It followed me home (Part 2)

Another group rescued from the scrap yard for $20. That is a 3 inch framing slick, it's huge, and a 1.75lb 12" long hand made Yerkes & Plumb pick head...how cool is that? I think it was made between 1869-1879. I'm keeping that one.


 
Wow! I love that pick. House Handle sells drift pick handles for that thing.

Nice slick, too. Check the price of a new one and you'll see what a great deal you got.
 
This kind of followed me home via mail.

Appears to have original handle which I will try to reuse.
 
marbat said:
This kind of followed me home via mail.
Appears to have original handle which I will try to reuse.
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Unclipped foot (namely an older handle) and undecipherable (at the moment) head has me intrigued. Let us know what you find under the aluminum railing paint.
 
300Six said:
Unclipped foot (namely an older handle) and undecipherable (at the moment) head has me intrigued. Let us know what you find under the aluminum railing paint.
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For now it says, Made In Sweden. Got to love the suspense.
 
Took a wire brush and wheel to it, has traces of red paint on it. I can't quite make out the stamping above made in sweden but it might be a Gransfor.
Maybe after it has finish it's bath then hopefully see things better but... red paint.
 
marbat said:
This kind of followed me home via mail.
...
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Looks like the Gransfors stamp on an axe of mine. GBA below a crown, with MADE IN SWEDEN directly below.

IMG_3656b_1_1.jpg
 
Had a little more luck today. Stopped at a Buddy's looking for some weathered wood for a project. He and his wife run an auction online selling various old things that he "picks". He is always trying to sell me axes but he never has anything that im interested in. For the last while they have been cleaning/organizing two large out buildings and a barn. I thought I would poke around as ive never actually seen 90% of the stuff due to the chaos. First I spotted this fawns foot poking out of a pile

I got pretty excited when I saw the big round knob. The other end looks like this

Pretty rusty with no visible stamp, we shall see. I haven't weighed it yet but id say boys axe. Next was this beauty GB with blue paint still visible clean poll and very little sharpening

Its marked 2 1/2, here it is with the other. They look about the same weight, different profiles. Im hoping American vs Swedish
 
Here are my flea market finds. A small Collins Homestead hatchet, a West German hatchet, and an E.C. Simmons broad axe. This was the first broad axe I have come across that wasn't all beat up. Replacing the offset handle will present a challenge but this one, IMO, will be well worth it.

 
marbat said:
For now it says, Made In Sweden. Got to love the suspense.
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I more and more figured that flea market/garage sale-savvy tool shoppers carried steel scouring pads or wire wheel-armed cordless drills with them. I know $4-5 is no real risk regardless of whether a paint or rust buried stamp turns out to say 'Sweden' or 'China' but still who wants to come home with another piece of junk. 'Got to love the suspense' is not prominent in a frugal library, unless spent lottery tickets similarly litter the floors.
 
Guess you didn't read my posting after that cause you would see that it is a Gransfor which I don't consider it as a piece of junk.

Maybe I'm just not reading your posting correctly or misinterpreting it...got to love forums for that LOL.
 
This beautiful axe followed me home today, I believe it's some sort of hewing axe. Not a single clue on who the maker is.
I will carve a "russian style" handle in birch, for it.
yxan_zps2yuwmp6q.jpg
 
Laars said:
Here are my flea market finds. A small Collins Homestead hatchet, a West German hatchet, and an E.C. Simmons broad axe.
20150830_164417_zpsnqhvwilt.jpg
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Nice finds there. The broadaxe is in good condition. Those little West German hatchets have pretty good edge retention. Nice picture as well.
 
Thanks Agent_H.
I do a lot of research on this forum and appreciate all of the great info and pics that everyone shares. Until I can add something valuable (more than $.02) to some of the other threads, or start some of my own, I will try to add content here in way that visually appealing.
A question of age is always something that I am interested in for some reason. Is there any way to narrow down the age of the broad axe based on the mark? It also says ENGLISH and DIAMOND STEEL
 
I have a couple of broad axes that need work and I'm no expert but it looks like it might be a Canadian pattern?

Here is a link to a nice scanned E. C. Simmons catalog:

http://www.blackburntools.com/artic...es/keen-kutter/pdfs/simmons-1912-no-776-i.pdf

Here is some history on the company:
http://www.thckk.org/Newsletters/THCKKChronicles134.pdf

I see Diamond Edge mentioned but not Diamond Steel.

According to this resource the EC Simmons markings changed over in 1940 to Shapleigh Hardware so maybe pre 1940?
http://www.collectorsweekly.com/tools-and-hardware/keen-kutter

"The Simmons assets were sold to Shapleigh in 1940, which replaced “E.C. Simmon’s” with “Shapleigh’s” on the Keen Kutter logo. Shapleigh went out of business in 1959. Many years later, the Keen Kutter trademark emerged again, when the rights were sold to Val-Test Distributors of Chicago. This company discontinued its Keen Kutter line in the 1990s."

I am not familiar with English steel but I've seen references to it being called crucible English steel but I can't find where now. The catalog says their broad axes were made with crucible steel. If the terms are kind of interchangeable then you might find a time frame when they were marketed as "English" steel.

I wish we had someone around here that is a master researcher - kind of a Tall order I know. :)
 
Laars said:
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The E.C. Simmons company began in 1870, according to a Biography of E.C. Simmons. (From 1864 to 1870 the company was named Waters, Simmons & Co.) From this I conclude that the axe wasn't sold before 1870.

The stamping on that broad axe, especially the relative location and font of ENGLISH and STEEL, looks remarkably similar to the stamping this axe made by I. Blood of Ballston NY :

$_1.JPG


Since E.C. Simmons was a hardware distributor getting its store-brand axes from unnamed manufacturers, perhaps this axe was made at Isaiah Blood's factory. According to YesteryearsTools, Isaiah Blood died in 1870, and his son-in-law Henry Knickerbacker took over the company and named it the Knickerbacker Axe Co., while maintaining the old brands and labels. The company joined American Axe & Tool sometime between 1889-1891.

An 1891 catalog for HSB lists an English Cast Steel Broad Axe from Blood (to the right of the picture):

books


Another source states that, "In the 1890s and 1900s the American Axe & Tool Co, comprised of the fourteen leading axe companies, still advertised axes of best English cast steel."
quoted from Sheffield Steel and America, by Geoffrey Tweedale, 1987

So, my guesstimate of when this axe was made would be in the range of 1870 at the earliest to 1910 at the latest, with 1890 being in the middle of the range.
 
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