Bought 3 rusty axe heads from the flea market Saturday. The most interesting one was too rusty or else had no maker mark. Well after sanding on it for a long while, I found the mark of Mckinnon. Somewhat poor shape but usable I think. Also had a Jersey Grey Gorge which I already hafted, splits mostly quite well without sticking too bad in the worst twisted oak rounds I could find, (not quite as effective as my Flint edge Jersey.) The third one which is in the best shape seems to have a triangle brand only on it, approximately 3/8 inch long up near the poll.Soon as I figure out how to post pics, I will heh heh.
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(3) rusty axe heads
- Thread starter 9050lx
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Anyone have an idea who made it?
It looks to be an older head with a soft body (maybe even iron or wrought), I don't know for sure but suspect as much. If so that mark might have been made post production.
A wire brush will preserve more of what is left of old stamps than sanding, but even then on those older heads they can remove material so sometimes I go with a soft brass bristle brush by hand.
Hickory n steel
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that's definitely a McKinnon Rockaway, but had significant steel loss at the toe.
Based on how the rused has pitted the bit much less I'm assuming it probably has an inlaid hard steel bit.
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Can you post top down picture of the eye and how the bit was forge welded together, Is it inlaid or overlaid (for example, your McKinnon has inlaid bit)?
It looks like early Charlston or even late Alexandria made Kelly Perfect but we need more pictures from diffrent angles.
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Does look like a Charleston from a few pics I have seen of the phantom bevels as they are somewhat unusually crudely shaped and wide in the center of the axe (from what i can tell).
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I was expecting to be much thiner in front of the eye. Can you say if it has overlaid bit?
https://postimg.cc/gallery/xJKmBVD
My old Kelly has much more deeper Phantom bevels
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Looking at your last 2 pics, Phantom bevels are small and the ridge between bevels is very wide for it to be Kelly Perfect. All axe companies produced heads with oval bevels: Plumb, Collins, Kelly, Warren, METCo, JHMann AA&TCo Those scuffs point to early 1900ies. I do not think it was made by Plumb cause their heads were made from single piece of steel. Also. I do not associate this kind of scuffs with Collins. Every other maker would be fair guess.
AA&TCo heads had thin, elongated polls and this head kind looks like it has that feature, but in the end, it is very hard to even take a guess.
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Assuming this is the same maker's mark it means your head was made by AA&Tco. Most often found AA&Tco's head with small scallop bevels was Niagra brand by Manhattan Axe Co, Yours does not have Manhattan Axe maker's mark so it was possibly sold with paper label as hardware store branded axe
https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-axe-head-manhattan-ax-1883439975
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