P-V Mfg Co. Axe

cooperhill

cooperhill

Joined
Nov 14, 2011
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1,018
Not a great beauty but an interesting find at our local antique / tool store in Northwood NH. $3 for this so I consider it a good deal. I think it still has some life in it.

I can find only one reference to the P-V mark on the internet. It assumes that P-V is the same as Peavey Mfg. of Brewer ME. It might likely be true. The markings on my axe match this (overprices and poorly hung IMO) axe pretty well.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/84640890/antique-p-v-mfg-co-brewer-maine-felling?image_id=222613655

I think the round marks are from someone putting the axe in a vise. I've already cleaned it up a bit and grinded the poll down. It will be a gift if anything but hopefully it will clean up.





 
A bit roughed-up but she's still a beauty! Brewer isn't more than 30 minutes from where I live, and indeed P-V is the same as Peavey. :)
 
Thanks!

A few hours of work and I cleaned it up a bit and started profiling and sharpening of the bit.





Not sure what type of handle I'll put this on but I think it will be on the smaller side.
 
Looks like a Maine pattern, and I've heard tell that straight handles were the norm here. :)
 
By the way, it looks like Peavey is still around, they're just in Eddington now. Also, they no longer make axes but instead are distributors for Council and supply their own leather edge covers for them.
 
She's cleaning up nice....lets see more pics when handled !
 
I put a 28" ash handle on this yesterday. The eye is a bit big and left a gap in the front, not sure what to do about that. I think the axe was larger (length wise) then it is now.





 
Pretty much all 28" handles are for a boy's axe or 2 1/4 pound heads which have smaller eyes. This head needs a full size handle of 32" or longer and the eye will fill it up. It's a cool head though. Looks like it would be a good splitter.
 
OutdoorEnvy said:
Pretty much all 28" handles are for a boy's axe or 2 1/4 pound heads which have smaller eyes. This head needs a full size handle of 32" or longer and the eye will fill it up. It's a cool head though. Looks like it would be a good splitter.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the information. Just didn't like the look of a larger handle on this since the axe is so small now.
 
Maybe make a shaped little wedge to tap into the top to fill the gap? :confused:
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
Maybe make a shaped little wedge to tap into the top to fill the gap? :confused:
Click to expand...

I've done that. Carve up a piece of hickory from an old handle or something. Make it very tight so that you have to hammer it in, just like driving a wedge. Cut if off flush and you'll hardly be able to tell any difference. That looks great, by the way!
 
A very nice axe! Just do like the other guys said and cut something to fit in the gap and you'll be good to go.
 
I just bought the brother of cooperhill's P-V axe, near Saugatuck on Lake Michigan, of all places. It's in pretty bad shape, with a split from the eye to the edge of the steel overcoat, so probably it will be a wall-hanger.

The helve is very old, maybe original: so worn I can't tell if it was painted and polished smooth in the gripping areas. 29.5 in long, cut flat across the knob. Pretty normal curvature.

Somebody drove thin nails into it about a hands-breadth above the butt, one going side to side and one back to front. I can't imagine any usefulness to using, carrying or storing the axe. Has anybody seen this before? Maybe it's a sort of cross-shaped hex sign to keep outraged wood spirits from running up the handle to get the chopper.
 
A blacksmith named 'Peavey' was the inventor of the logging tool we now know as a peavey. Wood framers sometimes use a smaller version of that tool to align framed walls to marks on the floor before securing them.

So if Peavey came out of the logging industry he probably knew a thing or two about axes. I think you've got a keeper. Might be an old one. You might check it to see if it has a forge-welded bit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peavey_(tool)
 
Thanks, Square-peg. I bought it despite its condition because it's a very odd pattern to my Michigan eyes, and I thought it might be ancient. Unfortunately, the first stamping I could read was "[va]nadium steel". (A lot of letters have been lost to rust and grinding of the mushroomed poll.) Ford started using vanadium in 1908, so I doubt the axe is much older than that.

On the other hand, it's got to be my oldest axe, because it clearly shows 2-piece construction of the head. That parallel line between the edge and the eye on cooperhill's axe is on mine also, and it looks just like an illustration of adding steel by overcoating in Kauffman's American Axes. Also my axe is ground through the steel in one corner so you see three layers. So sometime between 1900 and 1940, I'm guessing. I suppose a lot of the old 2-piece axe heads got melted down for the war effort in the '40s.

Anyway, the axe has enough character to be worth $8.50.
 
Ahhhhhh! I sometimes come here just to see mention of Peavy :D:D:D

I grew up in Maine, dad had several nice Snow & Nealley axes and a couple log Peavy's around. Buddy and I cut up a big downed tree for a neighbor in Orono one summer, probably lost money on that deal but we had a lot of fun, and I took both our Peavy's over to Eddington to get them re-handled.

I'm almost sorry to have left them at our summer place when we sold it all and moved to AZ... but I haven't seen a tree big enough to use one on in ages :D

The company's probably not what it once was, given the way Maine and logging have gone, but its always nice to see they're still kicking.
 
As a framer I learned "Peavey" on day one. Synonymous with "wall puller".

Very Cool Find.
 
Really good when you find something old like that and the stamp has been in 'Good n Hard' so you can still identify.

regards...Frank
 
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