Kelly Hand Made Flea Market find

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WVHILLS

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Went to the Lucasville flea market today and found this guy. Haven't been able to find much info about it though. Any input is greatly appreciated :thumbup:







 
That might be a fake. The raised lettering looks off to me. Raised letters are cast not forged. That's why axe makers stamp their axes.
 
Hmmmm.

Kelly%20Hand%20Made.JPG
 
I was starting to think so too...I even told my wife on the way home that it might be fake because I couldn't find another one like it anywhere on the interweb.
 
Kinda far out to think someone unscrupulous out there is producing fakes. If it's a casting I guess when you try sharpening it you'll quickly find out what's going on. Cast iron is radically different from steel.
 
Adding the weight would be a hell of a touch for someone who is making fakes... And the fact that it's worn out quite a lot, lot all the other "Hand Made" stamped axes to boot. Put a file to it and all will be told.
 
I won't be able to sharpen it until tmw. I will post pics if I get a chance before work. Thanks again for the info.
 
I am almost sure its not a fake, I found one of those in an antique shop once but it was cracked across the eye from a badly battered mushroomed pole. It looked like honest wear and patina. It left me puzzled as well. I think you made a nice score.
 
I don't have much experiences with Axes, forged or otherwise. What should I look for when I sharpen this axe head with a file to tell if it's cast iron or not? How does it behave differently than steel? Thanks in advance.
 
WVHILLS said:
I don't have much experiences with Axes, forged or otherwise. What should I look for when I sharpen this axe head with a file to tell if it's cast iron or not? How does it behave differently than steel? Thanks in advance.
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Hardness. It's something that comes with experience honestly. A good file is going to be somewhere in the 60 hRC range while a good axe is going to have a bit hardened to the mid 50s hRC. Hence why a good file should be able to sharpen an axe (though sometimes you find yourself with a cheap, poorly hardened file or an overhardened axe in which case you'll deal with the file "skating" instead of "biting").

If the kelly is cast iron, it'll probably be low 40s hRCs as opposed to the mid 50s hRC of properly tempered steel. If you're still having issues based on my descriptions and the numbers I'm throwing out, take your file to the handle or lip of your cast iron skillet. Then take the file to the bit portion of another vintage axe head. Difference should be night and day and you should be able to tell what the Kelly is closer to in terms of hardness...
 
Keen cutter broad hatchet on the bay with raised letters says condition new six available . Do a vinager soak and look for the hardened bit.
 
Ok, I spent about an hour and a half this afternoon working on the edge of this axe with a bastard file and was able to get most of the dings out and get what I would call a working edge. It's not razor sharp but I had to stop and get ready for work. Btw I am no expert at sharpening axes, I've only ever sharpened one other axe and it belonged to a friend.











 
The other thing that bugs me about that axe is the color. It looks like black paint, not the patina you would see on a genuine vintage axe. The 'wear' looks like the paint was worn off. Actual patina doesn't wear of like that.

OTOH, I've done some snooping around and seen some photos of other Kellys with raised lettering that show different wear than yours. Cast iron fakes look like carbon copies. So now I'm leaning toward this being a genuine axe that a previous owner cleaned up and painted. But I just don't know for sure.
 
Really curious situation. I'm thinking the steel on a good axe should have a nice ring to it when you tap on it. An iron casting will just make a dull thud. Whatever is cooking here it was good of you to at very least draw everyone's attention to the possibility of fakes, and the possibility of there being raised letters on genuine items.
I do know, from foolishly trying to straighten warped bottoms of cast iron fry pans decades ago, that an iron axe would not do you much use or much good.
 
I don't have much experience withcast iron but I can say this has the heft and feel of a real axe if that makes sense. Should I strip all the black paint off? Assuming it is black paint? I have $23 in the axe so it's not a huge loss if it turns out to be a fake, I'll just toss it in the trash. If it's a real Kelly I'm going to rehandle it and hang it in my living room :thumbup: When I worked the edge with the file it acted much like the only other axe I've ever sharpened, which was bought new at ACE hardware by a friend of mine if that helps?
 
I did some snooping around also and found a kelly jersey with the cross cut logo with raised letters. It was found by a metal detector. I saw that one on the treasure net website. Could these have been some kind of early cast steel? The odd thing is that they seem to be very mallable. The one I saw at an antique shop looked like someone was using it to bust up concrete. The pole was very mushroomed and the eye was bulged so much that it cracked all the way across. It also had that strange grayish black patina. Could these have been made for window displays ? Usually that cheap import stuff is very brittle.
 
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