Axe pattern deaths

[Hickory n steel]

Today I was thinking about my TTKW " HANDMADE " 4lb double that I believe to be a California peeling pattern, and in thinking about it's potential age I considered the pattern as a clue and that really got me thinking.

We may or may not have an idea of timeframes for when various patterns emerged, but what about when they died off ?
Has anybody delved into when the various American axe patterns that we no longer have died off?
It seems we really only have the Dayton, Michigan, Jersey, Hudson Bay, and to a small degree the Wedge pattern left and there are many patterns that are no longer being made.
I think we pretty much got to this point by the 70's, but It wasn't exactly overnight.
In the late 60's- early 70's Mann was still making the Swamping pattern, the western pattern may have carried on through the 70's, the rafting/ construction pattern definitely carried on awhile, and I believe my 4lb California peeling is probably late 50's-early 60's but that's just a feeling I have.
Obviously a lot of patterns died with manufacturers, some only made by a few in the 1st place, and a number of the more widely popular patterns just kind of gradually fading as the manufacturers offering them die off.

I am definitely very interested in this topic.
Not only when the patterns died off, but how common they actually were as well.
There's a number of patterns found on the charts that I don't think I've ever actually seen.

 

[catspa]

Here in the PNW, the intensive use of double bit axes was ended by the postwar invention of the chainsaw. Overall axe usage, and the number of people using them, fell off significantly even between the wars.

A generation or two later, I expect that the fading of many axe patterns was also affected by the increasing importation of foreign made axes. I know people whose grandfathers swung an axe every day, who now own two chainsaws and one axe.

Technology has passed them by, and only the handful of us know or care.

Parker

 

[Hickory n steel]

Here in the PNW, the intensive use of double bit axes was ended by the postwar invention of the chainsaw. Overall axe usage, and the number of people using them, fell off significantly even between the wars.

A generation or two later, I expect that the fading of many axe patterns was also affected by the increasing importation of foreign made axes. I know people whose grandfathers swung an axe every day, who now own two chainsaws and one axe.

Technology has passed them by, and only the handful of us know or care.

Parker

Absolutely, that is when the general decline of axes started.
I could be wrong but I imagine many patterns were lost to the war effort and just never returned.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

Most of the death of patterns been be traced to changes in their production model. The old production method was one where hardware stores or industrial clients would submit orders for essentially whatever they liked and the manufacturer used skilled laborers to forge to suit, as well as selecting the desired finish and brand. The maker would have some standard patterns, finishes, and brands to choose from, but every run was essentially semi-custom and "hand forged" via open-die forging, which is more skill-dependent and lower volume but doesn't require as much product-specific tooling.

The switch to drop-forging meant greater consistency and higher volume production, but the dies really are only good for producing a single product in the overwhelming majority of cases. Those dies are VERY expensive, which means that the only way to pay them off is by producing in volume. As a result, this means that any new patterns have to either be a smash hit that will inherently sell in huge volume OR they're going to be priced very high. To stay competitive with the low cost and high quality/consistency of drop-forged heads, manufacturers that adopted the method inherently had to slash the number of models they offered.

 

[garry3]

Today I was thinking about my TTKW " HANDMADE " 4lb double that I believe to be a California peeling pattern, and in thinking about it's potential age I considered the pattern as a clue and that really got me thinking.

We may or may not have an idea of timeframes for when various patterns emerged, but what about when they died off ?
Has anybody delved into when the various American axe patterns that we no longer have died off?
It seems we really only have the Dayton, Michigan, Jersey, Hudson Bay, and to a small degree the Wedge pattern left and there are many patterns that are no longer being made.
I think we pretty much got to this point by the 70's, but It wasn't exactly overnight.
In the late 60's- early 70's Mann was still making the Swamping pattern, the western pattern may have carried on through the 70's, the rafting/ construction pattern definitely carried on awhile, and I believe my 4lb California peeling is probably late 50's-early 60's but that's just a feeling I have.
Obviously a lot of patterns died with manufacturers, some only made by a few in the 1st place, and a number of the more widely popular patterns just kind of gradually fading as the manufacturers offering them die off.

I am definitely very interested in this topic.
Not only when the patterns died off, but how common they actually were as well.
There's a number of patterns found on the charts that I don't think I've ever actually seen.

Peeling pattern probably went out with the advent of high line logging.

Likewise we can probably predict the death of many patterns. The undercutter is a rather easy one.

 

[FLINT77]

yeah, after the 40's axe patterns probably dropped off pretty quickly.

 

[Old Axeman]

In conversations with my grandfather when I was younger there was a drop off because of WW2.
In my experience there was another drop off in the 1970's.