified an FE6 from Council tool. They're great as a company. but took to somewhere between 17.5 and 20 degrees with a 20 deg microbevel. swings well and keeping the high centerline it didn't really want to stick bad at all.

[@MatthewAmsbaugh]

Dude, you’re going to be unstoppable when your tuis come in!

[@Jzelenko27]

Haha hopefully! I'm excited to see what a true race axe profile does with the wider blade face. Maybe I'll get a few less swing too haha the extra weight definitely helped with my driving blows though.

[@axemanmike4390]

DAAAANG! You've certainly got some POWER in your swings! Way to WHIP that axe head into the wood! NICE! SUBBED! Got me a couple Tui's-- work & camp axes, with aluminum wedges! They're the most beautiful axes I've ever seen! HAIR SHAVING SHARP, right out of the box!! Greetings from the PNW 🇺🇸 🪓🌲🪓🌲

[@Jzelenko27]

Axeman Mike, Thank you! I appreciate it! And yeah Tuatahi makes great stuff, their work axe is an absolute animal, takes every I throw at it, frozen or knotty, hard or soft lol I haven't swung the camp axe, but I'm guessing it's similar in quality and have heard it is a little chopping monster lol been out to the PNW a few times, beautiful country there!

[@axemanmike4390]

@@Jzelenko27 Oh, just got my FE6 last night! Gonna hafta put her in some wood, when weather gets better!! Can't wait! 🪓🌲🪓🌲

[@Jzelenko27]

@Axeman Mike If you're using it for cross grain chopping you'll definitely have to spruce up the edge. I have an 18 degree primary ground into mine and a 20 degree secondary at the leading edge. The steel could probably go mote acute, but that seems to hold up quite well even against knots. But the FE-6 is a splitting beast too, still splits well with the altered profile too. Hope you enjoy it! CT makes some great stuff!

[@Jzelenko27]

Basically thinned the cheeks some to 18 degrees ish. I think mine came at darn near 30 degrees or so at the edge. I kept the high centerline with a flap disk and polished it back up to not quite a mirror finish, it's been great for my needs since

[@axemanmike4390]

@@Jzelenko27 Sooooooo, big bummer with the FE-6! I spent two days filing, honing, staining & oiling her! Rain let up, so 1st thing, I stuck her in a round, to check for handle tightness & I got a STINKER! She's LOOSE! I've heard several viable accounts of CT's being "loose out of the box", & I had my fingers crossed 🤞 that mine wouldn't be..........DANG! Big bummer, cuz I (should) be able to use the heck out of it, BEFORE I need to rehaft her! The good news is I can haft her to MY specs! Whiskey River had recently emailed me, asking how I was enjoying my new axe! I suggested they reconsider their QC methods with their new axes...at least take a (moment) to pop them into a vise to check for handle tightness...doing the consumer a BIG favor! Brandon was nice about it & said he would check the remainder of "these models" they had on the shelf! I was hoping he would take it a step further & talk with his dad, Mr. Roost, who designs for CT! Oh well, like Urban Lumberjack mentioned, in a fast production world & especially with the method CT uses (hydrolically pressing the handles into the heads), once in a while, you get a STINKER! It would be a bigger bummer for someone without the knowledge or skills of rehafting! Anyway, that's my rant! Have a great day & thanks again for your content! 🪓🌲🪓🌲

[@benscottwoodchopper]

looks like its cutting great

[@Jzelenko27]

Yeah! I need to make a few minor adjustments to it and the palm swell. It came pretty thick ground and mine was relatively uneven. 25 deg at the heel and 30 degrees at the toe. I didn't mind though, had plans to take the edge down anyhow.

[@alexnapier6060]

Got any Tasmanian patterns they make grate raceing axes

[@Jzelenko27]

I don't unfortunately, but I plan on getting one or 2 in the future here. They're a great pattern!

[@viktor-rp7xl]

looks like ur stance is too wide, bring it closer and get close to a standing position at the end of ur swing idk, im gonna try it out see if its correct

[@Jzelenko27]

I adopted a bit wider stance at that point when I was beginning to move toward competition chopping. My regular chopping stance is a bit more upright and relaxed if I'm gonna be chopping for longer periods. But stancing out will gain you some stability. My swing has evolved quite a bit from then until now. I'm sure your swing will as you find what is more comfortable for your body and what is more effective for you.

[@cosmicbilly]

That top down profile on that axe looks great! Thats pretty much what I'm looking for in my next axe. The profile kinda reminds me of some old tassie pattern axes. Alot of the old ones were very wedge shaped that came down to a fine point. The thinner ones being better in harder dead woods. Thats basically all i chop so I'm super curious to see how this axe would do is some dry dead wood. From what i can see, it looks like its chopping good! Seems like it could split too!

[@Jzelenko27]

Thank you lol and fair warning, I had to do a lot of grinding to establish a thinner profile at the bit. It comes pretty thick overall, and is amazing for splitting and it's intended purpose of being basically a heavy robust edged battering ram lol but some flap discs, water, patience, and some hand filing will bring it to more of a chopping profile. It does have a decently high centerline at baseline so just make sure to preserve that during grinding. And it is very wedgy, pops chips out quite well. I've swung it on some dead stuff and it cuts pretty well. Decent penetration, but the weight helps with that. At 18 degrees primary and ~20 degrees secondary/microbevel it holds up well to dead stuff and to knots in fresher maple/oak/white pine. You have to touch it up occasionally, but that's everything it you're running a chopper in dead stuff lol it's 4140 I think, it's tough and the heat treat from what I can tell is holding up to the cutting tasks I've thrown at it. It's a great axe, but to be a better cross grain chopping axe it does take some elbow grease! It still splits awesome too haha I would buy the axe again probably. Hope this helps!

[@cosmicbilly]

Hey brother, when you say micro bevel, what do you mean exactly? Im curious, because i often hear people talk about micro bevels, and alot of them are talking about two different things. Lol so I'm still unsure what people mean by it. I've heard some people say micro bevels can barely be seen with the naked eye, while others say that a micro bevel is basically a "secondary" bevel. So i was curious what your take on it is. Cheers buddy✌

[@Jzelenko27]

I hear ya, and what I mean when I use the term micro bevel is the bevel that is my last angle that I establish that comes in contact with he cutting edge. In this case I could say secondary bevel, because I really only established 2 angles from a top down perspective (and assuming I don't have convexity in the grind... which I'm positive I do bc I did it by eye). From parallel, I established my primary angle geometry of the bit, then once I got down the the edge I did as flat of a grind as I could to establish my secondary or "micro bevel". That is how I see it practically. I'm sure we could get into the detail weeds with a microbevel being under a certain size or something, but for this purpose I just intended to indicate my primary geometry is I think ~18 degrees on the FE-6 now and my secondary/micro bevel is ~20 degrees at the leading edge. Hope that clears it up. I'm sure there is a definitive answer out there, but that's how I think about I practically for my purposes.