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

The eye is a little thinner on one side . . .

IMG_20160920_210903183_HDR.jpg
 
BTW I'm in Seattle, Piper's Creek area. If you'd look it over I can bring it to a bar or cafe far enough from Ballard that a fellow can still walk in with an axe without panicking the yuppies.
 
That's a pretty clean 4-1/2 stamp. It looks factory.

Without doing a vinegar soak (please don't!) can you tell by looking at the top/bottom of the axe whether the bit was inserted or overlaid?
 
Square_peg said:
That's a pretty clean 4-1/2 stamp. It looks factory.

Without doing a vinegar soak (please don't!) can you tell by looking at the top/bottom of the axe whether the bit was inserted or overlaid?
Click to expand...

I don't know what "inserted" vs. "overlaid" means in this context. Patience -- I'm learning.

I only meant the axe itself doesn't look factory made. The stamp is clean, although a little angled on the head. Actually, the "1" on the "1/2" stamp is really light, almost not visible. Factory-made number/letter punches are relatively common, although this looks to me possibly punched when the steel was soft.

The handle as found was weathered but fitted by a clumsy hack, shank cut too short, screws added etc. At some point -- probably decades back when it was re-hung -- somebody coarsely sanded off scaley rust but the pitting is a deeper than those marks.

If I had to guess -- I'm not an axe expert -- the tool looks blacksmith-made, with no maker's mark; but the smith hand-punched a "4" using a punch set, and hand-punched a "1/2" but got the punch a little angled leaving the "1" feint.

I recently saw a photo of a hand-logging operation's blacksmith shop. The caption said logging companies commonly had blacksmiths to make and repair tools and equipment. Which makes sense, they were miles from nowhere, dependent on hard-used equipment, used mules and horses, and the down-time for traveling for repairs or fabrication would have been intolerable from a business standpoint.

So I'm wondering if a smith connected to the logging industry hand-forged some axes of various weights, stamping the weights so they could be sorted.

I assume if a smith made only one axe, he wouldn't stamp the weight. If somebody wanted to make 1,000 axes, they'd be in the axe business and stamp a brand. But with a weight but no brand . . . perhaps it's consistent with a logging camp smith or local smith making axes to a local pattern when he wasn't busy repairing the steam donkey or shoeing mules etc.

Just guessing. Probably this would not have been economical when factory-made axes were available. Maybe it was before factory-made PS axes were available at all. Which argues for an early date.

Or maybe this was forged by some Foxfire-reading back-to-the-land hippie in 1966. But I don't think so, though I think it might have been badly re-hung about then.

Like I said, you can look it over in person. I'd be glad for an opportunity to learn more about these.
 
I think it is factory because of the weight stamp. Factory axes from before 1920 or so show that amount of forging or more in the head. They were made by lighter power hammers set up at different forges along a shaft line from water power. Logging camp blacksmiths had enough to do keeping the animals shod and repairing tools. Axes were cheap, even when shipped from the east where the factories were. It is possible the original axe was forged locally, but I don't think that is it. I would guess it is an early factory one though.
 
halfaxe said:
I think it is factory because of the weight stamp. Factory axes from before 1920 or so show that amount of forging or more in the head. They were made by lighter power hammers set up at different forges along a shaft line from water power. Logging camp blacksmiths had enough to do keeping the animals shod and repairing tools. Axes were cheap, even when shipped from the east where the factories were. It is possible the original axe was forged locally, but I don't think that is it. I would guess it is an early factory one though.
Click to expand...

Aha. Something between a blacksmith and what we think of as a "factory." Perhaps the interesting part is the rise of brand identity. We think of factories as brands: Kelly, Plumb, etc. Without a brand it doesn't seem like a factory. But a small forge that to us looks like a jobshop could make and sell unbranded product as a "factory".

Not like today, where every guy who plans to make small a batch of beer in his garage starts by hiring a graphic designer and ordering tee shirts and labels.

Your take is probably more consistent with the appearance of this axe. The facets are larger than I associate with hand-hammering (though I'm no expert on this) but maybe more consistent with a trip-hammer.
 
That's right. The brands you mention; Kelly, Plumb, and others like Collins became large concerns but most axe companies before 1920 were smaller with some only having a dozen or fewer employees. There would be little difference between an axe made in a small factory and one made by an individual blacksmith other than an attempt at making as uniform a product as possible in the factory.
 
Okay, so the trail probably runs cold about here.

So . . . the handle. Beeswax and olive oil?
 
jheath said:
Okay, so the trail probably runs cold about here.

So . . . the handle. Beeswax and olive oil?
Click to expand...

If those are the choices then beeswax. Boiled linseed oil is better. A mix of BLO, beeswax and turpentine does well.
 
This might not be so old as we thought. I showed some pictures to a well known collector and author. He suggests that the weight stamp is from the early 1950's. He thinks this came with a paper label, was sold by a hardware chain and likely made by one of the big makers.

I'm not so sure. I have plenty of axes from that period and none show forge markings like that. I think 1900 to 1920 is more likely.
 
jheath said:
I don't know what "inserted" vs. "overlaid" means in this context. Patience -- I'm learning.
Click to expand...

Typically the body of an vintage axe was made with medium carbon steel. A high carbon bit was forge welded to the body. Insert was the earlier method. Overlay was the later method.

Overlay on the left, insert on the right.

books
 
Square_peg said:
Typically the body of an vintage axe was made with medium carbon steel. A high carbon bit was forge welded to the body. Insert was the earlier method. Overlay was the later method.

Overlay on the left, insert on the right.

books
Click to expand...

Thanks. Can't tell for sure, but under my 100x pocket microscope I think might see an insert boundary. Maybe.

Found this axe next to a 1943 Sager PS and the surfaces were night and day different even allowing for patina. The Sager looked "factory" made compared to this, by modern standards.

I'm not using this one outdoors, but the BLO/beeswax/turpentine combo sounds good. Just want it simple and low-key, and not accent the color or wood grain. Trying not to pimp this one out at all.
 
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