Photos 1944 Mann military hatchet

[ithinkverydeeply]

I’ve only been into collecting axes for a year now and it’s all new to me, including the leathercraft and woodcarving which I have just made made fledgling steps into. This one was just my 3rd restoration ever and I really tried to step up my game on it.
With some bells and whistles on the sheath like ferro rod holder, utility D-ring, corner guards, and custom stamping, “Hardworking and Humble” like the hatchet. It has both belt loops and a shoulder strap.
The handle is made from a big chunk of, now extinct and extremely scarce, American Chestnut.

Gave it to my pops since it’s as old and hard working as he is.

 

[John A. Larsen]

I also have a 1944 Mann , but left it in its original form and scabbard as I collect military items. That chestnut is neat, the end grain of the handle almost looks like laminated wood. John

 

[Square_peg]

Beautiful work and beautiful wood, the chestnut.

The American Chestnut isn't quite extinct yet. The blight never made it across the Rockies where there are no host trees. Many ornamental chestnuts are planted in parks on the west coast and they're doing just fine. And the American Chestnut Foundation is currently testing and breeding blight resistant trees in order to bring the tree back to the east coast.

 

[ithinkverydeeply]

Beautiful work and beautiful wood, the chestnut.

The American Chestnut isn't quite extinct yet. The blight never made it across the Rockies where there are no host trees. Many ornamental chestnuts are planted in parks on the west coast and they're doing just fine. And the American Chestnut Foundation is currently testing and breeding blight resistant trees in order to bring the tree back to the east coast.

Ahh, I thought someone would bring this up when I worded it like that! LoL.
This is well debated though...
It’s worth noting that the blight resistant trees are cross bred with the resistant Chinese Chestnut and then the traits of the Chinese Chestnut are bred back out of them. So they are not truly the “original” American Chestnut they are a new species.

Interesting side note: They could have made them totally resistant but left some vulnerability in the species so it would have to compete to survive.

 

[John A. Larsen]

I am pretty sure that I read about a grove of American Chestnut being found up in some "Hollow" back East, maybe in West Virginia, that apparently had been so remote that the blight had never reached it. John