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Gambles Artisan Afternoon Project

C

cityofthesouth

Joined
Jan 29, 2014
Messages
1,638
Well I had a handle, no axe and cabin fever so I went to a local antique mall to see if I could remedy this problem. Found a Gambles Artisan with the right size eye and brought it home. The web couldn't tell me much about it, but it seems good enough. I was concerned that the bit might be somewhat annealed because it appeared to have been hit hard with a grinding wheel, but my file didn't bite hard and it split wood fine when it was done so I think it will do. I noticed these sort of low spots in the cheeks on one side which made my edge kinda wonky, but overall I was able to grind out the old tool marks save for a couple in those low spots. The grain on the old handle isn't terrific but it seemed solid and I liked the shape so I salvaged it. My new handle is a House Handle that had lacquer on it that was harder to get off than I expected. It also had a large swell that gave me extra material to do my own thing. Anyway, it's bathing in linseed oil right now and we'll call it done.

gambles_original by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

gambles_markings2 by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

gambles_headremoved by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

gambles_handlereshape by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

gambles_complete by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr
 
Joe L. Bachs said:
Good looking ax and nice job saving the haft, how long is it?. Any idea what the head weighs?
Click to expand...

Alocksly said:
I'm thinkin' it looks like he did a new haft. Nice job nonetheless.
Click to expand...

Thanks folks. I did save the old one just because even with less than stellar grain it seemed solid, but I didn't reuse it for this axe. Ya never know when you might need a handle real quick so I like the idea of having a spare. I don't know the weight. It's actually only 26.75 inches finished. In the picture below is a Wards Master Quality that I did last year with 30 inch handle. You can see the difference in head size.

gambles_wards3 by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr


ETA: It occurred to me that you may have been asking the length of the old handle. It could just be me but I don't like the look of an axe where the head isn't down to the shoulder so no doubt the new one was 28 inches before I took some material off the bottom and the top, and it looks to me like the old one would end up about the same.

Not sure how to interpret these markings but maybe weight is in there somehow?

gambles_markings1 by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr
 
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Sorry to resurrect my thread but a thought occurred to me after someone asked the weight. You may be able to notice from the pics that the Gambles is kind of long from pole to bit - so to speak. It's hard to say (and I need a scale - I'm always wondering the weight of things) how much of the Snow has been used up, but it is marked with a 3 which I presume to be the weight. It is noticeably "shorter" (smaller) than the other two heads. I got this Link handle at a hardware store rather than ordering it, and it has really nice grain.

"3" mark and the gap.
snowneally_stampweight by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

Filling the gap.
snowneally_hang by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

You can sort of get an idea of the head size differences here.
snowneally_3axes1 by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr
 
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Looks to me like you did a fine job of this. The Gambles head may have a few superficial dips and doodles but there's lots of blade left. Get out and enjoy it!
 
Yeah, agreed...the perfect-condition vintage heads just don't seem "vintage" unless there's a few quirks/dings/abuse marks to them. The refurbs look great.
 
300Six said:
Looks to me like you did a fine job of this. The Gambles head may have a few superficial dips and doodles but there's lots of blade left. Get out and enjoy it!
Click to expand...

Thanks! Right now my wood pile is nothing but I was able to split a little bit with it and it worked fine - I'll get a better feel when we're cutting and burning wood this winter. I actually don't think the Gambles was hardly ever used considering that there is no rounding of the bit and it was clear that the previous owner had no idea how to sharpen an axe. I'm thinking if he/she had used it much, with those sharpening skills, it would have been used up in no time.

SC T100 said:
Yeah, agreed...the perfect-condition vintage heads just don't seem "vintage" unless there's a few quirks/dings/abuse marks to them. The refurbs look great.
Click to expand...

I think you're right too. I wanted to polish up the Snow since it's got family history, but when I got about half way I said, I like it like this, this is how I think of an axe when I think of my father swinging one.
 
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