Connecticut Axe Pattern-vintage Collins- purchased on 9/11/2016

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Sep 17, 2014
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Hi Everyone

At last, after 45 years, I finally found and purchased a vintage Collins Connecticut pattern axe, 3 1/2 lbs., 30" Collins handle, at a local flea market here for $27.00. I started collecting axes forty five years ago and always was looking for the mythical Connecticut axe here in North East Tennessee. After 45 years, there it was shoved to the back of all the other axes. I tried not to salavate all over the old axe and asked the owner how much he wanted for the old axe. The axe had been treated with great care by the previous owner. It will be given to one of my sons/grandsons as a Christmas gift. This axe is probably 80 years old. It does not have any serious damage from pitting or poor sharpening technique. The cutting edge has the original angle of grind from the factory. It appears to never have been sharpened.

This axe had been purchased for me because the owner remembered, from 15-20 years ago, that I wanted one. When he found it he bought it for me. "Glenn, Glenn, Glenn! You Old Rascal! I bought this old axe for you because you told me, when we first met, to get you one if I ever found one." I bought the axe with no quibbling over the price. This guy specializes in old tools and vintage axes and buys from all over the Southern US.

The garage sales and flea markets are the place to find some axes that are beyond belief in quality. My grandfather and great uncles, who were lumberjacks, would be proud of me
because they preferred the Dayton and Jersey pattern axes. The Connecticut pattern is very much like the Jersey. Now, I will make a sheath for it.

ripshin

P.S. I earn my living as a insurance professional. Before I left home for the US Army at age 18, I had been working as a lumberjack since age 14.
 
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i been meanin' to get down your way Johnson City that is.
show a photo of the new axe if you can.
all good

buzz
 
Ripshin Lumberjack: Isn't that what all this is supposed to be about? Trying to find that very something that reminds of being young. My dad's version (he was born in Sumatra in the mid 1920s) was the first apple he ever tasted, probably from when the family moved to Europe in 1933. Whatever type of apple that was he spent the rest of his life trying to find out. No visit to an orchard was complete until he'd tasted all the varieties. But whatever Heritage apple that was he fell in love with as a 10 year old he never did rediscover. "Courtlands" were as close as he ever got but he never gave up and I think it became an annual autumn excuse just to travel the countryside with a purpose.
 
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Always a good feeling to find something that you have been looking for a long time. Congratulations.
 
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