Why Council Tool makes the only "premium" axe worth buying

okay so today i wanted to talk about premium maxes what makes them premium um whether the additional price for a lot of the axes is is worth the uh the premium label um and uh just some general general acts and and steel topics um so first from what i've seen probably about 90 of the axes that are manufactured and sold on the market today are going to be 1055 steel between certainly 1050 and 1060 steel that's a mid a mid carbon content range for a tool like an axe you want to be able to take some abuse but you also want it to be able to hold an edge um most of the axes and and i'd say probably out of that 90 percent of axes maybe maybe 75 percent of those axes down our 1055 steel 1055 it's just a tried and true it's a it's a great steal so just to highlight that point um i'll start with the most expensive the uh the the only axe company that i'm aware of of the major companies halts brook helco work um council tool uh and you'd have um you know and then grants force brooks those are the the big four that come to mind uh making axes today um grants force brooks just has axes they just sell axes all of them are supposed to be premium they don't have a specifically registered or specified formula of steel um but they'll tell you if you ask them that it's 1055 steel or they will say it most you know it's a special formula that comes from a recycled plant in you know this part of sweden but it most closely represents 1055 steel you know grants force brooks doesn't play hide the ball and when you're paying this much for an axe you can't play i mean people don't tolerate that you want to know what it's made out of uh to justify that um to just justify that price tag so and the reason i mentioned that the reason i start with this is because 1055 steel is great this axe holds an amazing edge it it's wonderful it's well made it's well produced so i just wanted to go over the fact that 1055 and 1050 and 1060 they're not bad steals for axes by any stretch of the imagination you know if um if you had a long boat of vikings you know a thousand years ago with 10 55 steel they would have taken over the whole world i mean it is so far uh and they dang you did with the steels with the steels that they are yeah i suppose at some point they did have steels but mostly iron and before that even bronze and copper the steels that we have today are so well made they are are so well um produced and smelted the quality is is is mind boggling and and would be mind-boggling to somebody from even a hundred years ago so this is just to say that 1055 steel um can be used effectively in a premium product um helico work the uh the the majority of their products this is the tasmanian uh the majority of their products are c50 steel which i that's just the european way because they have to be different of uh or maybe we have to be different i don't know uh this is c50 steel which is 1050 steel this this axe takes an amazing edge uh i love it this to me versus the arvika which i also have over there is more of a true tasmanian it's it's got a little bit thicker cheeks it's advertised as a tasmanian the arvika is kind of advertised as a tasmanian racing axe hybrid it's more of a racing axe than a tasmanian and i i do believe that the older vikas are um uh a little bit thicker in the cheeks whereas for a racing axe you want it to be fairly thin um holtzbroke okay on this subject holds brick to me is kind of annoying i love holtzbrook axes i do think they're a little bit overpriced for what you get um however um they're still good axes this is this is one of my favorites it's a montreal pattern i like that pattern a lot this i've thinned down the cheeks a little bit um done just a little bit of work to the handle this is this is a fantastic axe i've done a lot of work with this holzbrook will tell you we use the finest quality swedish steel and you're thinking okay um i mean any variety of steel that's made in sweden could be swedish steel that's you know that's not a specification of steel it's a location where it's made i mean that's like saying american steel well okay but any steel manufactured in america is america as american steel so you know i do think they play hide the ball a little bit um i have looked and looked and looked and looked and looked for any company information on what steel they use in their axes they don't provide that information i have done some testing you know literal acid testing i mean not scientific or anything just with some some acids that carbon reacts to and and you know i have a good baseline because i have a a known quantity in my healthco work that's c50 and then i have some 1055 steels and 1060 steels and then i have you know some 1095 this is one of my knives i i made um so i could just kind of compare how the steel reacted and i would bet my life on the fact that holtzbroke uses 1055 steel it's some variety of of mid carbon steel between 1050 and 1060. i don't think they use 1060. i think they use 1055. and i can tell you that hultsbrook isn't using any kind of uh weirder steel than grants force brooks i mean i wouldn't be surprised if the steel came from the same recycling plant in sweden very likely the steel is is exactly the same so halts brook won't tell you what they use they'll tell you it's swedish steel that doesn't mean anything you can bet it's 1055 steel now i i want to talk specifically about one company in particular and that's council tool council tool is the only company that regularly uses what you would call premium steel and and what do i mean by premium steel i mean if it is different than what everyone else uses and arguably it's chemical or or it's um it it's it's formula adds an a noticeable quality improvement you know i'll call that a premium steel so that's my definition if it's different than ever than what everybody else uses and it's it's a little better council tool is the only company that does that and they do it they have a number of axes that they do it with uh first off this is the forcible entry ax it's uh it's like a five six pound axe this is a beast i love it for splitting it's just phenomenal uh you can see how far back on the bit the heat treat council tool just does an amazing job this is a fantastic axe and and i'll say specifically it has extra curve on the bottom that just lets you power through whatever it is that you're splitting this is made out of 4140 steel which i would consider a uh a more premium steel um it has a little bit less carbon than uh those those mid-range steels you know it's got um um it it's it's got just about what would that be a tenth of a percent less carbon than 1050 steel uh but you do get a number of additional benefits and for a splitting axe or something that you're going to be smashing through doors and walls uh you want those extra toughness 4140 i believe the dominant alloying element is manganese and what is it uh ten percent manganese it it's a it's a fantastic alloy 4140 is great this is an unbelievably tough axe it won't take an edge i mean we're talking about slight slight differences but it won't take an edge as well as some of the mid even the mid carbon steels but you're getting so much extra toughness and durability that i think you're still coming out coming out ahead you wouldn't want to do a carving axe with it you wouldn't want to do you know maybe a limbing axe with 4140 steel um but for something that you're going to be beating through tough wood time and time and time again you absolutely want 4140 steel so i think that makes it kind of a i'll call it a premium or a more specialized steel um a couple times you know when you're just kind of out there splitting and it's hot and you're tired and you're just trying to get stuff done i i have beaten i've beat on this with um a sledgehammer or i guess it'd be a maul which you know i was using as a sledgehammer to split stuff uh in the moment and there's hardly a mark i mean i took the wax coating that council tool puts on on the pole here i mean you can't even see a mark and that that's me you know swinging it overhead smacking it um this is an amazing axe and uh and council tool i think for giving you a premium product here they don't necessarily charge a premium price if you look at the splitting axes that are put out by holzbrook and grants force brooks i mean this is this is a third of the cost i think i think this was like 75 or maybe 80 dollars shipped it's fantastic so council tool is is using 4140 steel in this and i believe on several other axe models um the the one acts from a a high production axe company that stands out in my opinion uh is um is this this woodcraft uh this is from council tool little over two pound head this is made out of 5160 steel which is a spring steel 5160 to me is the the gold standard steel for toughness edge retention before you get into some of the really complicated expensive high alloy steels 5160 has been around forever it's a it's a known quantity uh it uh its dominant alloying element is chromium and chromium adds just a a a lot of toughness a lot of toughness to the um to the uh to the steel and you still get sixty percent carbon content um so you have all of the carbon of uh for edge retention of an axe that's you know made out of 1060 uh but it's far more durable it holds an edge incredibly well i mean this is this is uh is the the same steel that's used in leafs leaf springs for you know trucks cars um and and what i wanted to say about steels what i wanted to specifically mention is if you're going to choose a steel you can look outside of blades and you can look into industrial applications and you want to find the steels that are being used um in applications that require durability they require um you know toughness uh those are going to be the kinds of steels that you want to put in an axe those qualities transfer so for something like a leaf spring something that needs to it just needs to be put through all kinds of abuse and it can't fail um i think that's a good indication of of a high quality steel so council tool this is there you know this forcible entry ax is not a premium axe i mean i don't counsel that's a work axe that's made out of incredibly high quality steel in my opinion but they wouldn't call it a premium axe um i in my op i think they could in my opinion but but they don't um this however is you know premium premium axe and out of all of the premium axes out there how many times have i said that um this is the one ax that i think deserves it because you're getting an extremely well designed axe and you're getting an upgraded quality of steel what else is premium except upgraded you know um everybody else with the ag door line from holzbrook a premium axe say i like they just paint it i think they just they just no sorry they don't paint the premium you know and that's what's kind of weird about haltsbrook they came out with this ag door line the ag door line is the non-premium line and i've always thought that was strange because this and i i bought this before there was the they really started marketing that ag door line um they've made this forever same blue paint sticker you can go look at uh these montreal patterns from you know 60 years ago and they've got that same sticker in the paint but for holzbrook they paint their standard axes and then their premium are unpainted it's the same handle it's the same steel i so what what's premium about it i i don't i don't understand that um with council tool you get hard and pole you know just deep hardened bit i think they do this on all of their axes council pool hardens deep into the bit which i like um the handles are truly premium i mean that that's the other thing too about um especially holtzberg when you buy a premium axe you know they'll send you some they'll send you some stinkers for for handles i mean i've i've i had an arvika um just a terrible experience with with their arvikas and um worst handle i've ever got for worst handle i've actually ever seen on an axe came from hultsbrook it should never have made it through handle selection it should never have been hung on an axe when it was sent to the company i bought it from they should have sent it back so mo i mean multiple system failures there um council but not with council tool you know i i i have had as my earlier videos would indicate some some issues with council tool never an issue with their premium line you know and and i i don't want to make it seem like council tool is the only axe manufacturer out there with problems they they have i tell you what go on amazon pick your favorite acts go look at the reviews there are going to be people out there um criticizing it pointing out flaws showing you what broke you know i i saw a grand source brooks axe with a review on it and and there was probably an eighth inch of daylight in the eye you could you practically stick your pinky through it um so all axe manufacturers are gonna send a couple of axes out there that that shouldn't have been you know even the premium lines but uh but council tool in my opinion is the only company out there that is actually giving you value for a premium product uh they have a four pound dayton pattern velvet cut felling axe they're reviving the um they're reviving the velva cut line from from years past and that's what holzbrook this is neither here nor there should have done with the ag door line see what council council tool did it the right way in my opinion they said we've got this historic line that used to be produced when you know men were men and music was good and women were pretty and you know all that stuff uh and they they carried that forward into the modern era as a premium axe back then it was a premium max it should be a premium max today the name has all the cachet the velva cut line you know they they didn't make it the standard line paint it and then sell the axes they've always been selling as premium i mean that to me that's a step down in quality halts brook very very strange very very strange with with what they did and how they're branding their line ag door should be the you know if anything they should be calling the premium line ag door and then painting their standard axes blue if if they want to i mean fine so i i don't understand that maybe it's because i'm not swedish my wife is but i'm not um i love her for all her quirks but um so council tool has the velva cut line they have uh i believe a boy's axe velvet cut made out of 5160 their felling axe is made out of 5160 steel they're all made out of a higher grade of steel that's not saying 1055 is bad it isn't my favorite axe of all time is this council tool jersey pattern which is made out of um 1055 steel and on this axe you know you look at that this i mean first off look at this handle you know you don't have to buy a premium axe to get a phenomenal quality axe that this has just aged beautifully it is a heartwood handle i prefer heartwood i'll i'll pick a heartwood handle over a sapwood handle every day of the week and twice on sunday you know you look at the color that it takes absolutely beautiful i i did have to rehang this axe and it was fine you know so if if you do get a stinker and all the companies send out a stinker every now and then um i was able to just pop out that barrel wedge and i used uh i used a just a wood wedge made it a little thicker you can see where the barrel wedge was i've had zero issues with this axe since rehanging it and i am so happy i was able to salvage it you know you can't quite see the grain orientation but it's it's uh i i would say still considered as vertical grain orientation but it isn't quite bang that on straight um i would still consider this a premium axe handle you know i i think people put too much emphasis on um having exactly vertical grain you know like this grands force that's pretty vertical eve even this isn't perfect i mean what i'll tell you is i can see it i don't know that you can see it that well the grain orientation on this grands force is no better than this council tool it's just not i and and i could buy i mean the council tool don't tell them i said this but they are giving away this axe at this price i mean i am telling you that um if if you tell the council family i said that i will deny it but i mean council tool you talk about value they're giving away this ax so there is fantastic value there is really high quality to be found in the non-premium acts or axe lines from the brands but with council tool they will actually give you a higher grade of steel and i think that i think that means a lot you know i think that that to me indicates that they're trying to provide you with additional value for the price instead of trying to just extract additional money from you and and i like there's so much that i like about council tool um i feel like they are the only ax company out there that is making tools for the working man you know that's that's council tool uh and when you read their axe booklet you know that's what they say you you look at the yeah know hultsbrook sends out a book grants first brooks sends out a book they all talk about you know uh premium quality and that's fine and history and that's fine i like all that stuff but i don't think i saw the word value in grants force brooks and the hultz brook acts as their booklets once with council tool you see in there we're trying to provide value uh and i think that's important because this this is value this is expensive um this is more in line with with what the swedish access would cost i think this was 130 40 dollars so it's a little spendy but um so it's still cheaper than the swedes but you do get a steal that is uh is quite an upgrade um so i kind of rambled for a bit those are just some of my general thoughts on the steels and and you know who's using what you know most everybody uses 1050 to 1060 steel and within that most everybody uses 1055 um gives you good wear resistance the the issue that i have with the premium lines is that they still use that same 10 50 to 10 60 steel they just charge you an extra i don't know 30 percent and and then they send you a nice booklet but uh you know to me if you have a premium product it there should be a uh a price difference or a a distinction you know that's that's how you can tell things apart and uh for most axe manufacturers i think you you're better off just buying the standard line save yourself some money you don't need the extra badge of premium except with council tool uh and council tool if anybody from your company or if i'm lucky enough anybody um who's involved you know in the leadership of the company if you're out there and you're taking public requests if you made a jersey pattern velvet cut axe with the phantom bevels with the phantom bevels that would be critical this axe but 5160 steel uh i think that would be a smash hit i think that would just be phenomenal even if it was a limited run i i like the dayton the the dayton's fine it's just not it's it's just not a very aesthetically pleasing style of acts the way it's done is fantastic through council tool but uh there's something about this jersey pattern that is time it's so timeless it's so classic it's very very functional with these uh phantom bevels so i think if you made a jersey pattern 5160x as part of the velva cut line it would be it would be a smash hit and i would uh be proud to own one of those um so just some of my thoughts um i'd love to hear yours there's a lot of wisdom out there uh anyways thanks for watching and it's a friday have a good weekend

Channel: Urban Lumberjack

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Id: Ua5fqrpDhXc

Length: 24min 52sec (1492 seconds)

Published: Fri May 06 2022