It followed me home (Part 2)

Square_peg said:
Check those stones good. If you have a fine hard Arkansas stone in there then it will become your favorite stone.
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I'm already planning on taking a look at two of them one I can find the time to sort through all this stuff. I'm keeping a few things like the froe, files, a boy's axe head or two, the knife etc. Everything else I need to process. Most are old nice quality but common type stones. The front two in the pic are different though. One is square and looks like slate but harder and shinier/smoother. The other is rectangular but looks like a yellowish-white piece of marble.


 
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I wouldn't mind having a closer look at those two little gimlets, either. Maybe add them to the auger thread.
 
300Six said:
JBLyttle: Another home run. Your wife must be getting 'fit to be tied' with all the (what most people would call) 'junk' you haul home and spread out over the dining room table on a weekly basis. As SquarePeg says, and I agree, it's nice that you are wholescale sparing old tools from export to Asia in order to become car fenders and soup cans.
You already know I'm more than a little bit interested in getting my hands on a clean rafting pattern axe. PM me with some details and pictures if this is something you don't intend to keep for yourself.
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Yeah. That one is the gem of the whole lot. I'm not sure yet what I plan to do with it. I don't need it but it's only the second one that I have found in the year that I have been doing this. If/once I decide to sell I will let you know.



 
Some of you guys must be shopping in Aladdin's cave!

I would literally pass out if I saw all that for sale..
 
jblyttle said:
Yeah. That one is the gem of the whole lot. I'm not sure yet what I plan to do with it. I don't need it but it's only the second one that I have found in the year that I have been doing this. If/once I decide to sell I will let you know.
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That'd be the one! I presume this to be a Plumb. It looks like there's not a lot of miles on it either.
 
300Six said:
That'd be the one! I presume this to be a Plumb. It looks like there's not a lot of miles on it either.
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No, it's great. Actually this is the 3rd example, but the 2nd axe. I also have a BSA rafting pattern hatchet. All three are Plumbs.
 
jblyttle said:
No, it's great. Actually this is the 3rd example, but the 2nd axe. I also have a BSA rafting pattern hatchet. All three are Plumbs.
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Never ceased to amaze me that the marketing departments of the major axe makers didn't go out of their way to promote the benefits of hardened poll axes. Almost every used axe poll you look at has been unintentionally mushroomed by it's former owners. I too was guilty of that for 20 years until the 1980s before realizing that ordinary axes weren't meant to be used as rebar, spike and splitting wedge drivers. From watching kids at landscaping and wood retaining wall projects these days it's not difficult to see why the foreman buys cheap new Chinese axes whenever a handle breaks. By then the head is misshapen too!
 
300Six said:
Never ceased to amaze me that the marketing departments of the major axe makers didn't go out of their way to promote the benefits of hardened poll axes. Almost every used axe poll you look at has been unintentionally mushroomed by it's former owners. I too was guilty of that for 20 years until the 1980s before realizing that ordinary axes weren't meant to be used as rebar, spike and splitting wedge drivers. From watching kids at landscaping and wood retaining wall projects these days it's not difficult to see why the foreman buys cheap new Chinese axes whenever a handle breaks. By then the head is misshapen too!
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You are right, and it's not just axes- it's everything. It is the mentality that things are to be consumed and replaced. People want cheap things, so that's what they get. It's our own fault. Walmart exists not because it is an evil exploitative corporation. It exists because we demand it.

If I were advising a new company that made a product, I would advise against trying to sell millions of items as cheaply as possible. Make a really good product, make fewer of them and charge more. You will have happiness and pride, make a good living if not millions- and your customers will love you and happily hand over their money. The problem is with publicly traded companies- they have no choice and are obligated to make as much money as possible with all other concerns secondary.
 
Guess it must have followed me home. I happened to look out my front door one day and there it was. :)


 
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JB, the king of the axe pickers!:thumbup: Always such nice hauls.

Like SquarePeg says them old stones can really be good. I am always looking for great old stones.
 
jblyttle said:
I'm already planning on taking a look at two of them one I can find the time to sort through all this stuff. I'm keeping a few things like the froe, files, a boy's axe head or two, the knife etc. Everything else I need to process. Most are old nice quality but common type stones. The front two in the pic are different though. One is square and looks like slate but harder and shinier/smoother. The other is rectangular but looks like a yellowish-white piece of marble.


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JB, I have one that looks very much like the black stone, just a different shape, It is a favorite.
 
garry3 said:
JB, the king of the axe pickers!:thumbup: Always such nice hauls.

Like SquarePeg says them old stones can really be good. I am always looking for great old stones.
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Strangely enough a whole lot of them will be available soon very inexpensively.
 
I stopped at an antique swap meet and brought home a few tools. The hatchet on the left is a Winchester. I got it for $20. The other one was only $6. I couldn't find a name on it. It just said full tempered on it. The draw knives were a total of $17. The handles are shot but the blades are in great shape.

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The Winchester Special

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The no name with Full Tempered on it

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osage outlaw said:
I stopped at an antique swap meet and brought home a few tools. The hatchet on the left is a Winchester. I got it for $20. The other one was only $6. I couldn't find a name on it. It just said full tempered on it. The draw knives were a total of $17. The handles are shot but the blades are in great shape.
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Good prices. I would sell one hatchet and play with the other as a carver.
 
Do you have any information on the Winchester? Whats with the -Special- stamped on it? I've noticed they go kind of high on ebay.
 
osage outlaw said:
Do you have any information on the Winchester? Whats with the -Special- stamped on it? I've noticed they go kind of high on ebay.
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Special means whatever they want it too. It's like when you see the word "Limited" on a car. It mean "limited to how many they can sell". They didn't make it, they had a real axe company make it. If it were me i would sell the Winchester to make some money and play with the cheap one which is probably just as good anyway.
 
300Six said:
Never ceased to amaze me that the marketing departments of the major axe makers didn't go out of their way to promote the benefits of hardened poll axes.
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Oh, but they did!

From the Seattle Hardware catalog sometime in the late 60's.

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