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Two Rockaway (Jersey?) Patterns.

DarthTaco123

DarthTaco123

Joined
Mar 28, 2013
Messages
1,730
Well, this is today's pickings (they were fairly slim!) I got a Collins Cedar Pattern, and two Rockaway Patterns. One, I believe, is an old Kelly MFG Co. from their time in Charleston (1904-1930), and one that looks to have been painted, rusted, and the paint is bubbling up with the rust (nasty eh?).
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Sorry for the shoddy picture of her, but here's Ms. Kelly. A beautiful lady!
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And Mr. Collins, a bit rusty, but he's a fine fellow! He even has a bit of his old Paper Label still on.
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And here's the ugly duckling, the unidentified, peeling, middle aged woman. I think we'll call her...Olga. I can't quite make out her stamp, but hopefully a water soak will liberate some of that rusted bubbly paint.
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Nice finds. I'm most interested in Olga. I bet something will show up inside that oval stamp.
 
Hopefully a water soak and scrub will reveal the stamp. The Kelley doesn't need refinishing (when am I EVER that lucky), and the Collins looks like it just needs a little touch up. The previous owner applied plenty of some permabond-ish stuff. I may remove the electrical tape just to see how bad it is underneath but I love the handle, so I hope I won't need to replace it.
 
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The Collins is a 'Homestead' axe - I'd call it a Michigan pattern albeit with more flare to the bit than is typical. Those were made during the years that Mann owned the Collins name. Old enough to still be U.S. made but maybe not as high of quality as the true vintage Collins stuff.

The Kelly Charleston will have will have high grade steel.
 
Yeah, and for 6 bucks I couldn't be more happy. The handle was made by one of its users, the grain is almost perfect, but the fit is a bit high. It's got one wood and three steel wedges so I doubt it's coming off any time soon. Are you sure the Collins isnt older? The steel is as hard as the Kelly.
 
I'm pretty sure that's a Mann-era Homestead. My biggest beef with them is that the cheeks are kinda slim. Still a good axe.

Here's one I had last year.

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I think Ms. Olga and Mr. Collins are going to the wire cup brush once it get done not catching fish. Mr. Collins's handle has wood spliced in, wrapped in electrical tape, and glued on its handle. So I guess it's a good thing I like the handle. Once they're prettied up I'm taking one of them to the woods to test out after they're filed.
 
I am guessing DUNLAP in the oval..of course I have been wrong once or twice. One of the things I like about this hobby is "discovering" things about my finds. Still have one with only three faint letters that remains a mystery :)

Bill
 
It almost looks like the last 3 letters are MAN but it may be lap I have a job ahead of me, as it's a hand brush, thought I had one for the dreamel but I don't know if I can find it.
 
Craftsman single and double oval stamped heads are good ones. I have several that I like very much.
Craftsman lineage gets confusing, Vaughn made a bunch but some references claims they made their own at one point. Some of mine look very much like Kellys.

Bill
 
Could you upload a picture of its stamp? Most craftsman oval stamps I've seem are two ovals, this is one. It almost looks like the stamp is arched like an S as well. Here be mine stamp. All I can make out is MAN, the rest is pitted me thinks.
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I am at work but will try to get some pics of mine this evening or tomorrow. IN the meantime, I borrowed the below from the web. I see variety of shapes of the oval, single and double as well as different types of print- some block and some more rolling.
Bill




 
DarthTaco123 said:
Could you upload a picture of its stamp? Most craftsman oval stamps I've seem are two ovals, this is one. It almost looks like the stamp is arched like an S as well. Here be mine stamp. All I can make out is MAN, the rest is pitted me thinks.
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Click to expand...

It looks like a Craftsman for sure:

CedarEater said:
The hatchet head arrived today. At this point I do believe this is the earliest of the Craftsman stamps.

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The font and shape match exacrtly! Mr. Tall comes to the rescue yet again. You should start charging! "Earliest Craftsman Stamp" sounds good to me, and for four dollars (with a savable haft) I'm not complaining.
 
Olga's a Craftsman. I'll take some pictures and update y'all, but I got most of the surface rust off with a quick, and I mean QUICK vinegar soak, followed by a brillo pad. The mushrooming isn't bad so I'll leave it as is no need to ruin the (mostly) uniform Patina. The handle had to go, as I started to sand it, little channels where bugs had eaten through the wood became evident. I have another haft ready to go, however, once I get the remnants of this one out.
 
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