The ax is new. I just took it out of the box and saw the crack. My friends think I'm cursed because they are supposed to be so good. I was kind of surprised to see it. I am also kind of perplexed that the manual says the axes are ground for cutting softwoods. They expect you to re profile the edge if you want to cut hardwoods. Hardwood is what we've got!!! There's a lot to this stuff.
