I'd like to breathe life again into this old but valuable discussion. I do wish it was shorter but excellent points are made (or defended as the case may be).
I have no where near the experience of any of the 3 major contributors to the thread. That is good and bad. The bad...since my childhood was spent on a Dairy Farm in Northern Indiana I simply swung whatever my father handed to me. The main house has supplemental electrical heating for the most bitter days but 99% of the time our kitchen round belly served the heating needs. Btw, cooking was done with a state of the art (for the early 70's mind you) propane 6-burner stove...we all liked Mom's cooking :thumbup: The good...from what I remember my Dad enjoyed maintaining and just collecting hand tools. We had a dedicated shop and every wall was decorated entirely with new(ish) and vintage tools. Dad kept early evenings and some weekends busy with maintenance including sharpening and new handles or fabricating parts, etc... Thinking back and although I didn't know it, this was his "time". No one ever said, that I can remember...SCAT but never the less we just got the vibe that Dad was busy so best if we make ourselves scarce (thus avoiding work as well).
Around 1993 the farm was purchased for open space by the County with State money. Before I moved on for good many pictures were taken. As part of the deal, working machinery...tractors, carts, milking machinery and including hand tools had to be taken off the property. The pics show many axes and most "seem" to have curved handles. I say "seem" because most of the photos are black and white against grey metal walls. Enough can be made out though to see the ratio of curved to straight handles is roughly 5:1. The straight handles are almost entirely on Double Bit axes.
I'm posting this hoping to give the thread new life but also to let you know this discussion of handles is geographically influenced as well. My Uncle by marriage still runs a 190 acre Dairy operation outside of Kent, CT. Like most farms they have a tool and maintenance barn and the majority of the handles (regardless of use) are straight handled. I haven't taken a serious inventory but would also add that many of the handles are significantly longer than I would be comfortable with. If I had to bet, many of the single bit axes have handles around 40". I probably could did one up somewhere but you won't find any hatchets laying around the area either. Tons of mauls and sledges but that's to be expected with the amount of heavy machinery. A bunch of times things need "sprung" from tight spots to be repaired - tractor cotter and axle pins particularly. We used to collect the used motor oil and put it through a dedicated spreader to be spread over the dirt drive and the field roads to keep the dust down. (EPA...what EPA?). That trailer tongue never once came off without several heavy whacks from a sledge...
Anyway, nice rambling post to continue the discussion.
I have no where near the experience of any of the 3 major contributors to the thread. That is good and bad. The bad...since my childhood was spent on a Dairy Farm in Northern Indiana I simply swung whatever my father handed to me. The main house has supplemental electrical heating for the most bitter days but 99% of the time our kitchen round belly served the heating needs. Btw, cooking was done with a state of the art (for the early 70's mind you) propane 6-burner stove...we all liked Mom's cooking :thumbup: The good...from what I remember my Dad enjoyed maintaining and just collecting hand tools. We had a dedicated shop and every wall was decorated entirely with new(ish) and vintage tools. Dad kept early evenings and some weekends busy with maintenance including sharpening and new handles or fabricating parts, etc... Thinking back and although I didn't know it, this was his "time". No one ever said, that I can remember...SCAT but never the less we just got the vibe that Dad was busy so best if we make ourselves scarce (thus avoiding work as well).
Around 1993 the farm was purchased for open space by the County with State money. Before I moved on for good many pictures were taken. As part of the deal, working machinery...tractors, carts, milking machinery and including hand tools had to be taken off the property. The pics show many axes and most "seem" to have curved handles. I say "seem" because most of the photos are black and white against grey metal walls. Enough can be made out though to see the ratio of curved to straight handles is roughly 5:1. The straight handles are almost entirely on Double Bit axes.
I'm posting this hoping to give the thread new life but also to let you know this discussion of handles is geographically influenced as well. My Uncle by marriage still runs a 190 acre Dairy operation outside of Kent, CT. Like most farms they have a tool and maintenance barn and the majority of the handles (regardless of use) are straight handled. I haven't taken a serious inventory but would also add that many of the handles are significantly longer than I would be comfortable with. If I had to bet, many of the single bit axes have handles around 40". I probably could did one up somewhere but you won't find any hatchets laying around the area either. Tons of mauls and sledges but that's to be expected with the amount of heavy machinery. A bunch of times things need "sprung" from tight spots to be repaired - tractor cotter and axle pins particularly. We used to collect the used motor oil and put it through a dedicated spreader to be spread over the dirt drive and the field roads to keep the dust down. (EPA...what EPA?). That trailer tongue never once came off without several heavy whacks from a sledge...
Anyway, nice rambling post to continue the discussion.
) however if given the choice the Single Bit with a slight curve would serve me considerably better as the day wore on.
