Two barn sales out here in rural Virginia yielded three axes and a sledgehammer for a total of six bucks. All three benefitted (price-wise) from rust and ruined handles.
First up is the newest and the worst. The mud on it says the owner was cutting roots, and I think that is a high aspiration for it. It’s a Dayton-pattern head with no markings, flat cheeks, and grossly unbalanced (far too heavy on the blade end). It’s heavily ground top and bottom, suggesting short-cut cutting from bar-length forging. And it demonstrates why the growth rings shouldn’t be at right angles to the head. Good hafting practice for whatever handles I end up with that have mediocre grain orientation, and a file-only sharpening for cutting roots.
Next up is a Council Tools Jersey-pattern axe of some age. It has a high centerline and I think will be a fine axe with a new handle and some work with a file. I have no clue as to the age, but it was found in the barn and beyond the memory of the current owners.
It’s almost completely off its handle, and it’s too bad the handle is abused and split because the grain orientation isn’t too bad. The poll is slightly mushroomed but not badly. The profile seems rather steep and I think it’s going need quality time with a file and low-speed grinder, but even as it is the balance is excellent.
The final pickup is a Jersey-pattern Homestead. There is no Collins marking, but it has a higher centerline that I’m led to understand would be provided on a Mann-era Homestead. This was in a hundred-year-old barn and the current owner said it was lying around when he bought the property in the 90’s. So, there’s nothing to indicate age except what can be seen, which is just the stamp and that higher centerline. Still some remaining rather dark blue paint that could be bluing. The poll is more seriously mushroomed.
The centerline is very similar to what I am nearly sure is a Kelly Woodslasher that was in my wife’s family going back (in my wife’s memory) to their return from Alaska in 1967, though she was but a wee bairn at the time. The profile is thinner than the Council.
It’s on a straight handle that might actually be salvageable, except that its grain is all wrong and not something I’d want to use.
Both the latter two are in the “make usable” queue, along with the Kelly.
Rick “will report on progress” Denney
First up is the newest and the worst. The mud on it says the owner was cutting roots, and I think that is a high aspiration for it. It’s a Dayton-pattern head with no markings, flat cheeks, and grossly unbalanced (far too heavy on the blade end). It’s heavily ground top and bottom, suggesting short-cut cutting from bar-length forging. And it demonstrates why the growth rings shouldn’t be at right angles to the head. Good hafting practice for whatever handles I end up with that have mediocre grain orientation, and a file-only sharpening for cutting roots.
Next up is a Council Tools Jersey-pattern axe of some age. It has a high centerline and I think will be a fine axe with a new handle and some work with a file. I have no clue as to the age, but it was found in the barn and beyond the memory of the current owners.
It’s almost completely off its handle, and it’s too bad the handle is abused and split because the grain orientation isn’t too bad. The poll is slightly mushroomed but not badly. The profile seems rather steep and I think it’s going need quality time with a file and low-speed grinder, but even as it is the balance is excellent.
The final pickup is a Jersey-pattern Homestead. There is no Collins marking, but it has a higher centerline that I’m led to understand would be provided on a Mann-era Homestead. This was in a hundred-year-old barn and the current owner said it was lying around when he bought the property in the 90’s. So, there’s nothing to indicate age except what can be seen, which is just the stamp and that higher centerline. Still some remaining rather dark blue paint that could be bluing. The poll is more seriously mushroomed.
The centerline is very similar to what I am nearly sure is a Kelly Woodslasher that was in my wife’s family going back (in my wife’s memory) to their return from Alaska in 1967, though she was but a wee bairn at the time. The profile is thinner than the Council.
It’s on a straight handle that might actually be salvageable, except that its grain is all wrong and not something I’d want to use.
Both the latter two are in the “make usable” queue, along with the Kelly.
Rick “will report on progress” Denney
