Harbor Freight's 8$ PITTSBURGH Hatchet: Inside-Out

This is a follow up to the recent video about the Grip Axe, the green one, new information has appeared in many comments about this, comparing the Harbor Freight, the yellow one with the Grip, let's test the assumption that they are the same, so So I'll run it through some testing and some modifications and try to make a fair comparison and give you a recommendation one way or another. I've already gone over this in depth, so I invite you to watch this video first. especially if you want to see how to put an advantage because they are practically the same.

Any differences discovered will be notified to you. I hope you wait soon before moving forward. I have to address all the angry comments many of you want. Instead, just buy a Husqvarna or Fiskars or an S Wing or a big fake. I'm not saying these are going to replace your more expensive axe, if you want one for one I won't stop you, the issue here is a budget. addicted disposable ax so I do not endorse Harbor Freight and this is not a sponsored video but it is still a useful product but don't try to convince me to buy your ax please we will break this one up in a moment to watch it.

What's inside to know if it's comparable to the grip? The price of the grips has gone up on Amazon by at least 33 percent since the video was posted, so that may have had something to do with influencing the price and that's enough, it's enough of a catalyst. To shift my attention to a different alternative, especially one that is much less expensive by half, the first thing that catches our attention is the fact that Harbor Freight has two different models available. I'll give you a close up of the item numbers. at one point, but this one ending in five one zero looks almost identical to the grip at first glance, in fact apart from the obvious color difference I can't tell them apart at all, so for the price, assuming it's the same as the grip I recommend you buy one, it's worth it, but before you take a look at this other one, this one has a much better polish from the factory, that's a considerable amount of work if you look at the one that's the same as the grip, you have to do a lot. of filing to get to the point where it can cut anything, right there it should determine which one you want to buy if you don't have a file or you don't have the patience to file something and you don't want to grind anything then this is your choice, another difference is that put a pin right in your head, whether it's good or bad isn't really relevant, it's just another way we can tell them apart.

Another minor distinction is in the handle. It has a plastic that as far as I can tell is exactly similar to the grip this one is a little different it feels how I describe it a little cheaper maybe lighter it's a little shinier I don't know if it will be sanded too or if it will melt and stick It will reform too, but I'll try it a little later. The first way I plan to test them is by dragging a file over them, hopefully that will give me some indication of how hard they are. I hope the metal is the same on all of them, but let's run the file through them to find out that I'm also going to sharpen that one right now because without an edge I can't do anything with it, so I'm going to put an edge on this one so I can film the opening scene where I'm cutting, which you've already seen, which feels exactly the same as the grip to me, very similar, I can't feel any difference, they seem like that, they seem to be the same.

Take a look at this ax head. I bought it for three dollars at a flea market and soaked it in vinegar overnight and then washed it, neutralized it with baking soda to prevent it from removing the rust and what's left. It's quite strange, it seems that there are two different types of metal that make up the head of this axe. This is where it gets interesting. You just saw how both budget axes respond to a file and if we go to the back of the ax head it responds pretty much the same, but when we get to the front, look at this.

I don't know if you can tell from the sound, but there's a sense that that feeling is the file skipping over the much harder material. It is much harder to cut, which makes it much harder to sharpen, so while this front part of the ax head is what you might consider higher quality, it also makes it harder to sharpen, That's something to consider with a budget axe, it's nice to be able to sharpen it quickly, of course that also means they will dull faster, so it's an opportunity cost, you have to decide what's appropriate for you.

For me, I think a disposable ax is a wonderful thing. Hello again, it has been a few weeks and due to rain I have decided to burn I have a lot of this brush to get rid of and in a few weeks it will all be absorbed by the ferns other foliage so as it is raining it is a good opportunity well since this time has passed . I've been using this as my main axe, so what can I say about it as far as I know? It's exactly the same as the food. Another benefit of using a cheap ax is that you don't have to be afraid of overusing it by applying a side. strength here and axes aren't really designed for that, but why not?

It's a tool. Okay, as soon as I get the fire going, we can go in and open one of these, although there probably wouldn't be much point in doing so. I suspect it will work. to look exactly the same as the other one, it's been several weeks and I still haven't sharpened my axe, but that's no coincidence, I'm careful not to dull it, here's a tip for roots, make yourself a wooden knife, get under the root and then. You don't have to worry about hitting it right, you don't have to worry as much about hitting a rock, okay, let's find out what's inside.

I think the last time the hacksaw was his weakness it smelled the same, that's exactly the same. I'll clean it up so you can see it better. Well, it's time for the autopsy. There's the fiberglass core, as promised. It is the same size as the handle. One strange thing I should point out is that air bubble looking thing that wasn't in the grip. These holes. Here they were caused by the drill bit whenever I was investigating, but there is not even a corresponding hole there, so we can attribute it to an anomaly that occurred during the molding process.

I guess, in case you're curious, this is what came out. From the head of the grip, every time we handle it, you can see the fiberglass core that I drilled out, so after poking around a little bit, I feel reasonably confident that it's just an anomaly that was unintentional, so that I was lucky to break this. a separate one because that would have been a weakness right where I want my handle to be strong. I was able to burn most of these sticks, but the rain just won't stop. I'm not always so cautious when burning, but you have to be careful. a pine forest because pine is quite flammable the secret to burning wet things is to keep a very hot fire okay, we'll pick this up tomorrow it's a beautiful day today and that means it's warm enough outside for us to work specifically on plastic Plastic welding The three are the five-10 model.

You can see this one is a little different than 231. I'll get to the latter so far. I have successfully soldered two of these and they were exactly the same as the grip. Take a close look at these in case you haven't seen the last video, this is really annoying on the hands and it's also. The tapering at the bottom I find puts a lot of impact on these bottom toes, so how have I been? To deal with these issues is to remove some of the material from the handle here to make it more comfortable and take that plastic and fuse it into this security tag.

It is not as strong as it seems, the material can be sanded, melts and moves quite easily. So the process uses a heat gun which I will keep on low the entire time. I'm going to switch to voiceover work shortly because this will be running all the time and I'll better explain that I'm also using a wood stove. pen and not that it really matters, but try to keep the tip of your wood stove cleaner than the one you had here. It had melted plastic, dirt and other debris on it and that's why it's stained. Try to notice that I have these three distinct phases here.

I started by making a square cut like that and then I cut the corners, but I try to preserve their symmetry and in doing so I think in terms of these geometric phases, so the next step is to remove the corners of these and then hit the corners of those and so on and if you do that you will end up with a very good approximation of a smooth curve the trick is to heat not too much although relax and keep your hands warm but not uncomfortable with the heat gun it is set on low because high it will blow up the plastic and You will burn it as long as you can pack your little blob of plastic with small pats, the pressure will force the plastic into all the gaps and make it bond well to the point most important to you.

To remember, this is what you are joining two things with a weld, so both parts need to be hot then sand, but wait, don't move forward, this is important, you will need to know this procedure, especially if you want to throw an axe. The best way I found to make a handle that is comfortable is this: use 100 grit, 200 grit and 400 grit and wait to sand and shape until you are completely done with all the welding, no point, no point in shaping your handle only to find out you need to harvest more plastic, wait and do it all at the end, there we go, now it's worthy of the Pittsburgh colors right?, you'll notice there's this pull grip here and I'm removing it .

You take it off first with one hundred grit, then with 200, then with 400 and it has a much softer, silkier feel, which will be appropriate if you use it a lot or have an extra natural attitude if you're throwing an axe. You have to release it and if it is soft here it will release much better so follow this procedure if you want to throw your ax now of course I don't know or care about the regulations regarding ax throwing but in order to get a Harbor Freight to make a full revolution, you should have your toe about twelve feet per inch away from your target when you're just practicing.

There's no reason to have a target that's high off the ground like that, it's low like this stump when it's not sticking, you're doing less damage to your edge, that's also why I have bark all over the ground. There are two more points I want to highlight. One is that if you are going to throw them with a lot of solder. these plugs on the end close or they will simply fill with dirt. The second point relates to the point itself. Now you would never know it based on the setup I just showed you, but the tip is what matters. when you throw one of these that is the part that sticks so a good shot lands like that with just that corner sticking to the wood but these two models have very different profiles this one is almost straight with the top while this one curves upward. it's the best profile, but they also ground some of that metal into a curve, which isn't any better.

Ideally it would be straight like this, but it would also be square. You would have to file off some of that metal to get the best of both. worlds out of the box the tomahawk style is the better of the two simply because it has a thinner profile but after some serious polishing this might be the better of the two it looks like a much stickier tip and I haven't even I filed yet some more filing work and we can call that final form which is as good as we can hope to make with this product.

What I did was use the grinding stone, the grinding wheel to narrow this down and then I finished it off with the flop disc sander a detail that may be important to some of you with the flop disc sander it leaves a sanding grain you want that grain is in the direction you use the ax so my first pass goes this way and puts a grain this way my second pass goes this way and reduces friction when this interest would be this is a completely different video. I'll leave you the link so you can find it, but for now let's take a look at the plastic that I spent less than five minutes with. the file and it is totally usable.

It should also be noted that the steel on this ax feels exactly the same as the other Harbor Freight ax. This plastic I'm not so sure, it looks almost the same, but just a little different. It is not exactly the same, apart from a small difference in its color. I can't tell the difference. The dough is because it stung like crazy last time and I won't waste these ax heads. Replaced the handles on the satisfied maple editor's note on The time I thought I'd missed it, but look closer, see how much it flexed. I hope it was interesting, okay, finally do it.

I didn't have so many problems last time. I'm really surprised, but our story can only end one way. this might end after using one of these every day for a few months. I've come to some conclusions: there's a lot of iron here and it's not too difficult to shape, which means that each time I sharpen it it becomes better suited to its purpose. This way it forces me to become familiar with the tool and I begin to understand and use it a little better. It is true that I have developed a speciespredisposition towards this habit. Familiarity does that, but these are the facts.

It's hard. It is cheap. and it is waterproof after you work on it a little bit, it is quite comfortable and you can do a lot of work with this tool and if you abuse it you can still restore it so it all comes down to your priorities, ask yourself what is my ax used as an ax Sharp is a great tool to have in the woods, so it makes a good straight stick. I shouldn't have to remind you that you shouldn't go around cutting down anything you see in the woods. Be responsible, our forests are a rapidly depleting resource, whatever wood you harvest, do it deliberately, use it responsibly and don't waste it.

Good luck. Thanks for joining me. I think I deserve a second chance at that opportunity. How about a third chance?