How the Schempp Rock got me to stop buying 6" knives

[Bemo]

Janka hardness of Alder: 590lb/f; Doug Fir: 620lb/f and just for comparison purposes Red Oak: 1220lb/ft.

[R100]

Janka hardness of Alder: 590lb/f; Doug Fir: 620lb/f and just for comparison purposes Red Oak: 1220lb/ft.

Interesting. The Janka hardness of gidgee, a common tree where I work, is 4270lb/ft. A lot of beautiful timbers in Australia but mostly hard and heavy.

Dan

[zuludelta]

Janka hardness of Alder: 590lb/f; Doug Fir: 620lb/f and just for comparison purposes Red Oak: 1220lb/ft.

Well that's a revelation to me. Subjectively, it's always felt like alder is harder to get through than Douglas fir to me, but I guess they're pretty much the same based on that scale. But yeah, neither are that hard compared to a lot of other stuff.

[Bemo]

You're perception ZD may not really be "wrong". Much like with our discussions of steel properties and the seemingly endless debates about hardness/toughness etc. there are other measures and factors involved. Good example is Poplar. It's not very hard either (about the same as Alder) but it has a high silica content and will blunt tools faster. An interesting website that goes into some of this is https://www.wood-database.com/.

[zuludelta]

You're perception ZD may not really be "wrong". Much like with our discussions of steel properties and the seemingly endless debates about hardness/toughness etc. there are other measures and factors involved. Good example is Poplar. It's not very hard either (about the same as Alder) but it has a high silica content and will blunt tools faster. An interesting website that goes into some of this is https://www.wood-database.com/.

Thanks for the link, that's an interesting site (I learned that the Douglas fir is not a true fir!). And that's a good explanation for how our perceptions & observations may not necessarily line up with Janka hardness values. A couple of things I'm thinking that affects my perception is moisture content (I frequently work in post-storm conditions, maybe certain woods hold up differently to chopping when wet or frozen) & plain old bias/error based on faulty/incomplete data or wrong premises (i.e., misidentifying trees, comparing the difficulty of chopping different trees while not accounting for their widely varying diameters and ages, etc.).

[zuludelta]

Janka hardness of Alder: 590lb/f; Doug Fir: 620lb/f and just for comparison purposes Red Oak: 1220lb/ft.

Interesting. The Janka hardness of gidgee, a common tree where I work, is 4270lb/ft. A lot of beautiful timbers in Australia but mostly hard and heavy.

Dan

Wow. The shock that must be transmitted to one's arm & hand joints/tendons chopping laterally (against the grain) into something that hard & dense.

[R100]

Janka hardness of Alder: 590lb/f; Doug Fir: 620lb/f and just for comparison purposes Red Oak: 1220lb/ft.

Interesting. The Janka hardness of gidgee, a common tree where I work, is 4270lb/ft. A lot of beautiful timbers in Australia but mostly hard and heavy.

Dan

Wow. The shock that must be transmitted to one's arm & hand joints/tendons chopping laterally (against the grain) into something that hard & dense.

As a young man working in western Queensland (Australia) in the midst of a terrible drought with no money coming in and a dead chainsaw I cut quite a few gidgee posts and rails with an axe. Fortunately I had a lovely old Kelly axe and learned to sharpen it but that was real work. The payoff is that gidgee will last 100 years in the ground. It is also one of the most beautiful timbers, as can be seen in some of the mule handles made by forumite Standy99. Gidgee is the best firewood too, burning long and hot.

Sorry about the off topic rave.

Dan