Any ideas on the age of this True Temper?

[Alonso Vargas Sabean]

Recently came across this in the most unlikely place imaginable. Sorry for the picture quality but the cruiser is fairly large and the engraving reads from top to bottom: True Temper, World's Finest, and Kelly Works. It may be hung upside down. The handle is interesting, unusably thick, weirdly shaped, and that wood is hard and heavy as hell but it is certainly not hickory. Found it down here in Costa Rica, for background. Mostly interested in knowing how old it might be and what the wood is...
https://www.flickr.com/photos/183778183@N07/albums/72157710527608141

 

[junkenstien]

Cant tell through the varnish about the wood but if you throw it in the water and it sinks its cocobolo.

 

[Alonso Vargas Sabean]

Cant tell through the varnish about the wood but if you throw it in the water and it sinks its cocobolo.

Thanks for the insight, I was thinking it might be since that's the only real hardwood found down here... also the bc of the color, but I will make the test.

 

[Square_peg]

It may be hung upside down.

Might be a reversible pattern. The toe is just worn short as is the norm. If the eye measures the same top & bottom then it's reversible.

 

[Alonso Vargas Sabean]

It is symmetrical, some weird effect makes it look flatter on the top whichever way you look at it. Were strictly reversible patterns a thing though? I can't notice any taper to the eye either.

 

[A17]

I think it's a California pattern that's pretty far from its home. Also, I'd bet it's a fullsized axe and not a cruiser. Makes you wonder how it got down there.

 

[Alonso Vargas Sabean]

Ha, how it got here is perhaps a long story. I painstakingly bought it and an old spokeshave off an old man (from here) who owns a hardware store near my house. He has a bunch of antique and interesting things he's collected throughout the years, including two of these double bits, a one man crosscut saw and a two man saw, all very obviously American made. My guess is some American guy, perhaps now dead, brought them down here at some point. I do think I read about True Temper exporting to Central America at some point, but the engraving is all in English, so I doubt it came down here commercially.

 

[Square_peg]

Were strictly reversible patterns a thing though?

 

[junkenstien]

Confusing trying to date them Kelly Works stamped ones like yours think fifties to early sixties.If you can get cocobolo long enough for handles and know what to look for with grain run out and knots let me know what you want for it.Rustle up a Vaughn tropical hardwoods axe head to go with it and I will keep sending you pesos till I have to slap my wife.

 

[FLINT77]

Confusing trying to date them Kelly Works stamped ones like yours think fifties to early sixties.If you can get cocobolo long enough for handles and know what to look for with grain run out and knots let me know what you want for it.Rustle up a Vaughn tropical hardwoods axe head to go with it and I will keep sending you pesos till I have to slap my wife.

you mean like this one?

 

[junkenstien]

Dang thought I was over that.Have you used it yet?

 

[FLINT77]

Dang thought I was over that.Have you used it yet?

nope

 

[Alonso Vargas Sabean]

Confusing trying to date them Kelly Works stamped ones like yours think fifties to early sixties.If you can get cocobolo long enough for handles and know what to look for with grain run out and knots let me know what you want for it.Rustle up a Vaughn tropical hardwoods axe head to go with it and I will keep sending you pesos till I have to slap my wife.

So yes, I exposed the grain enough to see its true color and orientation and that thing is definitrly made of some type of Rosewood. Either brazillian rosewood or cocobolo, most likely Cocobolo. The actual trees are endangered and their trade is 100% illegal. But I can plant a few dozen saplings if you can wait 20 years lol. Actually, I might find some on a property with some untouched forest we bought that has about the right climate for Cocobolo, in which case I'll let you know.

 

[Alonso Vargas Sabean]

To further update on the handle, which is definitely Cocobolo with a 1% change of being Brazilian Rosewood. I'll post pictures later. I will be very careful about how I reshape it in order to put it to use, and I'll make a post about how it feels vs hickory. By careful I mean that while it's much harder than hickory it may not be as flexible, and actually seems to have an acoustic resonance to it that might be uncomfortable. If it turns out to be better though I'll plant some Cocobolo on my property and make Cocobolo handles a thing in about 20 years lol