Let's see your axes

[rustyedge1]

Picked up a Jersey or Kentucky style felling axe head the other day, can't see a makers mark but with all the rust it might be hidden. May try light cleaning without power tools, may not.
8-18 Did find a # 4 on it today.

 

[ctuai]

Just picked up this Winchester carpenter's broad hatchet with phantom bevel.

 

[2oolhound]

Just picked up this Winchester hewing axe with a phantom bevel. I can definitely see hewing something.

Wow! What a beauty! Nice find!

 

[Outlawmws]

Just picked up this Winchester carpenter's broad hatchet with a phantom bevel.

Oh, man, that is an awesome hatchet!

 

[ctuai]

Just picked up this Kelly Axe and Tool Works True Temper - Kelly Hand Made. (Charleston, W. VA. USA)

 

[Outlawmws]

This Vaughn hewing hatchet head just came out of the e-rust/USC bath today. it was pretty rusted! I'm need to work in the rounded condition of the edge, but its ready for its second life.

 

[ctuai]

This Vaughn hewing hatchet head just came out of the e-rust/USC bath today. it was pretty rusted! I'm need to work in the rounded condition of the edge, but its ready for its second life.

USC? Ultra sonic cleaning? Definitely looks more shiny than when I pull my axes out of the evaporust.

 

[Outlawmws]

That's after a sink scrub and a light wie wheeling. The USC just helps the E-rust work faster.

 

[Mike'smeatshop]

I found an old timer. And after a vinegar bath it came out good. Now to hang the old boy.

 

[B Halverson]

A blank from a tree in my father's woods;

 

[Beerhippie]

Beautifully done, sir!

 

[Outlawmws]

A blank from a tree in my father's woods;

Beautifully done, sir!

Agreed!

What type of tree?

 

[four.cycle]

^ The handle is way cool, but even if he made it out of balsa wood, that "Yankee Workshop" shaving bench is awesome.

 

[Beerhippie]

^ The handle is way cool, but even if he made it out of balsa wood, that "Yankee Workshop" shaving bench is awesome.

"Shave Horse" where I come from. Very nice one, too!

 

[B Halverson]

Agreed!

What type of tree?

It is wild black cherry. The draw-shave horse was in an abandoned house in my area which the city bulldozed soon after I got it and some other stuff out of it.

 

[four.cycle]

^ GAH! Yes, it's "shave horse", and I don't know why I typed "shaving bench" after having looked it up on Google to make sure I got it right.
Go figure.

 

[B Halverson]

^ GAH! Yes, it's "shave horse", and I don't know why I typed "shaving bench" after having looked it up on Google to make sure I got it right.
Go figure.

I would not worry about it, I think the shave horse etc. had a lot of different names depending on what region it was in. I am old and tired and drawing blanks right now, but I know I have known a number of different names for the tool. It is the way to go when making one-off tool handles though.

 

[four.cycle]

^ and it wasn't "Yankee Workshop" either... that was Norm Abram's show... I saw that thing on the other PBS show - the guy who wore the overalls.

 

[Outlawmws]

^ and it wasn't "Yankee Workshop" either... that was Norm Abram's show... I saw that thing on the other PBS show - the guy who wore the overalls.

The WoodWright's shop, Roy Underhill Those shows were generally shot non-stop, and it showed!

 

[Beerhippie]

^ and it wasn't "Yankee Workshop" either... that was Norm Abram's show... I saw that thing on the other PBS show - the guy who wore the overalls.

I don't recall his name, either. But, back in college, we used to play a drinking game based on how many times he'd cut himself during a show--we got pretty tipsy that way.

I cheated and looked it up. It was called the "Woodwright Shop" with Roy Underhill.

And @Outlawmws beat me to the draw again.

 

[four.cycle]

^ yep. that's the guy. watched him set up and use that "shave horse" on one episode and I remember thinking "WOW that would be great to have one of those!"

Here's the episode

 

[2oolhound]

Agreed on all counts! Good work and all with hand tools! The shave horse is gorgeous. You can post more photos of it anytime Draw knife too.

 

[B Halverson]

Agreed on all counts! Good work and all with hand tools! The shave horse is gorgeous. You can post more photos of it anytime Draw knife too.

Here are a couple of photos of the horse on a different day. The traditional tool for making axe and other tool handles. It is pretty long, but I never measured it. I am tall though so that it fits me well let's me know maybe whoever made it was tall too. As far as draw-knives go, I have the one I used to make this and other axe handles, but there is nothing special about it, I think it is an old James Swan maybe. By the way, the horse was in a house owned by an acquaintance of mine, it was his parent's house. His father was born in 1900 and died in 1967 and had a fair collection of old tools, so I would guess this horse was well used when he got it back in the early to mid 20th century, it may even be from the late 19th century. there was a lot of stuff in the house going back to the civil-war. My acquaintance was the last in his family's line, had no offspring and the house was in poor condition so the city razed it and it is now a parking lot. A lot of old things are still under the parking lot, and the city landfill, I got out all I could.

 

[2oolhound]

It's nice and clean looking and well used. One of these is on my todo list. I hope I get a round toit. Thank you for the extra photos!

 

[Outlawmws]

Love the shave horse!

Added another Skatchet to my collection - Mostly a Game processing tool IMO, but with the ability to add a handle in the field by shaving it to size, then screwing it in, an interesting hatchet for sure:

 

[2oolhound]

I can see where game processing went into the design. For chopping it's built like a dogs head hammer with the handle at the back. Because of the shape of an ax handle the eye is a little more forward with less tendency to go sideways on occasion. I don't recall ever seeing one before.
With the poll built for hammering it reminds me of the wedges they had in the movie Alexander. When a soldier was critically injured in battle with no hope for survival they would lean him forward placing the wedge at the base of the neck and give it a sturdy whack with a mallet or small log, ending his suffering. I still think I'd rather spend another bullet on a moose or other big game rather than attempting that on an animal that was down but not out.

 

[Outlawmws]

I don't think it would work well on large four-legged animals that way. having their spine horizontal for the most part there are thick belts of muscles there, vs a human where the spinal column is right there. But for field dressing splitting the pelvic bone and skinning, yes.

 

[B Halverson]

The father of an old childhood friend passed away at 94 about a year ago. I got a few chances to grab some things off his property before my friend's sister unexpectedly hired a crew to clean up the estate which filled five extra-large dumpsters and took them off to the scrapyard and dump. One of the items I grabbed was this nice Craftsman axe, which I think is marked 4.5 pounds. Looks to have had very little use in it's lifetime, I think it is from the 1940s.

 

[Mike'smeatshop]

The father of an old childhood friend passed away at 94 about a year ago. I got a few chances to grab some things off his property before my friend's sister unexpectedly hired a crew to clean up the estate which filled five extra-large dumpsters and took them off to the scrapyard and dump. One of the items I grabbed was this nice Craftsman axe, which I think is marked 4.5 pounds. Looks to have had very little use in it's lifetime, I think it is from the 1940s.

That is a gem. The most I have are 3.5 Collins. I think 4.5 would ware me out. All day chopping.

 

[B Halverson]

I got this off a Korean war veteran right before he went into a retirement home. I got his 1948 yearbook from a military academy he went to, one of his old caps, the leather and tools he used to make a sheath for it. a branding iron he used to mark his initials on it etc... Boy, he really must have loved this axe huh? The axe is stamped "U.S.A." making me think it is military issue. It has been quite a while since I talked to him and am a bit fuzzy on some of the details now, in fact I am a bit fuzzy on everything these days.

 

[B Halverson]

A craftsman "jersey" pattern axe I picked up several blocks from my house at a yard sale. I think it is from the 1940s, maybe even pre-WWII. Looks to have it's original handle which is marked similar to the axe head.

 

[Outlawmws]

Wow! Nice axes! Both could be posted in the Long C thread!

 

[2oolhound]

WOW is right! That's 3 axes, all of which are keepers. The last single bit axe looks like it has some weight and could really do some damage.

 

[B Halverson]

Another Craftsman axe, maybe it is called a broad hatchet as it is about 17 inches overall in length, or maybe a camping axe. Looks to have it's original handle as it is marked the same as the head. Looks like it was used quite a bit, abused a little, always nice to see them make it down through the decades intact. I am guessing this is from somewhere in the 1940s or early 50s.

 

[B Halverson]

Maybe the oldest Craftsman tool laying around here, with a logo known to have been used in the 1920s;

 

[redragoon]

Maybe the oldest Craftsman tool laying around here, with a log known to have been used in the 1920s;

Logo does match the 1928-1930s version. That tool has likely seen several handles in its lifetime.

 

[Outlawmws]

Maybe the oldest Craftsman tool laying around here, with a log known to have been used in the 1920s;

My favorite hatchet head design and I'd agree late 20's with that logo. They only started "Craftsman" in May of 1927, and that was very early.

 

[B Halverson]

I took another look at the one Craftsman axe while I was sitting on the pot and saw something on the handle I had never noticed before, it actually has "Hatchet-Axe" stamped right into it. There is also something else stamped there below it but I have not figured it out yet. Maybe something about weighing 1 3/4 pounds.

 

[B Halverson]

An axe marked "William Mann, Lewistown, Superior Cast Steel". From a bit of research I am guessing it was made right around the year 1900 give or take a little bit. It is heavier at 4.75 pounds. I traded an old guy a tobacco pipe for it.

 

[B Halverson]

Well, I love old mauls because I grew up using one, my old man was too cheap to buy a gas-powered log-splitter as long as he had me around to swing one of these, and I spent summers splitting so much that the skin on my hands would be torn, calloused, blistered and ****** even though wearing leather gloves. This old maul I found in the basement of an abandoned house, used it for splitting, broke it's original handle because it was probably dry-rotted inside, and made a new one out of wood from an ash-tree my brother felled in my father's woods.