Cruiser Axe - Your Definition?

I commonly see six inch 2 1/2 lb double bit axes advertised as cruiser axes. I've also seen this size DB advertised as a saddle axe. Any comments? thanks
 
I've only seen pictures of saddle axes, but they all looked much smaller than a cruiser, maybe half the size.
 
I've seen them called saddle axes for horse packers too. A lot of horse packers I've met carry a big knife for lopping off low hanging branches over the trail along with the axe for camp use and serious trail clearing.
 
I think I might have a cruiser project here...
IMG_20120229_231007.jpg


What do you think? No makers mark. Looks like it used to be red.
 
Sidehill Gouger said:
Someplace in the past I read the Cruiser pattern was favored by timber cruisers but when I worked on a U.S. Forest Service timber cruising crew, we used single bit boy's axes. The poll was good for sounding a trunk to see if it might be hollow.
Click to expand...
Here in Missouri I was talking to some one that worked for forestry and this is what they used to "cruise" the timber around here, Single bit., around 26 -28 inch handle 2 1/2 pound Hudson bay style. The handle had some marks so they could hold it up and from a distance kinda eyeball the length of the log in the tree and a poll to "sound" the log or tree to see if it was punky, doughty or hollow.

But I have seen a lot of double bits about 8 inches across on a 28 inch handle called cruisers.
 
Would there be any benefits to using a double bit for cruising vs a single bit? I've also only heard/seen "cruiser" refer to the ~2.5 lb double bits.
 
Timber cruiser is an old term started in the 19th century to describe the man who went into the forest to scout and locate the prime stands of timber to purchase soon after the original surveys, and the government released the land for sale. The more skilled timber cruisers could estimate timber volumes. Today these people are known as foresters or forest technicians. They still do timber cruising, that is timber volume estimation, but like the others said here, paint and computers have taken over.

The axe used in the old days would have had to be light for carry several days in the woods away from civilization. I think individual timber cruisers had their favorite axe but it looks like to me today it is defined as almost always a 2.5 lb. double bit. They are scaled down with a smaller eye. A smaller single bit is almost always called a boys axe.
 
Back when I cruised timber in the early 70s in the Pacific NW, cruisers axes were always considered to be a double bit, 2.5 lb head, with 28" handle. Those we had were mostly Plumbs but there were a few Collins around. There was one in every 4x4. They were delightful, lively axes to use, but we never used them for blazing trees, just things like clearing a blow-down out of the way if you didn't have a chain saw. Marking, whether individual trees or sale boundaries, was always done with spray paint, and had pretty much been that way since the 1950's. We also would use them for axe throwing contests if there was a convenient butt from some old growth logging done back before WW I that was handy to where we met for lunch. It seems like there was always somebody who would either break the handle or go over the target and send the axe down the hill into an old slash pile covered with Himalayan black berry vines. The salvage office would get the busted handle ones, which were sold as scrap steel, since it was cheaper for the company to just get a new axe than re-handle the old one. Honestly, our most used cutting tools when we were laying out sale boundaries, running property lines, or looking for section corners were machetes. All the ones I used were Collins Legitimus with canvas sheaths and dates on the blades in WW II years (same vintage as the BLM C rats we could have if we wanted them. The canned peaches and the cigarettes were the best finds.) The machetes were lighter, easier to sharpen and let you move through the brush quicker than messing with an axe. We had a few machetes that were also Collins, but had heavier, longer blades and really nice leather sheaths, which typically would get used by the new hires, just once, as they quickly learned they were too heavy and the sheaths were a pain to deal with too - the canvas ones could be folded and shoved in the back of your cruiser's vest, but not those stiff leather ones.

This may have been posted before, but back when homesteading was going on in late 1800s, you could also file a timber claim. The big timber companies used to sponsor immigrants (many from Scandinavian countries) to the U.S., paying for their passage and providing enough supplies to get a shack set up on the claim and then live there the required amount of time to "prove up" on the claim, at which time it was signed over to the timber company. Also, the railroads had vast timber holdings which they wanted values on and I wouldn't be surprised if they were actually the first large scale users of timber cruisers. IIRC, as incentive from the federal government to punch the lines through, the railroad companies were given something like every other section of land on both sides of the tracks, for 3 sections deep. Section is one square mile. A great book about timber cruising in Alaska was written back in the 1950s by Jay Williams, and is titled "Alaskan Adventure". Last, I do have a couple of Collins double bit hatchets that I guess are "saddle cruisers" (is that a real name? It sounds like an antique dealer's creativity at work...). I use them when camping and hunting; when sharp, they work well for skinning an elk and getting it into quarters if you don't have a small saw.
 
Last edited:
DB404 said:
Back when I cruised timber in the early 70s in the Pacific NW, cruisers axes were always considered to be a double bit, 2.5 lb head, with 28" handle. Those we had were mostly Plumbs but there were a few Collins around. There was one in every 4x4. They were delightful, lively axes to use, but we never used them for blazing trees, just things like clearing a blow-down out of the way if you didn't have a chain saw. Marking, whether individual trees or sale boundaries, was always done with spray paint, and had pretty much been that way since the 1950's. We also would use them for axe throwing contests if there was a convenient butt from some old growth logging done back before WW I that was handy to where we met for lunch. It seems like there was always somebody who would either break the handle or go over the target and send the axe down the hill into an old slash pile covered with Himalayan black berry vines. The salvage office would get the busted handle ones, which were sold as scrap steel, since it was cheaper for the company to just get a new axe than re-handle the old one. Honestly, our most used cutting tools when we were laying out sale boundaries, running property lines, or looking for section corners were machetes. All the ones I used were Collins Legitimus with canvas sheaths and dates on the blades in WW II years (same vintage as the BLM C rats we could have if we wanted them. The canned peaches and the cigarettes were the best finds.) The machetes were lighter, easier to sharpen and let you move through the brush quicker than messing with an axe. We had a few machetes that were also Collins, but had heavier, longer blades and really nice leather sheaths, which typically would get used by the new hires, just once, as they quickly learned they were too heavy and the sheaths were a pain to deal with too - the canvas ones could be folded and shoved in the back of your cruiser's vest, but not those stiff leather ones.

This may have been posted before, but back when homesteading was going on in late 1800s, you could also file a timber claim. The big timber companies used to sponsor immigrants (many from Scandinavian countries) to the U.S., paying for their passage and providing enough supplies to get a shack set up on the claim and then live there the required amount of time to "prove up" on the claim, at which time it was signed over to the timber company. Also, the railroads had vast timber holdings which they wanted values on and I wouldn't be surprised if they were actually the first large scale users of timber cruisers. IIRC, as incentive from the federal government to punch the lines through, the railroad companies were given something like every other section of land on both sides of the tracks, for 3 sections deep. Section is one square mile. A great book about timber cruising in Alaska was written back in the 1950s by Jay Williams, and is titled "Alaskan Adventure". Last, I do have a couple of Collins double bit hatchets that I guess are "saddle cruisers" (is that a real name? It sounds like an antique dealer's creativity at work...). I use them when camping and hunting; when sharp, they work well for skinning an elk and getting it into quarters if you don't have a small saw.
Click to expand...

Great post DB. When I worked on a U.S. Forest Service cruising crew in the early 70's we used single bit boy's axes because the poll was useful for sounding trees for hollow hearts. Later, I worked for a large timber company and like you said we used machetes about as much as axes when laying out logging roads and units.
 
There is another axe that I see around here that is similar. The handle will be a little longer and the head a little bigger with a full size eye. I think these were popular with the riggers.
001.JPG

This is a Mann on a 32" handle compared to a Collins cruiser. I have seen a few with handles shorter though. So some may think they are looking at a cruiser.
This Mann I don't think was used for a rigger though. No hole in the handle to hang a rope from and the handle has been used to under buck.
 
Thanks for your kind words, Sidehill Gouger. Funny, I don't recall ever seeing a single bit axe when with BLM, which doesn't mean there weren't any, just that I never ran across them. garry3, I recall the 3.5 lb double bits and some 4 lb ones, too, on the back of the log truck cabs, along with the long handled shovel. The heavier double bits are actually more efficient than the cruisers axes for doing just about anything you have any business doing with an axe, but they always felt like you were swinging a club after using a cruiser's axe. Sort of the same way you notice how clunky a bait casting fishing pole seems after you've used a nice fly rod for a while. The Boy's axe Sidehill refers to has always been one of my favorite axes, and they are much safer to use for neophytes than a double bit. We had to haul one of the summer interns to the local clinic after he short gripped one of the cruiser's axes to chop with and before either I or my cruising partner could yell to stop him, he raised it up and instantly found that the top of his head was complicating the top part of his back swing. No, he wasn't wearing his hard hat, and fortunately he didn't puncture anything more valuable than his ego. Bled a lot and took quite a few stiches; after we figured out he wasn't going to die it was really hard not to laugh - the poor guy was one of those know-it-all types who ticks people off faster than he can make friends, and we'd been very patiently trying to teach woods ways to him for two weeks before he parted his hair wrong. Thankfully, this feat of axemanship did earn him a spot in the office for the rest of the summer looking at aerial photos of various timber units. If we'd had a Boy's axe instead, his head would have been safer, but I think if that were the case, he likely would have been in serious danger of accidentally drowning before he went back to school in the fall.
 
DB404 said:
Thanks for your kind words, Sidehill Gouger. Funny, I don't recall ever seeing a single bit axe when with BLM, which doesn't mean there weren't any, just that I never ran across them. garry3, I recall the 3.5 lb double bits and some 4 lb ones, too, on the back of the log truck cabs, along with the long handled shovel. The heavier double bits are actually more efficient than the cruisers axes for doing just about anything you have any business doing with an axe, but they always felt like you were swinging a club after using a cruiser's axe. Sort of the same way you notice how clunky a bait casting fishing pole seems after you've used a nice fly rod for a while. The Boy's axe Sidehill refers to has always been one of my favorite axes, and they are much safer to use for neophytes than a double bit. We had to haul one of the summer interns to the local clinic after he short gripped one of the cruiser's axes to chop with and before either I or my cruising partner could yell to stop him, he raised it up and instantly found that the top of his head was complicating the top part of his back swing. No, he wasn't wearing his hard hat, and fortunately he didn't puncture anything more valuable than his ego. Bled a lot and took quite a few stiches; after we figured out he wasn't going to die it was really hard not to laugh - the poor guy was one of those know-it-all types who ticks people off faster than he can make friends, and we'd been very patiently trying to teach woods ways to him for two weeks before he parted his hair wrong. Thankfully, this feat of axemanship did earn him a spot in the office for the rest of the summer looking at aerial photos of various timber units. If we'd had a Boy's axe instead, his head would have been safer, but I think if that were the case, he likely would have been in serious danger of accidentally drowning before he went back to school in the fall.
Click to expand...

Hate to see anybody get hurt. But a few stitches don't count as being hurt. Just a flesh wound. Might have saved him from a real accident later on.
 
2 1/2# Kelly Registered cruiser. 28" handle. took it out this morning. prefer a slightly heavier axe but it works well.

f3ee257cec9611e2843f22000a9e0722_7.jpg
 
I was wondering about various axe types too, found this thread with a google search. As far as the definition of a "cruiser" axe goes shouldn't there be photos and descriptions of them in old catalogs? If there are none in old catalogs then it must be an informal name that was never used by the industry? If that is so and the only reference to them is the single-bit axes that actual workers in the industry say they used then it makes sense to go with that over opinions posted on the internet.

My father was a dealer/racer of British motorcycles in the 50s and 60s and years later those motorcycles have turned into collectibles for people that never had anything to do with them when they were new consumer goods. These same collectors have largely rewrote the history and facts of those motorcycles to suit their present needs, I suspect the same has been done to everything else that has become collectible too. That is why when people ask questions about old British motorcycles I tell them to first go to the factory literature, service and parts manuals and sales brochures. After that look at old period photographs of the item actually in use, third talk to old-timers that actually had something to do with the object when it was contemporary, and last after all others ask collectors for information......
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top