Pulaski's and quality on the trail

C

Coloradoman24

Joined
Nov 3, 2012
Messages
106
So I have read and see some of the awesome work some of the members have done with their pulaski's and that there is some trail working people on this forum. I work for a conservation corps it's off season so I am going through all our tools and getting them ready for spring. In our lot of pulaski's I found five different makes of our pulaski's and wanted to here what everyone thought of the quality between the fss and non fss grade of modern pulaski's.
from left to right
Councils tools non fss, barco fss, council fss, and last my older council fss. The 5th one is not shown because it is a Collins china piece of bad words.

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I have noticed that the council non fss grade have seemed to be just as good as the barco and council fss. Our council non fss are three years old and out of the ten we have they are all in good shape. the five barco and 4 council fss are two years old and are in the same shape as the non fss grade. I also know that the fss grade has a higher grade to be a fss but from what I have seen not that much of a better grade and all these tools are abused by young adults from feb to nov each year.
 
Great stuff. Love that last one on the right.

I have a few pulaskis sans handles. Going to try and get one up and running for the spring trailwork season. Though I can't see it replacing my rogue hoe for cleaning water bars.

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Quite frankly, the quality of the pulaskis the fs issues these days is
Not great and the hanging job on gsa purchased pulaskis is terrible. Most recent batch we got has the built in metal wedge which doesn't work will at all. I've been tempted to hack saw that stupin thing right out the head so they can least me hung properly.
 
I'd wager that the vintage Council FSS is the best of the lot and I'd sure keep it out of the hands of the volunteers. I'm suspect of the new Council non-FSS Pulaskis with the twisted hoe. Then again I've never seen one that has failed. I'm with Forester33 when it comes to metal or PVC wedges. I think they're too slippery. Gimme a wood wedge with some DPG or Swel-Lock on it.

Today I chipped the heel on my Dixie Industries FSS Pulaski while knocking some knots off a cedar log. We were peeling and quartering the log to build a turnpike. I did have it sharpened a little thin but I was still surprised to see it chip. I'll post some pics later in the trail work thread.
 
Forester33 said:
Quite frankly, the quality of the pulaskis the fs issues these days is
Not great and the hanging job on gsa purchased pulaskis is terrible. Most recent batch we got has the built in metal wedge which doesn't work will at all. I've been tempted to hack saw that stupin thing right out the head so they can least me hung properly.
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Well I will tell you all of the pulaski's we have. Have been rehandled by me at least once if not twice or more. But for a general tool in the hands of a you g adult the heads seem to hold up well when the hoe end is used to remove rock.
 
Square_peg said:
I'd wager that the vintage Council FSS is the best of the lot and I'd sure keep it out of the hands of the volunteers. I'm suspect of the new Council non-FSS Pulaskis with the twisted hoe. Then again I've never seen one that has failed. I'm with Forester33 when it comes to metal or PVC wedges. I think they're too slippery. Gimme a wood wedge with some DPG or Swel-Lock on it.

Today I chipped the heel on my Dixie Industries FSS Pulaski while knocking some knots off a cedar log. We were peeling and quartering the log to build a turnpike. I did have it sharpened a little thin but I was still surprised to see it chip. I'll post some pics later in the trail work thread.
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Well funny story pick that one up from a national forest fire fighter who broke the handle and just gave it to me I rehandled it and about two years ago it got put into service at the corps and just now came back to me. It will need a new handle but it is not in to bad of shape. The metal and plastic wedges are no good I agree with you two. I make my own in the shop for all the work tools out of old handles seems to work good enough but the handle life at my corps is about one month. Sorry to hear about your Pulaski peg and do you do volunteer or work for a government.
Also forest33 I am going to guess you work for the national forest right?
 
Also the council tool twisted hoe style look weird and feel weird to me but have held up well Peg. Garry3 I think their both the same but I could be wrong.
 
Pulaski's are a state required part of every logging side's fire equipment here. A couple of years ago I was in the local logging supply shop and noticed a huge, maybe 6X6X4 foot, wood shipping box of lose packed Chinese made Pulaski's on sale. Looked like they had been dumped in the box by the fork truck load with no concern for edge or handle damage. Certainly a tool I would want to work a wild fire line with.
 
Coloradoman24 said:
Well funny story pick that one up from a national forest fire fighter who broke the handle and just gave it to me I rehandled it and about two years ago it got put into service at the corps and just now came back to me. It will need a new handle but it is not in to bad of shape. The metal and plastic wedges are no good I agree with you two. I make my own in the shop for all the work tools out of old handles seems to work good enough but the handle life at my corps is about one month. Sorry to hear about your Pulaski peg and do you do volunteer or work for a government.
Also forest33 I am going to guess you work for the national forest right?
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Not exactly with a national forest, more like a regional office staff. The pulaski we get fresh from the box need to be rehung before they go to the field. 5 minutes work and the head is loose and dangerous. The quality of the steel seems ok, but I have had the mattock blade chip.
 
garry, the ones that say FSS were made for the government (federal supply service) and should meet whatever government specs there are for such a thing. Those that say FS were probably branded as such by some kid on the trail crew. I really doubt that the FSS heads are anything to get super excited about over an identical non-FSS pulaski, like forester33 says the new ones are crap. Older heads though, like the True Tempers, I'd be surprised to find that they made a special batch of pulaskis for the government and a different spec'd batch for general use back in the day. It is cool to have some idea of your tools history though.
 
Thanks guys for your response. I really didn't give it much thought untill this thread came up.

I recently purchased four pulaski heads. One was a Woodings Verona marked FSS, that seemed to be made of pretty good steel. I rehafted and gave it away. Not the greatest workmanship on the head but not bad either.I have one marked True temper FSS that is OK and the same size as the Woodings I gave away. The other two heads are marked FS, One is a True Temper Kelly the other a Mann. Both of these are smaller than the ones marked FSS. Both in the bit and the hoe. Not sure yet about hardness or steel quality.
 
VintageAxe said:
I really doubt that the FSS heads are anything to get super excited about over an identical non-FSS pulaski,
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I can't say if there's any reason to get excited but the steel composition and RC hardness specs for the Forest Service are a higher standard then Council's standard pulaskis.

www.fs.fed.us/t-d/programs/fire/documents/5100_9D.pdf

3.2.1.1 Steel composition. The tool head of each type of ax shall be forged from fully killed plain carbon AISI/SAE steel containing 0.72 to 0.93 percent carbon, 0.30 to 0.90 percent manganese, not more than 0.040 percent phosphorus, and not more than 0.050 percent sulfur. Steel composition of the head shall be determined as specified in 4.5.1.1.

3.2.1.2 Hardness. The ax bit shall have a hardness of 54 to 58 inclusive on the Rockwell C scale. This hardness shall extend to a distance of 1-1/4 inches ±1/4 inch back from the cutting edge. Within 1 inch of the eye of the tool, the steel hardness shall not exceed 45 on the Rockwell C scale. All hardness values shall be determined as specified in 4.5.1.2. The specified hardness shall extend through the entire thickness of the tool head steel.
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Council standard pulaski

*ANSI Standards call for bit hardness of Rc 45-60, at least ½ inch back from the cutting edge. Council Tool internal standards call for tempered bit hardness of Rc 48-55.
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No mention of steel composition. Even Gransfors Bruk only uses .55 carbon in their axes.
 
Square_peg said:
Trail tool paint party - that's a familiar scene.
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Oh and it was a good party of me, my self, and I lol.
The fss councils tools pulaski's I like a lot but for price they both seem just as good but that's just what I have seen from wear and tear. I am not much of a trail builder but a faller and we have to have pulaski's on hand In case our saws start a fire. I have worked on a few trail crews befor and I didn't like it very much I leave the wife to that work. For the reason she is more of a bad $$$ then me she is also stitl certified in everything they sell
 
Looked it up, and the fs actually spec's a plastic wedge on pulaskis. No wonder the stupid things last 5 minutes of real work.
 
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