Seeking a broad-axe

P

prespec

Joined
Jun 21, 2004
Messages
3
I am a new member here. I have searched the web for axe info and keep getting endless pages about guitars.
I am thinking about getting some hewing gear and have found very little useful info on broad-axes. There must be some modern American makers doing quality broad-axes and adzes but they do not appear on any searches I have made lately.

I know that the GB stuff is really good ,but I just like American tools. Generally they get it right and the stuff is practical and workmanlike, and costs about what it should. Does this apply to axes? Because it sure does with rifles. While working in the gun business it became apparrent that the perceived quality of lots of European gear, while being very real, also had a lot to do with inflated pricing.


Spending the sort of dough a GB costs is out for me right now, I have lots of other tools on the to-get list . So can anyone supply links to current US and European makers? I would welcome any advice on these tools and am after the best bang for the buck possible.

Stuff costs pretty good dough to get here to New Zealand from the US, but the selection is so much better there and makes direct importing worthwhile. But a $180 axe in US is a $300 axe by the time it gets here.
 
Have you done a search at eBay yet? You'll have to trudge through alot of crap, but there are usually also some pretty good axes listed there.
 
Thanks for the reply Glockman.
Yep, I have found a few I like on E-Bay and lots more other stuff ie. slicks and adzes. But there has to be someone making them apart from GB and Wetterling, particularly with the interest in post and beam and log building in the USA.
I would just like a couple more options before I spend the dough.
 
Prespec,
I've seen several at antique stores and flea markets, and they command quite a price in those outlets, even if they are old. I bought one last year at an antique store and polished and sharpened the head, but I haven't gotten around to putting a handle in it yet. One in good shape with a good handle in it goes for close to $100 in the antique sales here in the South.

Todd
 
Flea markets and antique places are def. good sources, but you'd have to be here to explore. E-bay as well. I have a very nice broadaxe, with makers mark and solid haft from a flea market for about $30.00. I also have the GB broadaxe, but it is quite different from the old flat on one side, chisel sharpened hewing axes. Even a nasty rusty old broadaxe probably has life in it under the red oxide.
 
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