Allagash cruiser, anyone use/have one?

I guess I’m ok with whatever they want to call their pattern or the steel they use - primarily because I applaud American made products but am not their target audience.

Now, watching folks list axes on the internet as and refer to a boy’s/chainsaw sized single bit axes as “cruisers” might get an eye roll...
 
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You know it's interesting when I first started collecting I went down to my neighbors house to see if he had any old axes he'd part with. He ended up giving me two Snow&Neally Hudson bay axe heads along with a pick and a really old, locally made lipped shipwright's adze. He was a stone mason in summer and worked in the woods cutting firewood, most of it for sale, and pulp wood his entire life. And he referred to the Hudson bay(s) as a cruiser! This was before i joined the forum and learned that he was wrong(i hate saying that) about that. But i found it interesting anyway. He's around 70 now maybe a little older.
 
I purchased one, last year, on their initial run. It's sort of a "camp axe" and is, indeed, well made.
Seems to be well balanced too. I hail from Maine so I suppose sentiment factored into the purchase some.

I know Kittery Trading Post has been stocking them and when I stopped in a few weeks ago, they had sold them all.
 
droppoint1 said:
+1 on not liking that B&C is calling their axe a "Maine Wedge". It is not a wedge pattern, it is a copy or approximation of a Maine pattern.

I also don't like that they are not making an actual wedge pattern axe, since that is my favorite pattern. And what is more frustrating is the early pictures they put out where it looked much closer to a half wedge or almost a wedge pattern axe with fully ground sides.

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I don't get the trend for copying those unfinished sides either like GB does. It isn't historically accurate to Maine axes as far as I know.
All of the antique Maine pattern axes, and Wedge Pattern axes that I have seen have all been ground smooth on the sides.

Also, unless something changed, the last time I checked B&C said that they fully harden their axes. If that is still true, it means the whole axe head is hardened the same and not differentially as that article suggests.

They were using ash because it is a local material for them, but it sounds like the emerald ash borer beetle is wiping out the ash trees at a fast rate.
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The EAB only just recently made it to Maine, so we have a while yet before it really starts taking a toll on our ash trees, but it'll happen soon, I imagine.

Also, this is a recent photo from their Facebook page, as far as the shape goes.

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Regarding the ground cheeks/rough everything else, that was pretty normal for most axe makers in their mid-range of products as far as I recall. They'd just usually be painted over the parts that weren't painted, or left bare on economy models with what was called an "oil finish", though the bit wouldn't have been so finely polished up on those.
 
Are you saying that top image is of a Wedge pattern? It doesn't look very...Wedgie. This is a beaten-up Wedge that my dad has had for goodness knows how long. Photo from the underside of the head because the top had been whomped on with a metal hammer at some point so it's hard to see the lines from the top. I keep intending to rehab it and can't ever find the time around more pressing matters. :(

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I'm really fine with the B&C. If you don't care for the forged finish, that's an easy fix. If you like the aesthetic, that's harder to put back on it! So from that standpoint, leaving the forgeblack on it makes sense, especially from a marketing angle since it's an "in" look that's probably around to stay. I don't like the name they called the model, but it is what it is I guess. I'd rather they called it a "Maine [something else]" but it's a decent "modified Maine pattern" and the ONLY thing close to it available new on the market.
 
If things go well with this model, as they seem to be, maybe they'd be open to offering such a thing in the future! :)
 
I thought I'd share these two with you guys. This, as far as i can see, is a Maine pattern. On the original haft too. It was only thr second or third axe i bought and i thought it had been sharpened a lot but it's stamped 3 1/2 and weighs #3-9.3oz as it is.
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I've come to really love this particular axe. And here's my plumb wedge pattern. I think it's a full wedge.
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Wedges have always been my least favorite but maybe that's changing a little. I think i have 3 or 4 more. One is a h&b. I'l find it and post pics tomorrow.
 
May be just the photo angles but the S&N kiiiiind of looks a bit wide and a bit too much beard to be a "Maine" pattern? It's a little hard to say conclusively, though. Even Emerson & Stevens' own catalog pages show conflicting info literally right next to each other. I just looked at some in my personal collection. Pic incoming.
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
May be just the photo angles but the S&N kiiiiind of looks a bit wide and a bit too much beard to be a "Maine" pattern?
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I know. It gets confusing. I've looked and looked and old ads and the older the ad the more this looks like a Maine pattern. Newer ads not so much. It doesn't look like a wedge, long island, yankee or new england either! And as for the other possibilities i don't think snow and neally offered them. What do you guys think it is?
 
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