I Guess You All Knew This

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Downwindtracker2

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Mar 20, 2019
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As a west coast Canadian, we see many more Swedish made tools than our cousins to the south. In my reading I just found my Swedish made Sandvik axes were made by Wetterling. I guess you all knew this.
 
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I did not know many were made by Wetterling. I have a Hults Bruk and thought they were one of the large makers in Sweden. DM
 
http://www.wetterlings.com/history/

“The competition from China was already noticed in the 70’s. Wetterling’s large customer Sandvik AB began buying their axes from China, which of course was a major setback for the axe forge in Storvik .”

David Martin said:
I did not know many were made by Wetterling. I have a Hults Bruk and thought they were one of the large makers in Sweden. DM
Click to expand...

HB was one of the large makers in Sweden.
 
Yes Sir, From the Deep South. All i see are True Temper, Collins, and Plumb. Not a lot of foreign Axes. Although i do have one Gransfor Bruk, and two West German Axes found in Loxley Al. Happy Hunting. On the bucket list is a Pugent Sound. But i may have to ride a big bird out west to find one.
 
I've never seen a Puget Sound in the wild, but it's certainly worth the trip in the summer. In the winter a lot of the time you don't see much scenery , it's all covered in cloud. That's why the trees , confers developed in to monsters, winter is the growing season, summer is the dry season.

All the double bits I've seen, but remember this is pretty new to me, have been like my Wetterling #70 Westerner stamped Sandvik. It was pretty easy to I.D.it, it was the only double bit in their export catalogue (1945 ?)

The claims around Swedish steel come from the quality of the iron ore.
 
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Downwindtracker2 said:
The claims around Swedish steel come from the quality of the iron ore.
Click to expand...

Good quality ore,yes,and also Their endless coniferous forests,which were turned into charcoal,and when that ore was processed with that charcoal it made steel without all the crap that comes from mineral coal...

Swedes were at it for centuries,skilled,hardworking,smart about their processes.
But it's a country with limited resources,and once logging(in any major scale)in US and Canada have moved beyond using hand-tools,they moved in to occupy the axe markets that the larger manufacturers were loosing interest in...

They mostly copied N.American axes,and did a so-so job of it..(flat,(as in not convex),fairly unexeptionable tools,though good quality overall...)
 
I'm going on an axe sharpening binge, so I looked for and found my double bit. Oddly enough, right where it should have been. But a big opps, I'm wrong again, it isn't Sandvik stamped, it has a Crown with the letters GBA, I guess that makes it a Gransfors Bruk .3 3/4 # longish narrower edge . It's an embarrassing level of axe wealth. I had found it at a thrift store. I just grabbed because it said Sweden and I thought it would be quality. I also found a Beaver Tradesman which I didn't know I had 3 # 24". Beaver Lumber was a building supply company. 1906 to 2000. They died out locally about 30 years ago. So that would suggest a Canadian made time frame. It still has the purchase tag, and I have no idea of when and how I came into it .

this si exciting
 
With more research, I was able to get time frames for my axes. My GansforBruk is likely from the '60s or early '70s and not one of the current classic hand forged axes. Not one of the $414 ones. chuckle. As is my Sandvik (Wetterling) boy's axe, my favourite axe.. The ones I purchased new are from the '70s, Hults Bruk 3 1/2 #, the Sandvik hatchet and the Hults Bruk hatchet. The Canadian doesn't look like a current Garant , so I don't know.

Edited to add: Ken L on Canadian Woodworker said his father's 50 year old Beaver double bitted axe was a Garant , it had been dark blue with no weight stamp. So the Canadian pattern Beaver is a Garant. The Gransfor Bruk is a swampers pattern.
 
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