6lb axe / RIVETING DISCUSSION ON PROUD HAFTS!!

Old Axeman said:
Thank you Muleman--there are times when I have hung with a haft that was a tight fit at the bottom and used a single large wedge to fill the top out. As you said, this is far better for a user axe than cross wedging. My first choice is still to fit the haft correctly at the top and bottom of the eye, but some times you need to do what you need to do.
I woke up this morning thinking that maybe there is a axe category for using cross wedging and large proud haft tops. I have always considered only two categories for my hand tools--ones that you use to make your living and ones that are a piece of history that needs to be preserved as such. Now I am thinking that there is a third category- tools you just play with and look at. I am not trying to be a smart ass here.
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Old Axeman, I’m glad you are realizing this and I’m not trying to be a smart ass either. I respect your experience very much but I’m in that third category. While I grew up a country boy playing/hunting/camping in the woods and rivers of East TN, I don’t use axes to make a living or to process wood to heat my house (we did when I was young). I do appreciate the historical aspects of the axe but the ones I have can be picked up at any flea market or antique store so they are nothing special to anyone but me. I do like to leave the haft proud on some of mine just because I like the look, I don’t have any other reason for this and I don’t suggest it’s superior in any way. I just enjoy cleaning up the occasional axe so someone can hopefully get a bit more use from it and enjoy it.
 
It's one of the reasons why I chuckle at the way a lot of modern collectors swoon over Norlunds, when they were an economy brand marketed toward campers and recreational outdoorsmen. Norlunds were recreational tools. Further back there's all the "gentleman's" tools that were made for wealthy individuals who wanted to tinker around in a workshop now and then, with fancy polishes and exotic handle materials and all that. Typically very well made, but serious professionals were not the target customer. Hudson Bay-pattern axes (in the modern style--not early trade axes) were similarly intended for the outdoor recreation market and mostly invoked the "Hudson Bay" name as a marketing tool.
 
If they're not being let to disintegrate into dusty orange piles of rust in dark and forgotten places that's a step up from where they were at. If they can again be let bite into wood that's even better.

I've got 30 something axes, which is not a lot by some standards. It's an unfathomable amount to others.

So I've got this kind of "Jay Leno's garage" conundrum. I've got more axes than I can realistically use regularly. I try to take each of them out for a ride now and again. I've got my favorites. And some of them are hot-rodded, and some of them are kept original. But if I'm taking care of them as the treasures they are instead of letting the atmosphere slowly dissolve them I figure it's all good.
 
Fmont said:
If they're not being let to disintegrate into dusty orange piles of rust in dark and forgotten places that's a step up from where they were at. If they can again be let bite into wood that's even better.

I've got 30 something axes, which is not a lot by some standards. It's an unfathomable amount to others.

So I've got this kind of "Jay Leno's garage" conundrum. I've got more axes than I can realistically use regularly. I try to take each of them out for a ride now and again. I've got my favorites. And some of them are hot-rodded, and some of them are kept original. But if I'm taking care of them as the treasures they are instead of letting the atmosphere slowly dissolve them I figure it's all good.
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I use an axe at work more days than not, and the same could be said be me. I agree with the sentiment anyway.

I could get by on everything I use an axe for with 8 or 10 set up the right ways very comfortably, but I have dozens and dozens to pick from, and more heads not hung. All of mine are set up to work, but I sure dont need them all.

I like the tool, and definitely have axes that are no more than for the fun of having them, "recreational"
 
A17 said:
I have.... too many axes. The large number just sorta crept up on me. First one, then 10, 20, 40, then I count them today and find out I have 55-60 of 'em.
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May I ask how long it took you to get to that amount? In one of the pictures you posted of you working you looked quite young.

I am 26 and my interest in axes really began 6 months ago. I have 9 hung (1 of which I did myself) and 3 heads 2 of which I will be hanging very shortly; the 6lb Elwell and a Hytest Craftsman with a wickedly dark patina. Funds is the main thing that has stopped me from rapidly growing the collection (or selection I like to call it as all of them are users and get use).

I have been around household axes since I was very young, have split wood before as a small child but never thought twice about it. It wasn't until I stumbled upon this site and started reading the forum that a true love and interest in this tool developed. I don't personally know anyone who is into axes in anyway shape or form so having a place like this for me to hang out is a relief to say the least. I am definitely obsessed and couldn't be happier :)
 
If anyone would like to say anything about their collections that would be great to hear. Anything at all, how many you have, when you started collecting, what you like to collect, if you favor certain axes, what got you into it?
 
K KiwiBloke , I'm 16 and I started collecting axes around 6 years ago. I was given a TT 'slasher A17 head by a friend. It languished for a few years until I read every thread on restoring axes on this site. Then I found a haft for it, hung it, and started using it. Then I remembered a Stanley single bit head a neighbor had and was given it and hung it. I started getting heads from neighbor's yards and buying them and now I have 60. I'm missing a few newly hung axes and 5-9 unhung heads from this pic but this is most of my collection.
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A17 said:
K KiwiBloke , I'm 16 and I started collecting axes around 6 years ago. I was given a TT 'slasher A17 head by a friend. It languished for a few years until I read every thread on restoring axes on this site. Then I found a haft for it, hung it, and started using it. Then I remembered a Stanley single bit head a neighbor had and was given it and hung it. I started getting heads from neighbor's yards and buying them and now I have 60. I'm missing a few newly hung axes and 5-9 unhung heads from this pic but this is most of my collection.
IMG-2009.jpg
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Man. I was really impressed that you had done this at 16 years old and had been collecting since you were 10!?! I’m like “wow, what an eclectic little kid.”
Then I realized it was a typo. :confused:
 
No typo, I really have been collecting axes since about 10. I was working for a friend who was helping an old lady clean up her place for resale and I saw a beautiful double bit axe amongst some tools that were laying around and asked if I could have it. I had just gotten a book on cabin building and an axe was one of the required tools so I wanted to get one. I was told no, "But you can have that head if you want." I immediately accepted and started punching out the handle remains in the eye with a screwdriver as soon as I'd finished up work for the day and was brought home. I put it in Evapo-rust to de rust it as I'd learned to do that while restoring hand tools and cleaned it up. Researching what A17 meant led me to this site and into axe collecting. I put it on a Truper haft from Tractor Supply after a year or two of it sitting around and although I wrecked the haft the hang was the tightest I've ever done. It's now on a vintage octagonal haft and is one of the first three double's in the pic. I'll get some fresh pics of it soon.
Ps. I've been restoring old tools for about 7 years. I started on hand planes and drills and worked my way up.
 
A17 said:
K KiwiBloke , I'm 16 and I started collecting axes around 6 years ago. I was given a TT 'slasher A17 head by a friend. It languished for a few years until I read every thread on restoring axes on this site. Then I found a haft for it, hung it, and started using it. Then I remembered a Stanley single bit head a neighbor had and was given it and hung it. I started getting heads from neighbor's yards and buying them and now I have 60. I'm missing a few newly hung axes and 5-9 unhung heads from this pic but this is most of my collection.
IMG-2009.jpg
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same situation, guess i can tell you guys, i figured there was probably an 18+ rule so i played it safe.
 
I'm pleased that another generation is taking an interest in hand tools.

Power tools have made me a lot of money over the past 35 years. But hand tools have been my passion. And hand tools never fail you.

Correction. Well kept hand tools never fail you. And they are just a pleasure to use. Even more so if you made them yourself.
 
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