I received several inquiries asking me to thin the edge of this axe and then test performance. Today I spent 5 minutes thinning the edge on a small belt sander, nothing radical, but similar to what somebody would be able to do with a file in about 10-15 mins.
After getting the edge razor sharp, I took it outside into the wild kingdom that I call my yard (we have herds of Elk and Mule Deer that hang out here frequently) and gave it a try. Sorry no pics yet (promise to have some up soon), but the axe performed noticeably better in both chopping and wood shaping\feathering. In fact, my neighbors were quite amused by seeing the huge chips flying from this little axe smacking the wood.
January 21st, 2012 Update:
As promised, here are some new chopping test photos after the edge was thinned on the Velvicut Hudson Bay. A slight improvement to be sure, but nothing dramatic without additional edge work. However, the axe feels much better in use from this small improvement. Chopping feels easier and more precise, and creating feather sticks is noticeably easier. With some additional edge work I think it would improve performance even more noticeably.
New profile of Velvicut after thinning the edge slightly:
New chopping comparison between the Velvicut and Wetterlings LHA. Nothing radical, but definitely a slight improvement (30 chops with each axe):
