Spanish flea market finds & other stuff that might be of interest!

[I'mSoSharp]

A few finds today, some useful N.O.S long handles, an old hoe & another small cleaver type chopper, plus a small hatchet that has had some fresh paint applied......... it has a crown & 1 1/4 lb marking so probably OK & clean up nicely.

 

[I'mSoSharp]

Started to clean the small hatchet, removed the head for a re-hang after a clean up & on stripping the paint found what I thought was a crown was in fact DSI for Danish Steel Industry......





A new one on me.

 

[I'mSoSharp]

The little DSI hatchet is quite nice now it’s cleaned & wedged.



I found a bit more information about Danish Steel Industry or Dansk Staal industri & it looks like they produced a really nice hewing axe amongst others.

“DSI : Dansk Staal Industri = Danish Steel Industry 1915 - 1981 where it was taken over by
Hultafors.”

 

[catspa]

Good work on the hatchet, man.

That figure 2 trips my trigger, if I saw one at a swap meet I’d snap it up.

The label being printed in English, does that mean they made it for export?

Parker

 

[I'mSoSharp]

That figure 2 trips my trigger

Yes it's cool, but what about fig 3

The label being printed in English, does that mean they made it for export?

I guess so, I think most European axe makers moved their products around, they must have been a pretty decent concern for Hultafors to buy them out.

 

[catspa]

Figure 3 is too badass an axe for my laidback hillbilly style. I’d hang it in my bathroom though, and swing it around in front of the mirror when I stripped down to shower.

Sorry for oversharing.

Parker

 

[I'mSoSharp]

I cleaned the small cleaver from a few posts back & repaired the handle that was split into two pieces with a small bit missing. No name & moneyterally worthless but I like it so....... It's similar to another cleaver I found (post 417) that I haven’t re-handled yet.....







Another Eurocent coin for the tang end that still needs peening.

 

[I'mSoSharp]

Today... .....



A nice Elwell that’ll be even nicer with a handle hung properly the right way round....



A strange small claw hammer, that’ll be nice with the handle fitted properly.. I think it was originally strapped, it has what looks like cut outs in the front of the head.
Is it a shoeing hammer?







C or maybe G Willms & not sure of the town.. Anybody?

 

[I'mSoSharp]

Today, an old blacksmith’s hot cut & two 1kg Spanish axes, one made in the town of Don Benito in the South stamped “fc” (Flores cortes) with a handle and the other one a NOS head made in the North in Guipuzcoa stamped RO for Ramon Onraida.











I love the shape of the RO one from north, the handle of the Flores Cortes f.c one won’t go through the eye of it, not even the thinner part at the opposite end to where the head fits!

 

[I'mSoSharp]

This is a 400 gram hatchet made by Bellota, they have many weights in 100g increments, a slip through handle that is oval in cross section that was a development & improvement from the traditional round slip through.



I have a few & like them.



Bellota are a Spanish manufacturer who make a huge amount of different tools, I had noticed that their traditional hammers (they also make modern designs) with slip through handles were now being changed to a wedged handle design.......
So I suppose it was only a matter of time.....


They give some strange reasons on their website for why their fiberglass wedge is patented that I won't bore you with....

 

[catspa]

Looks to me like the RO axe would hang a little more closed than I’m accustomed to. Will you make a haft for it soon, and if so will you compensate or make it straight and it hangs how it hangs?

I like the Ballota hatchet. If I saw one here in US I’d probably buy it.

Parker

 

[I'mSoSharp]

Looks to me like the RO axe would hang a little more closed than I’m accustomed to. Will you make a haft for it soon, and if so will you compensate or make it straight and it hangs how it hangs?

Yes by the nature of the head it's closed, the very first post of this thread some years ago I found a smaller one of the same RO style & below is what I ended up doing.



I will hang the "new to me" bigger one & will probably do something along the lines of the other head in the first post, a bit shorter & it'll be even more oval in section as the eye in the RO is quite narrow but deep.



It's funny, I thought I'd look for the RO head on a factory handle to see how they did it & as yet can't find one. The old catalogue image shows other styles hung but not this one, maybe it was a head they sold without haft/ handle?

I like the Ballota hatchet. If I saw one here in US I’d probably buy it.

Yep, the Bellota made hatchets are decent quality, virtually all Bellota stuff is pretty well made & the new wedged models I'm sure will be good too.
I just love the slip fit handle hatchets & axes, they weren't what I grew up with in the UK so that's probably why I find them so quirky & it's a bit sad they are disappearing from Bellota's line up.
I imagine it's simply a sign of the times that the old slip style is considered old & inferior when so many more expensive manufacturers wedge the heads, it also may sound stupid but a slip- fit anything takes a little understanding, even though it's so obviously simple to us how it works it's staggering the things I've had folks say to me, I bought another old Bellota (700g) hatchet the other day & the head was loose, it had a tiny shoulder where the head had "cut" into the handle so wouldn't tighten up with the usual knock on the ground, it just needed the shoulder removing with a knife or sandpaper but the vendor told me it needed a soak in water to tighten it up............... So maybe these people understand wedges better, or should I say wedges, nails, screws, keys, in fact anything close to hand that can be hammered in

 

[catspa]

One time I was rehanging a hammer for a construction monkey who had busted it off just below the head (probably by prying sideways). While extracting the stub I found the usual screws and nails, and also a piece of broken 7/32 drill bit.

He swore he didn’t put it there, but said he got the hammer from his cousin. Yeah, right.

What is a drill bit anyway but a fast spinning screw with no head and flutes instead of threads?

Parker

 

[catspa]

Wow, reference picture #8 is really bent, almost cartoon-ish. Don’t know if I could backsway a haft enough to get that bit straight.

For years I’ve attempted (usually successfully) to hang in such a way that the impact direction is perpendicular to the long axis of wood grain, thinking that severe impacts on the diagonal would tend to “rock” the eye on the haft and loosen it. Have you used the backswayed hatchet hard, and if so has the result borne out my suspicions?

Parker

 

[I'mSoSharp]

Wow, reference picture #8 is really bent, almost cartoon-ish. Don’t know if I could backsway a haft enough to get that bit straight.

I'm not sure on light tools that it's so important to have an edge parallel to the handle, some Billhooks, Sickles etc take advantage of a slicing cut by purposely angeling the cutting edge, I think it can work OK on a hatchet.

Have you used the backswayed hatchet hard, and if so has the result borne out my suspicions?

No not enough to have an opinion, that one isn't very heavy anyway. The image below from earlier in this thread was a real eye opener for me..... . Similar shape to the #8 in the catalogue.



These three hatchets are still hung on the workshop wall of a friend, they were his father-in-law's here in Spain & have the original handles that appear homemade, they were tools that were used.
When I first spotted them the first thing I said was that the top ones handle was upside down. We got it down from the wall & found that the handle doesn't fit properly the other way round, this was the way it was when it was being used....
I have no explanation other than it does feel quite good if you imagine using it for overhead work....

 

[Square_peg]

Today, an old blacksmith’s hot cut & two 1kg Spanish axes, one made in the town of Don Benito in the South stamped “fc” (Flores cortes) with a handle and the other one a NOS head made in the North in Guipuzcoa stamped RO for Ramon Onraida.

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I love the shape of the RO one from north, the handle of the Flores Cortes f.c one won’t go through the eye of it, not even the thinner part at the opposite end to where the head fits!

I love the variety of your local finds!

 

[I'mSoSharp]

Nothing axey for a while now, but this weekends finds could be titled “claw hammers through the ages”.





The top one is a True Temper, the first of anything I’ve seen here T.T, the middle one a very early Bellota with a beautiful aftermarket galvanized steel pipe handle & the bottom one a chunky blacksmith made brute, love the hook on those claws!

I normally replace any handle that's suspect but I'm tempted to start a "black museum" collection of the worst, like the gas pipe handle.......

 

[I'mSoSharp]

the first of anything I’ve seen here T.T

Apparently I've not been looking hard enough, there is something like forty five golf courses in the area so that means there must be a lot more True Temper floating about......... but that's a long way off topic.

 

[I'mSoSharp]

.....for anyone wondering what on earth I’m on about regarding True Temper & golf courses it’s because True Temper are known for their golf clubs which apparently they made first, & “True Temper” refers to the metal shaft of their clubs, later used on their claw hammers.

The strange Adze type tool head from post #479 I’ve given a bit of a clean with vinegar simply to see where or if it’s hardened, it is on both ends.



It’s also clearly marked K.S.



With it having a hammer head I wonder if the other end is a wood carving curved adze? Think I’ll try a short handle in it & see what the angles are like before maybe seeing if it’ll sharpen OK, there’s not a huge amount of hardened steel left!

 

[rjdankert]

"True Temper" has been used in conjunction with many products starting at least in the early 1900s with the American Fork & Hoe Co. (A F & H Co).

In 1949 A F & H Co formally became known as the True Temper Corporation. 1957 catalog snips:

Bob