Thanks again 300Six. Believe it or not, this was done with over a year of pain staking research. Google Books became my best friend along with google images and a few other sites. I literally pieced a puzzle together that was spread across the interwebs, lol. But it was a lot of fun. I seem to have an affinity for researching and compiling information. Bladeforums had a lot of the pieces scattered throughout its posts, just no one had put them together into one congruous thought. Now for the National pattern. Interestingly enough, I don't believe the National Pattern was ever granted a patent. If it was, I cannot find it in any patent database. September 10, 1948 was when Plumb copyrighted the phrase, "Here's the new Plumb National Axe." I wish I could find evidence of the patent, but its still a mystery. The only indications we have are the copyright date, which does mention the "NEW" national axe which is pretty self evident, and we also have the National Pattern heads that have Patent Applied for on them. But since those heads don't have dates stamped into them, we can only assume they were the earlier of the national pattern heads manufactured. With the copyright date, you'd think we could just assume it was 1948 which coincides with the release of the national pattern to the boy scouts. But then comes the Plumb Victory National Axe. The Victory logo was advertised from around 1942 to 1944. It was meant to raise support for the war efforts toward the ending of WWII. So the advertising stopped in 1944. But does that mean they stopped producing the Victory axes in 1944? Not necessarily. Maybe they were produced up until the late 1940's which would make sense why we have some national pattern heads with the Victory stamp. But I'm only speculating. Is it feasible that Plumb continued to manufacture these heads three years after the war was over? Your guess is as good as mine. The other option is that Plumb began producing the National Pattern in the early part of the 1940's, but due to the war did not get a chance to push advertising for the head or produce it in mass quantities. As I said in the paper, the 1940's were a busy decade for the Plumbs. Fayette R. Plumb II joined the war efforts by serving in the military. William Plumb died in 1944. And factory management changed hands. It's totally possible they had the design built for the National Pattern in the early 1940's but did not get a chance to really market it until around 1948. If you look at most Plumb Victory axes and hatchets, the finish is less refined. You can see grind marks from the factory that would usually have been smoothed out, but did not because production was being rushed for the war. The interesting part is the Victory National axes have this same unfinished look. So if the National Pattern really didn't come out until 1948, that means plumb continued to manufacture the victory line for at least 3 years after the war, AND the factory lines where these heads were being made with the unfinished look continued as well after the war for multiple years. Again, this is all speculation, but it is very interesting. These questions may never be answered. Time will only tell.
