Best Made Co - Black Donald Hudson Bay Axe

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I'm actually impressed.

Just the grain orientation guarantee must be worth something to the people who value it so highly in a handle. I'm serious, even though I don't think it matters much if at all and wouldn't pay extra for it, if it mattered to me, I would consider it a mark in Best made's favour.
 
BG_Farmer said:
I'm actually impressed.

Just the grain orientation guarantee must be worth something to the people who value it so highly in a handle. I'm serious, even though I don't think it matters much if at all and wouldn't pay extra for it, if it mattered to me, I would consider it a mark in Best made's favour.
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More often brand new axes suffer from broken handles within a short period after purchase these days. Ordinary folks do not know how to appraise the quality of a handle and proudly head home with 'pretty-looking' implements which fail shortly after. I browse through the racks at hardware stores to this day and increasingly cringe at the diminishing quality of axe hafts. Pictured below are replacement hafts which are generally of good quality but the haft on the right must have slipped by QC on a late Friday afternoon, and wouldn't last through a weekend of chopping wood for anyone.

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300Six said:
. . . Pictured below are replacement hafts which are generally of good quality but the haft on the right must have slipped by QC on a late Friday afternoon. . .

AxehandleII003Medium_zpsd70d2b81.jpg
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Did the manufacturer of that handle advertise anything about grain? I suspect the QC was done within the limits set by the company.

nickzdon said:
. . .If you look at all the graded specs from a handle manufacturer, grain orientation isn't even on the list. . . .
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I can't verify if the above is true, but it is with at least a dozen manufacturers/suppliers that I have looked at.

Bob
 
quinton said:
I want a Best Made axe!
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nickzdon said:
. . .I'll also clarify on grain orientation. Both BMC axes and the Velvicut line utilize bastard cut handles which specify grain orientation parallel to the bit with no more than 20º deviance left or right. . . .
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IIRC, this isn't your favorite way to obtain the handle blank and orientation in the head. :D

Bob
 
I bet that handle on the right would last more than a weekend in the hands of a moderately skilled user (i.e. above greenhorn level) but it's definitely a bum handle.
 
rjdankert said:
Did the manufacturer of that handle advertise anything about grain? I suspect the QC was done within the limits set by the company.
Bob
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These guys generally supply Home Hardware with well above average (good grain orientation and lack of runout) handles. There is no packaging, label or wedge supplied with these. They are not gussied up with paint and varnish either and are 2/3 the cost (ie $10) of brand name (Garant) replacement handles. I was quite surprised that this one had slipped through. When you start looking closely at new Garant axes the handles are often not ideal either.

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FortyTwoBlades said:
I bet that handle on the right would last more than a weekend in the hands of a moderately skilled user (i.e. above greenhorn level) but it's definitely a bum handle.
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I tried to take a pic of my floor nailer hammer handle, but my camera batteries are dead. :(

The hammer has handle grain runout that looks just like that handle that, 300 keeps posting up. Not a single grain runs through the handle, all of the grain runs out along the length. The nailer, and hammer(Stanley Bostitch) are 10 years old and have laid nearly 50,000 sq. ft. of every kind of hardwood flooring imaginable! The handle looks, and works as good today as when new!
 
quinton said:
I think, Best Made should offer a premium horizontal grain upgrade on their American Felling Axe.:)
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Get it through your head man that horizontal grain is a complete dud for curved handles. It's not ordinary use that kills handles but rather the shock of accidental overstrikes and the stress of prying an axe loose when it's stuck. A horizontal grain axe handle that is curved automatically has 'run out' no matter how lovely the wood is.
By the way, your imperfect grain flooring nailer mallet is short, for one, and two never gets pried nor accidentally struck along the handle.
 
quinton said:
You have obviously never seen a madman lay floor, man!
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I've laid 1000s of feet of hardwood flooring too and never bothered to check the wood grain of the striker mallet. But I don't ever want to have, or live with, a 3/4 hardwood strip floor installed by a 'madman'; soon as a hurried line goes off straight you wind up with nothing but an irreversible mess.
 
300Six said:
I've laid 1000s of feet of hardwood flooring too and never bothered to check the wood grain of the striker mallet.
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"Never bothered" lol. As anal as you are with handle grain, I don't believe you.:p

300Six said:
But I don't ever want to have, or live with, a 3/4 hardwood strip floor installed by a 'madman'; soon as a hurried line goes off straight you wind up with nothing but an irreversible mess.
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I ain't made a "mess" yet, but sounds like you "may have"?:eek:
 
300Six said:
Get it through your head man that horizontal grain is a complete dud for curved handles.
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"If" that statement were true, how did all of the horizontally grained curved handles get through the quality control on all of those OLD vintage axes? I'm talkin' back in the day when the major axe manufacturers were competing to be top dawg.. Surely they wouldn't let so many "duds" through the quality check point? I recently acquired a nice Collins Legitimus with an original Collins curved haft, it also has perfect horizontal grain alignment. According to, Yesteryears tools,
The Crown, Arm & Hammer along with the word Legitimus was etched into one face of some axes advertised to be the BEST QUALITY MADE.
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I've looked at, and admired quite a few ancient axe handles over the years. One thing I have noticed on the really old ones is; there is little, to no runout, and, they are either vertically grained, or horizontally grained, no between!
 
quinton said:
"If" that statement were true, how did all of the horizontally grained curved handles get through the quality control on all of those OLD vintage axes? I'm talkin' back in the day when the major axe manufacturers were competing to be top dawg.. Surely they wouldn't let so many "duds" through the quality check point? I recently acquired a nice Collins Legitimus with an original Collins curved haft, it also has perfect horizontal grain alignment. According to, Yesteryears tools,
I've looked at, and admired quite a few ancient axe handles over the years. One thing I have noticed on the really old ones is; there is little, to no runout, and, they are either vertically grained, or horizontally grained, no between!
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They didnt get thru "quality control" as there was none back in the day, at least in the terms that we think of now.

Grain train is interesting to me, as most just have to have vertical grain, because that is what someone said, read in a book, or the forest service said had to be.

Truth be told, vertical grain handles can bust just like horizontal grain, or handles with run out in them. However, horizontal or run out handles have a higher percentage of breakage usually due to someone being dumb, than vertical grain handles. Is that percentage worthwhile or significant? I am not sure to tell you the truth. I had a boys axe I had in my truck that had almost side ways grain, that I used to abused, crappy tasks, chores, etc. No issues with it, ever. As stated above somewhere, I think by 300six, most issues occur because of human error not actual fault in the handle per se.

Is grain alignment important? I think it is, as it provides peace of mind more than anything else, and that is important.
 
Operator1975 said:
Is grain alignment important? I think it is, as it provides peace of mind more than anything else, and that is important.
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Makes a lot of horrible waste, though, both in terms of natural resources and labor.
 
Operator1975 said:
They didnt get thru "quality control" as there was none back in the day, at least in the terms that we think of now.
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When I pick up, and ogle an old intact original, I see the pride that was most surely instilled in the craftsmen who made it happen. Newer ones...Meh.
 
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