locally-made (?) Puget Sound axe; House handle

J

jheath

Joined
Sep 13, 2016
Messages
35
I'm in Washington state and picked up a (photos follow) felling axe head. The handle was junk.

The head looks hand forged -- like from a smith. The contours are not smooth, and look hammered out. The only stamp is "4 1/2" which is obviously the weight. It's lightly pitted and heavily patina-ed. I haven't touched the steel, the photos is how I found the head.

Might it be locally-produced by a smith? It rather looks it.

Following a helpful observation by member Steve Tall, I used a 44-inch "Fletcher Mattock" handle from House Handles. The price was too reasonable. I paid about $11 after a two-dollar hand select fee. The haft has is free of heartwood but (and I bought two) was lumpy and uneven, with some twist in the loom from uneven shaping. The whole thing required careful re-shaping, the Japanese saw-rasp helped a lot. I can't blame House whose core business is probably not museum-quality handles for the boutique Puget Sound axe market. I am sure their product would mattock the hell out of fletchers.

Photos following.
IMG_20160919_135807394_HDR.jpg
 
Last edited:
It does look like a smith-made tool. And being found in the NW it could be an early manufacture tool. I think you're right to have left the metal alone. It's very cool.

How wide is it bit to bit?
 
Neat axe! I think the Puget Sound patterns are interesting. Don't have one but I like seeing them found and appreciated for the specialized pattern they are.

Yours looks like it's got some reach on it with that handle too.
 
Square_peg said:
It does look like a smith-made tool. And being found in the NW it could be an early manufacture tool. I think you're right to have left the metal alone. It's very cool.

How wide is it bit to bit?
Click to expand...

Thanks. It's 12 - 1/4" x 3 - 1/4".

I never got to swing 4-1/2lb head on a 44" haft while standing on a springboard. I'll keep this one as an art object.

I grew up in the woods here and am curious if this head pre-dates the factory made Puget Sound axes. That would make it pretty old. But there are still steam donkeys abandoned in the forests here, and it's relatively common to see ancient red cedar stumps with springboard notches.

This axe is not as graceful as a Sager or Plumb. But it's nice to think it could -- maybe -- be their grandaddy.
IMG_20160919_213427469_HDR
 
Looks like a keeper, maybe from pre-1900? Just checked how early the Puget Sound axes date back to, and it's around 1868 (according to Klenman).

"The evolution of the Puget Sound Falling Axe (from circa 1868) was the obvious choice of
fallers. This axe was double-bitted, with long, narrow blades of 13 to 15” from bit to bit. One
bit was usually thin-ground and razor sharp. The other bit was a little “stumpier” but also sharp.
The faller used the thick bit for branching and mounting his springboard, but reserved the thin
bit for shaping the beautifully smooth undercuts, which governed the direction of the falling
giant.
The axe handles were always of thin, white hickory, mostly 36” long. Some of the bigger men,
with longer arms, and working on the largest trees, would use handles of 40 or 42” and even as
long as 48” (this was common in California)."

from More on Axes, by Alan Klenman,
British Columbia Forest History Newsletter
Forest History Association of British Columbia
No. 49, December 1996, p. 5
https://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfd/library/Forest_History_Newsletter/49.pdf
 
That's a neat axe, and definitely looks like it could be Smith made. Good work on the handle as well.
 
jheath said:
. . .
Following a helpful observation by member Steve Tall, I used a 44-inch "Fletcher Mattock" handle from House Handles. The price was too reasonable. I paid about $11 after a two-dollar hand select fee. The haft has is free of heartwood but (and I bought two) . . .
Click to expand...

Are you able to identify the wood?

They are made either out of hickory or white oak. Which you will get is not specified on their site. Don't know if you can "special order" the particular species you want.

Bob
 
I *think* it's hickory. If I needed a really good specimen from House I would phone them and offer to pay double for a careful hand selection.
IMG_20160920_122301373_HDR.jpg
 
Steve Tall said:
Looks like a keeper, maybe from pre-1900? Just checked how early the Puget Sound axes date back to, and it's around 1868 (according to Klenman).

"The evolution of the Puget Sound Falling Axe (from circa 1868) was the obvious choice of
fallers. This axe was double-bitted, with long, narrow blades of 13 to 15” from bit to bit. One
bit was usually thin-ground and razor sharp. The other bit was a little “stumpier” but also sharp.
The faller used the thick bit for branching and mounting his springboard, but reserved the thin
bit for shaping the beautifully smooth undercuts, which governed the direction of the falling
giant.
The axe handles were always of thin, white hickory, mostly 36” long. Some of the bigger men,
with longer arms, and working on the largest trees, would use handles of 40 or 42” and even as
long as 48” (this was common in California)."

from More on Axes, by Alan Klenman,
British Columbia Forest History Newsletter
Forest History Association of British Columbia
No. 49, December 1996, p. 5
https://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfd/library/Forest_History_Newsletter/49.pdf
Click to expand...

Thanks for that. I've heard people ask "why" the design of these heads. Look at the size of the chips in this photo! They're like shingles.

Somebody had to swing left-handed on these cuts. I guess they took turns. Or made the new guy do it. Maybe right-handed cutters competed to get paired with southpaws. Or maybe they tried to hire additional*lefties as cutters?

6a00e5513924e68833017c348e0ae8970b.jpg
 
That is a beautiful old axe. It could be a G. White axe who made some of the earliest Puget Sounds.
 
I read about it in Axe Makers of North America by Klenman IIRC. I lent out the book so can't get the exact quote but he said G. White axe company of Honesdale PA made the first Puget Sound pattern.
 
Thanks, I'll look it up. I wonder if it's possible to tease out the development from the (presumably) locally-made prototypes to factory-made elsewhere.

Here's a springboard-notched stump I spotted on the Kitsap Penninsula last spring.
IMG_20160322_160743772.jpg
 
jheath said:
Somebody had to swing left-handed on these cuts. I guess they took turns. Or made the new guy do it. Maybe right-handed cutters competed to get paired with southpaws. Or maybe they tried to hire additional*lefties as cutters?
Click to expand...

A good axe man learns to swing from either hand.
 
jheath said:
Here's a springboard-notched stump I spotted on the Kitsap Penninsula last spring.
IMG_20160322_160743772.jpg
Click to expand...

A few years ago they took out 2 dams on the Elwah River. When the water went down I hiked in the newly exposed canyon which had been under 150' of water for over 80 years. What I found were stumps that had been submerged and preserved, keeping the bark and showing cleanly every axe blow to make the springboard notches.

springboard%20notch.jpg

springboard%20notch 2.jpg

springboard%20notch 3.jpg
 
jheath said:
I'm in Washington state and picked up a (photos follow) felling axe head. The handle was junk.

The head looks hand forged -- like from a smith. The contours are not smooth, and look hammered out. The only stamp is "4 1/2" which is obviously the weight. It's lightly pitted and heavily patina-ed. I haven't touched the steel, the photos is how I found the head.

Might it be locally-produced by a smith? It rather looks it.

Photos following.
IMG_20160919_135807394_HDR.jpg
Click to expand...

Did you happen to take photos of the eye before you hung it? Can you at least give me a photo of the top of the eye now?
 
Like yesterday! And that's Doug fir, no? It'll rot now it's exposed to air.

Funny, I never even tried swinging left handed. Now I need another PS felling axe to sharpen and practice that with!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top