Miners axe, rafting axe, construction axe

Good points, Steve. It's puzzling about the handle information. The bent over nails near the top of the box suggest that it had a lid of some sort. Perhaps the lid had holes in it for handles. Or maybe the handles were boxed separately.

Look at the 2nd image above. Note 2 nails on the right side about 3/4" from the top. On the left there are 2 nails about 1-1/2" from the top and closer to the end of the box. The opposite side shows a similar pattern with one nail high on one end and one nail lower on the other end.

I appreciate any input you have.
 
I was imagining the handled axes to be sticking up out of the box, in an alternating pattern, sort of like in this photo:

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Looks like it would just take 2 or 3 cross-pieces or "slats" of wood, nailed to the box, to crowd together and secure 6 handled axes in that box.

The box marked "ready for shipment" in the Shapleigh ad (shown again below) had a minimal "lid", with the protruding handles wrapped in what looks like cloth or paper. Makes sense to me that the type of handles (as well as the type of axe heads) would be marked on the box, to avoid having to open up the packaging to see what exactly is in it.


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When I was a kid I remember going shopping with my grandfather for tools and supplies and seeing axes packed in wooden crates the size of SP's with the handles sticking out like Steve shows. It seems like I remember some type of cardboard ? around the handles, attached to the wood with small nails.
 
Steve Tall said:
. . . And the handled axes came 4 to a box that year. Perhaps this box was from an earlier year, with 6 handled axes packed in it. . .
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This is a catalog page (presumably from 1936) advertising handled Plumb SB Dreadnaughts. Not listed as a "constructors" axe, but they do sell "One-half dozen in a crate". This, of course, may have absolutely nothing to do with the box in question. But, FWIW:

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Bob
 
Very nice! I don't have a rafting ax, but it's a strong contender as my next splitting ax. Those rare unused ones does make a person giddy.
 
ARKLITE881South said:
My wifes grand dad was a log drive foreman for Diamond Match in Northern Idaho for 40 yrs. He said in those 40 yrs he never lost a man on the log drives. He was one tough old cookie, i have some pictures of him shaving in his back yard with a small double bit axe. I believe its the only small double bit axe i have it was Made in Sweden. We used to have some dandy black and white 8x10 glossy pictures taken of him and his crew as they drove logs to the mill. One of the other relatives''confiscated'' all of them. They were taken by a Life Magazine reporter. They had a small tent set up on the rafts for eating in, and even a sleeping tent i believe, complete with stove. Pretty exciting life.
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I do believe they are still floating logs on the St Joe(maybe others?). I think they use small tugs today and nobody is riding on the rafts. Still kind of interesting.
 
Square_peg, thanks for sharing those axes and box. Made my day.

I am going to check a couple of the AA&T axes I have for hardened polls, I thought they were Ideal Ridge pattern axes but they look similar to the Red Ridge but not in a Michigan pattern. Maybe that is the difference between the two?
 
I picked up this Walters recently. Like my other Walters the poll seems to batter rather than chip. I haven't file tested it but I imagine it's not as hard as a Plumb or True Temper rafting axe poll. But it's in nice shape and I like finding Walters axes.

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Made in Canada

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I really like the super thick eye walls on this axe, 5/16" thick. It just looks tough. Poll is 1-1/2" wide. Head is 8" long. The full size eye looks small with the thick eye walls and poll.

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Lovely piece of history and quite the critter you have there! Walters opened a facility in Ogdensburg New York during the 1950s and likely had to stamp some of their export products with 'made in Canada' while they were operating out of there. Morley Walters would have taken keen notice of logger's requests for axe improvements while log rafts plied the Ottawa and Gatineau Rivers up until about 1960. His main shop was along the Quebec side opposite of Chaudiere Island where all of these guys (log rollers and raft workers) would have landed en route and where Wright, Eddy, Booth and other Ottawa Valley lumber barons maintained sawmills and where his dad Henry Walters had bought out Sexton Washburn's axe making operation in 1885.
That the eye is thoroughly beefed up and yet the poll is not fully hardened makes me think that mere aftermarket hardening of the poll of a 'fandangled newly created' Plumb National is not going to cut the mustard when it comes to commercial durability.
 
That certainly is a worthwhile axequisition. I don't see Walters axes much around here at all let alone clean 4+lb'ers like that.

Straight handle for your new brute?
 
Very nice, it looks like it's in really good shape. The Walters are hard to find. I have a walters hatchet with a 16" handle, and a 22 oz. head. I haven't been able to find an ax head as nice as yours yet. I've seen a lot of walters that looked rode hard and put up wet. I guess they were a "go to brand" for hard-work.
 
Walters Axe was not a large operation (productivity-wise) until late 1947 when Morley Walters switched the Hull Quebec plant over to drop hammer/closed die manufacture. Morley himself said that forging 15 heads a day per man the old fashioned way was considered to be optimal. Three very experienced lads running his closed die system during the mid 1960s made 1000 per day (the daily quota) in between 7 am and 1:30-2 pm. How many of these wound up in the US (up against strong competition and import tariffs) I don't know but they were marketed throughout the Commonwealth and British colonies. Rafting axes must have been a rarity in any event and were probably aimed at commercial businesses (forestry/mining/construction/railway) who were seeking out the ultimate in durable axes.
 
worked in underground mines before and miners preferred short-handled hatchets with long heads, quite sharp for precise shaping of round posts and beams. often, they were forged from truck leaf springs.
 
S P axe box-- I found a picture and text in the 1930 E. C. Simmons, Keen Kutter tool catalog, page 2. "the heads are carefully boxed (wood), the handles are wrapped with paper and covered with a muslin bag"
 
Square_peg said:
I received this one this weekend. It's 4.83 pound Plumb Dreadnaught rafting axe that looks like it's never been hung. It's the type of un-hung axe that would have come in the box I posted above. It came form Clancy, MT., just up the road from the Anaconda mine in Butte.

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It came with a very flat poll that looks almost milled and isn’t painted like the body of the axe.

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Given my affinity for Plumb rafting axes I'm pretty giddy about this one! :)
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Is this one of those situations where you'd have to kill me if you told me where you get your axes?
 
Old Axeman said:
S P axe box-- I found a picture and text in the 1930 E. C. Simmons, Keen Kutter tool catalog, page 2. "the heads are carefully boxed (wood), the handles are wrapped with paper and covered with a muslin bag"
Click to expand...
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Thank you to Rose Tools for the scans.

Square_peg, you need one of these now to fill with Plumb rafting patterns:
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This seems like the place to share rafting patterns. 4lb with the flat/smooth poll.
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There's another view of the packaging/box a couple pages later in that Shapleigh catalog:
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Also a nifty idea for an axe rack.
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