Belknap Bluegrass double axe with unusual original handle?

G

gben

Joined
Nov 26, 2014
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Hello all, this is my second post in Blade Forums. I have always worked with my hands and tools so I always pick them up when I find them cheap at second-hand sales etc.. This summer I bought this old axe off a widow at a garage sale she was having. It looks old but hardly used with no rust, bad dents or scratches. The blade is stamped Belknap Bluegrass. I thought the handle was unusual being octagon shaped up by the head, it is a perfect fit in the head and it would be hard to believe it was ever swapped out. Anyway I thought some people here might be Belknap fans and would like to see it. I will probably never use it because if I missed and damaged the handle I would feel pretty bad being the first to screw it up after however many decades old it has survived!:

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If you don't want to use it, I'll take it off your hands ;)

Octagon handles are still available from House, I believe. They are also pretty easy to make on your own with a gentle touch on a sander or with a little more time and a rasp.

Either way, good find :)
 
I like those old octagon handles that change to oval at the grip. It shows a level of time and workmanship not seen today. Good score.
 
I took some more photos of this axe today showing how nicely the handle fits the head, and also a spot on the handle where it looks like a label may have once been, it would be nice to find an old Belknap catalog and see if there is a photo of this axe in it, thank you all for your thoughts.

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Its just to easy to find good users out there to risk that axe that has what appears to be an origanil handle. Its an awful nice axe.
Thanks for posting it. Its finds like that that keep me looking.
 
Thank you Steve and all who took the time to comment

I looked at the catalogs and was surprised to see that even the 1985 catalog has an axe very similar to the one I found. Here I thought I had found a real antique and it turns out it is something I could have bought myself when I was in my 20s.

I do agree though that it is too nice to use when I have plenty of other axes and hatchets laying around that are in well-used condition.

I grew up in a house with two wood stoves in it and all summer long for years we cut and stacked firewood to burn and some extra to sell. It was very popular back in the seventies for a while. I still believe that a skilled man with an axe, a chainsaw and a splitting maul is the quick way to process firewood for a homestead. Old timers can certainly use all the power tools they want though!
 
gben said:
...I looked at the catalogs and was surprised to see that even the 1985 catalog has an axe very similar to the one I found. Here I thought I had found a real antique and it turns out it is something I could have bought myself when I was in my 20s...
Click to expand...

I only looked at the 1970 catalog and (as I recall) all the handles being offered then were "oval" (not octagonal), so my guess is that your axe is pre-1970 (when they still offered octagonal handles).
 
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