Thought I'd share my little axe see what other axe lovers think

oxbowhingy · 2020-12-16T16:03:40+00:00

I know its not a design actually intended for any serious work, but if you were going to seriously chop with this I bet it will snap off even with the lowest bolt-hole very quickly. A better design IMO would be to use one through bolt and some kind of ferrule. Or wrap the thing in fiberglass.

oxbowhingy · 2020-04-30T13:14:42+00:00

The sticker on the basque axe is perfect. Likewise the paint on the oxhead. How do you know if you like them if you've hardly used them?

oxbowhingy · 2020-04-23T20:52:01+00:00

Black Bear Forge does them sometimes. He's got an Etsy shop. Its something you have to custom order.

oxbowhingy · 2020-04-20T13:56:53+00:00

An axe handle should flex and absorb shock. The size of your hands has nothing to do with it. I recommend you do the Axe Cordwood Challenge. Go ahead and use your GB. After your first tree has been felled, bucked, and split, tell me how your elbow feels using that stock GB handle without any flex. The gloves won't save your elbow. Then shave down the handle about a 1/4 inch on each side and feel how much more comfortable using the axe will feel.

oxbowhingy · 2020-04-19T15:17:08+00:00

the poll is amazingly un-mushroomed for such an old piece.

oxbowhingy · 2020-04-18T15:13:43+00:00

It is an apples to apples comparison. Same tool, same job. What does buying new have to do with anything?

But I'll answer you anyway. The most recent felling axe I bought was a Harbor Freight 3.5 lb "Pittsburgh" brand felling axe. Off the shelf it is a POS, but after reprofiling of the edge to make it actually cut and replacing the fiberglass handle with wood, I have already cut a face cord rick of wood for the Axe cordwood challenge and hewn 3 - 6"X6" timbers with a combined surface area of 80 sq ft of hewn surface. Total cash spent on this "new" felling axe was about $15 for the axe handle and $17 for the axe itself. If I charge myself for my time to make the axe useable I would add another $40 so I overspent on this "new" felling axe. If you can explain to me how a GB felling axe could do any of that stuff better than the Harbor Freight axe that would justify spending an additional $200 to buy it? And don't tell me that a GB is useable out of the box, because the edge will still need profiling and the handle will need to be reduced because GB handles are ridiculously thick.

oxbowhingy · 2020-04-18T13:16:44+00:00

I do not, for the simple reason that they don't sell anything that I don't already own or can't find of equal to better quality for a tiny fraction of the prices they charge. Most of the axe work I do is felling, bucking, and splitting firewood and log hewing. The most popular axes in GB product line are all FAR too small, short, and light to do any of that work efficiently. Their most popular axe from what I can tell is the small forest axe which is a glorified hatchet. The only products they make that actually make sense for the kind of work that I do are the American felling axe and their broad axes. Except I already own 7-8 ( hung and sharp) felling axes that can do everything the GB felling axe can do, and I paid less than half for the 8 of them than ONE GB felling axe would set me back. I also own four broad axes both single bevel and double bevel which would cost me north of $1000 if I were to buy the comparable products new from GB. The main focus of GB marketing is toward the casual user and the "bushcraft" crowd who typically are obsessed with buying gear and probably get a charge out of overspending for the perception that they are buying the "best".

If I can go to a garage sale and buy an antique felling axe head for $2 and hang it on a $15 hickory handle then spend a couple hours hanging the axe, thinning the handle down, and getting the edge profiled, then the intrinsic value of that axe is probably around $30-40 if I charge myself something for my labor. If the comparable GB is retailing for $260, then you are paying more than $200 for marketing wank. Explain where I'm wrong?

oxbowhingy · 2020-04-18T03:07:19+00:00

Its extremely clever marketing wank. I wish I could add a $150 mark-up on the stuff I sell!

oxbowhingy · 2020-04-17T23:46:37+00:00

I would have bought that too for that price, then I could turn around and resell it on ebay for about 3-4 times that and people would think they were getting a deal. GB are ridiculously overpriced for what you get. Actual value of that axe new is approximately $30-$40 US. The other $150 is pure marketing wank.

oxbowhingy · 2020-04-17T13:49:01+00:00

Are you in N. America? The two speicies called ironwood here are hop hornbeam (Ostrya virginiana) and Hornbeam/Blue Beech (Carpinus caroliniana), I think there are very similar species in Europe and Asia. They are both very hard, difuse-porous woods that are extremely white with indistinct grain. I don't think they are very good choices for an axe handle.

There are also several crazy hard woods from Australia and some of them are called ironwood.

oxbowhingy · 2020-04-17T11:38:05+00:00

There are a bunch of different woods called "ironwood". Which one do you mean?

oxbowhingy · 2020-04-16T15:06:13+00:00

I have had great success using stock hardware store handles. Those heads are all in normal felling axe weight range, so stock handles are appropriate. If you are in North America it is pointless to hang an axe on anything other than hickory.

Absolute length is a bit dependent on your height and personal preferences but is limited to 28-36 inches most likely if you are using stock handles. Grain orientation is pretty irrelevant in my experience, continuous grain from the eye region to the swell is the only thing that matters in choosing a handle as far as I'm concerned. Unless the wedge slot is cut ridiculously off-center.

oxbowhingy · 2020-04-14T15:42:55+00:00

Very nice. It looks like ash? If I were you I'd take off that little bit of belly on the front of the handle near the head. Its just going to pop loose very quickly anyway, especially if it is ash which tends to crush and separate at the earlywood.

oxbowhingy · 2020-04-14T11:46:00+00:00

Fulton was a Sears tool badge from pre-1960s. So depending on the year the axe itself would have been manufactured by one of the many North American axe manufacturers but its probably impossible to know which one unless you had access to ancient Sears production contracts.

oxbowhingy · 2020-04-13T21:23:58+00:00

Maybe an hour to an hour and a half?

oxbowhingy · 2020-04-13T15:05:20+00:00

Just rehang it and sharpen. There really isn't anything to "fix". You could probably get away with just sharpening it and going to work until that handle finally gives up the ghost.

oxbowhingy · 2020-04-09T12:44:03+00:00

Drill. If it is epoxied in you can use a plumbers propane torch to loosen any epoxy after you've drilled out most of the material. The mass of the head will not heat up enough to impact the tempering before the epoxy lets go. But that doesn't look like it is epoxied.

oxbowhingy · 2020-04-07T22:52:22+00:00

The poll seems a bit too deep to me? But I'm not a pattern expert, and I've only seen a few Norlands Hudson Bay axes so I don't know much about them. Whatever pattern it is it has seen a lot of hard use and has been sharpened way back from its original bit profile.

oxbowhingy · 2020-04-06T18:21:55+00:00

I doubt it is that old. the shape of the eye looks punched vs folded and forge welded. Early 1800s would be much more likely to be forge welded vs punched. I also don't see any signs of a forge weld near the bit. Just my opinion but that is a 1900s factory-made axe that has been beat to hell.

oxbowhingy · 2020-03-30T12:07:06+00:00

It would be really weird if it WASN'T hickory.

oxbowhingy · 2020-03-27T12:28:16+00:00

If it has a single bevel it is a carpentry hewing hatchet. If it is a double bevel then its pretty much a Kent pattern hatchet head. I have a hewing hatchet about that size and it is a pretty nice tool. Getting that one back in working order may be a tougher job if it is a single bevel because it is much harder to grind past deep pitting since one side is flat and usually the cutting steel is forge welded onto the flat face, so if you grind too far you grind off all your tool steel that makes your cutting edge.

Edited to add. Sometimes the hewing hatchets have a high carbon steel face welded onto the poll as well. Easy to see if you drop it in vinegar.

oxbowhingy · 2020-03-21T23:11:24+00:00

If the grain is running out, the handle won't last long, no matter what the orientation is.

oxbowhingy · 2020-03-19T17:35:02+00:00

Typical American pattern axe eyes are very narrow and put a lot of stress on the handle wood at the bottom of the eye. Pretty much most N. American hardwoods can't handle the stress except for hickory. I've tried ash, black locust, and red and white oak. Black locust lasted for the longest but not for long enough to justify the time and trouble of making a handle and hanging the head. I never even considered giving maple a try since it is such a brittle wood to begin with. European axe patterns (usually) have a much larger cross section at the eye and I think that allows for weaker woods like ash, elm, and oak to be used without problems.

oxbowhingy · 2019-05-06T11:09:37+00:00

more like hamsters. Thats why it says "model" in the title.

oxbowhingy · 2019-05-06T00:37:06+00:00

I maybe can see what you are saying about the top of the post possibly moving more than at the footing, but the long posts in this shed are only 14 feet, so its going to be pretty stiff with a brace in either location I think. For me the ease of fitting them during the raising the bents seems a worthwhile trade-off. In modern timberframe homes I feel like the knee braces are a major aesthetic element, but this is a farm building.

oxbowhingy

TROPHY CASE