A few weeks ago Best Made was in Belfast, Northern Ireland to conduct a two-day axe restoration workshop at Build Conference 2012. Build is primarily a web design conference, so not many of the attendees had a whole lot of outdoor experience, let alone axe experience. There were attendees from Ireland, Portugal, England, Australia, and the US. We brought 20 vintage US military heads, probably from the 1960s-80s, and everyone got to restore their own axe and take it home. The second day of the workshop was spent at Crawfordsburn Boy Scout camp near Bangor (yup, there's one in N. Ireland too. The one in Maine is named after it.) We chopped firewood, which was incredibly damp, like everything else in Ireland, and had a little cook out once we got the fire started. Here are some pics of the first day, and some action shots from the second day. And in case anyone is wondering, you can check 20 axe heads and a few full axes in your luggage on an international flight. US Customs gave me a funny look when I was leaving Ireland, but it really wasn't a problem.
All the axes we brought were 4# Daytons. This one is an old Council, but there were also, Woodings Veronas, True Tempers, and one Collins.
The First day of the workshop was in a fancy boutique hotel in Belfast. I was afraid we were just going to destroy the floor, but we didn't do too bad.
Day two at Crawfordsburn.
Sharpening faces.
Not my best chop of the day but it was the only one captured on film.
When I asked the 'warden' (that's her official title) at Crawfordsburn how they start their campfires with such damp wood she said the usually cheat with a good helping of lighter fluid. They were very appreciative to have so much firewood chopped and stored inside where it could dry out.
All the axes we brought were 4# Daytons. This one is an old Council, but there were also, Woodings Veronas, True Tempers, and one Collins.
The First day of the workshop was in a fancy boutique hotel in Belfast. I was afraid we were just going to destroy the floor, but we didn't do too bad.
Day two at Crawfordsburn.
Sharpening faces.
Not my best chop of the day but it was the only one captured on film.
When I asked the 'warden' (that's her official title) at Crawfordsburn how they start their campfires with such damp wood she said the usually cheat with a good helping of lighter fluid. They were very appreciative to have so much firewood chopped and stored inside where it could dry out.
