Axe Sticks in the Wood or Bounces Off
Symptom
Every felling swing buries the bit so deep the axe needs wrestling free, chopping feels like glue — or the opposite: the bit glances and bounces, spitting small chips and vibrating the hands, barely deeper on the tenth swing than the first.
Likely Causes
Sticking: cheeks too thin and flat for the wood — the head penetrates like a knife and wedges like one; classic with lean felling profiles in soft green wood, and with vintage heads whose cheeks wore hollow through decades of filing (see Axe Geometry). Bouncing: the reverse — splitting-grade wedge cheeks or a too-obtuse edge asked to fell; or a rolled, dull edge; or dense seasoned hardwood that simply out-hards a lazy angle. Wrong-axe-for-job explains most of both: felling geometry sent splitting and vice versa.
Quick Checks
Watch one careful swing: deep-and-jammed = penetration exceeding relief (thin cheeks); shallow-chip-and-ring = relief exceeding penetration (fat cheeks or dull edge). Straightedge across the cheeks — hollow behind the bit means worn-in stick. Thumb the edge for rolls and flats. Then ask the honest question: is this axe’s pattern even meant for this wood?
Fixes
Match or modify. If the axe is simply miscast for the job, swap axes and both symptoms vanish — the whole argument of the field guide. To fix a sticker: restore cheek convexity — build the high centerline back on the platen and slack belt (the restoration guide’s most common regrind), so the head releases as it cuts. To fix a bouncer: sharpen first (a keen convex at 25-ish inclusive fixes most), then thin the cheeks gradually toward a felling profile if the pattern allows. Angled felling strokes (45 degrees to the grain) also cure half of sticking complaints — straight-in chops wedge in any geometry.
Prevention
Buy the pattern for the actual wood. Maintain the convex at every sharpening instead of flattening it (Sharpening and Care), and check cheek profile yearly on working axes — geometry drifts one filing at a time.
When to Stop and Get Help
Stop grinding when a regrind approaches the bit's hardened zone limits — an axe thinned past its hard case chips and folds forever after (see Bit Steels). And a bounce off a KNOT with a good edge is physics, not geometry: aim differently.