Miners axe, rafting axe, construction axe

[Suppressive-Fire]

Here is one I just picked up. A Plumb 5# construction axe.

Nice I want one of those too! Hehe

 

[Suppressive-Fire]

So I went to swap meet today and found a raft pattern hatchet made by plumb.

 

[Square_peg]

Square_peg
One of those Plumbs looks familiar !

Old Axeman, the sheath looks to be made out of old fire hose like a crosscut saw sheath - standard Forest Service practice. Was that sheath your doing?

 

[Square_peg]

So I went to swap meet today and found a raft pattern hatchet made by plumb.

I'd call it a cedar pattern but they still have the beveled poll like rafting axes have.





From the small chips on the face I would assume that the poll is hardened and has seen heavy use. Nice hatchet!

 

[300Six]

Here's a virtually un-used Cedar pattern marked 3 2 PLUMB on the unconventional right side and without a Permabond eye. In other threads Steve Tall has posted Plumb ads from vintage Boy Scout and outdoor magazines and I can't help but notice that many of the hatchets and boys axes featured in them also show bevelled corners. It would make perfect sense for Scouting-endorsed utility hatchets to have hardened polls because pounding tent pegs, amongst other things, at Scout Jamborees and camps was a routine activity.

[/URL]

 

[Agent_H]

That’s a nice looking Plumb, 300six.
Since this is focus thread. Here is a Plumb 3.2 that I have. Like 300six’s above, this one has markings on the unconventional side. Do bevels indicate hardened polls the majority of the time?
This one looks like it was used more as a hammer than an axe. It has mushrooming and a couple of chips out of the poll. It’s also marked “11” on the eye and another “1” (possibly another number next to it)set at a right angle to the “11”.
Does it look like a “rafting” ax that got used hard or does the damage look more like an unhardened poll. Just on first look I guess – haven’t taken a file to it.

.

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[300Six]

That’s a nice looking Plumb, 300six.
Since this is focus thread. Here is a Plumb 3.2 that I have. Like 300six’s above, this one has markings on the unconventional side. Do bevels indicate hardened polls the majority of the time?
This one looks like it was used more as a hammer than an axe. It has mushrooming and a couple of chips out of the poll. It’s also marked “11” on the eye and another “1” (possibly another number next to it)set at a right angle to the “11”.
Does it look like a “rafting” ax that got used hard or does the damage look more like an unhardened poll. Just on first look I guess – haven’t taken a file to it.

Thanks for this. That's enlightening!. I guess there's more to visual indicator cues of identifying tempered polls than meets the eye. Hardened polls aren't supposed to mushroom! Your and my axe are the exact same critter except the one I have has never really been used and the poll is still perfect. A file bites on a corner but no different than it does at the blade end. Square_Peg's pictured rafting Walters exhibits deformation; I wonder if this sort of thing is from half century of constant use (my 45 year old Estwing hammer doesn't have an unspoiled face anymore either) or whether the degree of hardness might have been relaxed somewhat at poll ends.

By the way on mine the factory black paint is rather thick and even the 3 2 and PLUMB is hard to read so if there are cryptic numbers elsewhere they are obscured enough that I haven't found them.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

Council used to make a rafting pattern, and it was available still less than a decade ago if I remember correctly (and I very well may not.) I do wish they'd bring it back.

 

[Square_peg]

council still sells something they call a miners axe but it's just a Dayton on a short haft. It doesn't have a hardened poll.

 

[Steve Tall]

A "rafting axe" in Council Tool's 2006 catalog, and it's called a "rafting pattern" in their 2005 catalog, but it doesn't specify that the poll is hardened:

Rafting Axe -- 4# head on 20" and 28" handles; 5# head on 28" and 36" handles

Rafting Pattern
Single bit rafting axes feature wider polls with a generous radius. They are used to limb and drive chain saw wedges.

 

[Square_peg]

Good stuff, Steve. Gotta love the Wayback Machine.

 

[Square_peg]

I found yet another use for hard poll axes today. After work I dropped a cherry tree in my neighbor's yard (chainsaw). I brought out my hard poll Dayton to drive the felling wedges and do some limbing - it's been my go-to axe lately. When it came time to buck up the 20" trunk I brought out my log lifter. I used the hard poll of my Dayton to set the point of the log lifter. No worries about damaging the poll.

 

[Steve Tall]

This 1914 catalog shows a Michigan pattern axe with a hardened poll:

The "Red Ridge" axes were made by AmericanAx at Glassport, PA, according to an article from 1904.

 

[Twoinch]

wouldnt care for the rounded poll of a michigan for my driving ax.

 

[Old Axeman]

Peg,
Yes, the sheath was my doing. I had a lot of surplus fire hose and made a lot of quick and dirty sheaths to store my axes safely in my shop. I only carried an axe with a homemade or factory leather sheath.

 

[Square_peg]

Loggers transporting logs rafts downriver used them for driving the log dogs used to chain the raft together.

I just found a reference in an old logging book (Random Lengths) where these axes are called 'dogger mauls'. Perhaps a local term from central Oregon.

 

[markv]

dogger maul makes sense.

 

[Beachlogger]

Ha ha that's a great picture of that log raft, what is that a little doggie hanging on the peavey?

 

[garry3]

Ha ha that's a great picture of that log raft, what is that a little doggie hanging on the peavey?

If the guy had a street organ it would have surly passed for a dancing monkey.

 

[300Six]

If the guy had a street organ it would have surly passed for a dancing monkey.

Plate camera photographs from that era required tripods and long exposure times. So for the dog owner to get the little fella to stand motionless upright (for up to a 30 seconds?) in that shot is pretty impressive.