KATCO (John King Axe & Tool co.) Boy's axe

[cooperhill]

My local antique / tool store finally gave up the ghost this winter. The bonus was the owner did some more digging and found this little gem. I bought it from him for $2. It's marked KATCO and 2 1/2 on the face of the axe.

wire wheel cleaning.

I used an O.P. Link boy's axe handle. I used my new (old) stanley spokeshave (51) on this to trim the eye part of the handle and the shoulder down. Worked really well. Lots of room for wedge and the bottom of the eye is tight to the handle. It has a really nice wedge profile :

wedged:

thanks for looking.

 

[G-pig]

Nice one. I have a 2 pounder thats a Mainer. 2 1/2 does some work for sure, I think Snow & Nealley had a 2 1/2 called a "man's axe". 2 would be better for a youngun.

 

[Square_peg]

wire wheel cleaning.

Really fresh looking bit on that one. Good score!

 

[G-pig]

I have a John King (Not sure if thats earlier or later) thats a brute-- 3 3/4 pounds. Put it on a 30" handle, not sure what I'll use it for. Scoring timbers maybe? It's very heavy, doubly so for a short handle (although 30" is about average for me, I use a lot of 29" on 3 or 3 1/4 pound heads).

 

[screened porch]

Great work on a beautiful axe of a pattern I haven't seen before in a small size.
My condolences on the loss of that antique/tool store.

 

[Dusty One]

Cleaned up real nice....Great job !

 

[G-pig]

Thats a 2 1/2 pound Snow & Nealley with tree it dropped. thats a really capable weight, not a boys axe as much as an axe for a skilled man who isn't fool enough to swing more than necessary.

 

[zcd]

Very nice save, especially for $2!