If I Owned the Company...

[Skiv]

The revived thread on Ardex axes and whether they were made in Canada got me thinking. As I noted in my response to 300Six, maybe all these people trying to cash in on a made-in-Canada axe represent a market. So, what would a modern, Canadian axe look like in the market?

Note: this is a serious thread, even if there's basically no chance in Hell that a Canadian axe will hit the market any time soon. Also, I recognize there may be makers in Canada who do special order work but don't actually produce a regular line of axes. (I am aware of one recent example, an axe maker in Quebec who made a custom axe for a forester friend of mine. I don't know more than that right off, but I'll make a mental note to ask my friend about it.)

Most of the people on this list use axes more frequently than the modern average -- I remember my Dad sharpened his old Craftsman once a year on average, because that was how often he used it. Then he'd bang the end of the handle on a boulder a few times to seat the head and flail away. That was 40-50 years ago, and we could argue that the market has declined a lot since even then.

So, what if I owned the "Maple Leaf Ax Co."? I can see a moderately-detailed maple leaf logo (more than the Ardex stylized version), with "Made in Canada/Fabrique au Canada" stamped on it. For the "one axe is all you need" folks we'd have a 3 1/2 pounder single-bit. For the "I'm gonna go cut down a damn tree" folks a single-bit 4 to 5 pound felling axe with a nice wide edge and slightly thicker profile, high centre. And for the folks who like to see a glittering, razor sharp edge pointing back at them, a 4 pound double-bit -- just slightly wider between edges. Not enough to look like an old Puget Sound Felling pattern, but a little wider than a Reversible or Michigan. (...and I prefer the visual balance of a reversible over the Michigan.)

Steel: probably one of the higher-end steels like 5160. It'd be nice to the Walters route and make the handles out of sugar maple or some sustainably harvested ironwood.

Probably that would have to hit the market at $300 a pop, and there goes the company...

Any other Canucks want to chime in? Or heck, anybody -- what would a good made in "name-that-country" axe look like?

 

[Square_peg]

It's fun to fantasize about doing something like this. I'd make the db a Western or Pennsylvania pattern. And add a boys axe to the line.

 

[Guitarist7.62]

Full size 4 pound jersey for felling. A small Dayton pattern for hatchets. For a camp axe around 20 inches or so, not sure what pattern but it would have a hardened hammer poll. Of course a Michigan pattern splitting axe at 3.5-5 pounds. Western double bit cruiser would be nice too. All have an octagan curved handle, with the hatchet and jersey patterns having the option of straight. Linseed oil finish.

 

[300Six]

Morley Walters was idealist much like you are being except that he lived and breathed axes 100 years earlier, grew up within an axe-making family, and had attained an engineering degree from prestigious McGill University. All before the year 1900. What he did get out of all this was the satisfaction of being owner of the largest Commonwealth axe foundry during much of his life. When he died at age 99 in 1969 his company folded shortly thereafter.

 

[littlehoot]

It's fun to fantasize about doing something like this. I'd make the db a Western or Pennsylvania pattern. And add a boys axe to the line.

plus one on the boys axe, its a great size axe! hard to find good ones now a days

 

[halfaxe]

I would add a wilderness axe being it's Canada. I mean lighter than a Boys axe at 1 1/2 to 2 pound head on a 22 to 26 inch handle. Like a Hudson bay only the earlier style like Snow & Neally pre WWII or Peavey Axe made. Not so narrow a poll in those early ones. I think Walters made a nice one but I've only seen a hatchet in that style from them.

 

[joshiecole]

I love this question. Partly cos it's got that fantasy football, dream team thing and partly because this is a question I've put my last months' food money into it (been living off canned beans!)

I have invested a certain amount of money in my ideal axe steel and put an awful lot of time thinking about the axes I want to make and how best to make them (monosteel vs overcoat etc)

For me I want to make really beautiful axes that are carriable and I will be making a Maine wedge style boy's axe modeled after a vintage Katco boys axe I have. It's funny you mentioned your peavey Halfaxe because that was a specific inspiration for the second model I wanted to make.

I decided to do this because there just wasn't the quality of tool I wanted still being produced on the market and I've been forging tools for 13 years.

I have no great expectations of it being a big money maker -- as I'm sure a few of you will be quick enough to point out but it will be a labour of love.

 

[300Six]

....and I've been forging tools for 13 years.
I have no great expectations of it being a big money maker -- as I'm sure a few of you will be quick enough to point out but it will be a labour of love.

There is no ideal or perfect axe except in the minds of people that have never used one. With boutique-exotic jobbies up in the stratosphere price-wise at least now you can actually contemplate making custom forged goods, providing you're content to live off canned beans for awhile until your name and reputation leaks out. I've got a real oddball on hand at the moment (an Ontario 1860's G Story head) that I'd love to have reproduced as a 'one off' exact rendition of the original. I'm not blessed with unlimited coins either but would be happy to sponsor anyone that wants to give it a shot.