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Waste of a good handle?
- Thread starter gben
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Square_peg
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Most manufacturers even today don't put the zipcode on their product - just the city of manufacture. It's an interesting factoid but of little value in dating tools.
rockman0
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Man I don't think I could make the decision to use that handle, that label is too nice to risk ruining. It's harder to find a vintage handle that nice than it is to find a nice vintage head, those old handles rotted or were broken and tossed. Undervalued in my eyes.
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That may be absolutely correct, but I don't know why they wouldn't. I don't have any data to know that most manufacturers do or do not include a ZIP code on their labels. However, O. P. LINK HANDLE CO, INC currently does.
I learned about looking for ZIP codes from a close relative who has earned his his livelihood for many years buying and selling antique and vintage items. I never intended to say no ZIP code means pre-1963. I apologize to anyone who got that impression. I merely put it out there as something to consider. As far as dating tools goes, if one finds a tool with a label that has a ZIP code on it, that label is NO OLDER than 1963.
Bob
Square_peg
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Point taken. Thanks, Bob.
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I pay through the nose for old handles because they're usually better milled and better oriented, and also just look straight up gorgeous. That's a heck of a handle, and I'd give it a good home if I could. 😉
Axe Master,
I am right up in Erie, PA if you are ever passing through maybe you can stop by and take a look at this handle and a few other axes I have laying around here that are too good to use and I don't have the space to store.
There is a Plumb double-bit that is in another recent thread that I will never use, and also an old Belknap BlueGrass double with an original octagon handle that is in as good a shape as the Plumb. There is also a Kelly Perfect double-bit head here that I do not need.
I have plenty of useable, no-name, rust-pitted and beat up axes and hatchets here that will last me as long as I live. I believe in preserving history, and I do the best I can but I do not really have the room in my small house and garage to save everything. I have two or more times the tools, cameras and motorcycles I need.
I am right up in Erie, PA if you are ever passing through maybe you can stop by and take a look at this handle and a few other axes I have laying around here that are too good to use and I don't have the space to store.
There is a Plumb double-bit that is in another recent thread that I will never use, and also an old Belknap BlueGrass double with an original octagon handle that is in as good a shape as the Plumb. There is also a Kelly Perfect double-bit head here that I do not need.
I have plenty of useable, no-name, rust-pitted and beat up axes and hatchets here that will last me as long as I live. I believe in preserving history, and I do the best I can but I do not really have the room in my small house and garage to save everything. I have two or more times the tools, cameras and motorcycles I need.
The handle looks to be in great shape and the Link decal is lovely but do yourself a favour and inspect the end grain and length grain on that handle. When trees are milled bad boards are discarded right off and various others are culled along the assembly line but 'perfect' hafts are/were likely still a one-in-a-hundred proposition in any given day. The key word here is 'utility' and those standards were higher at one time but that only means they didn't sell 'complete garbage' hafts such as often show up in hardware stores today. If yours is somehow flawed enough to be deemed 'ordinary' or 'utility' in a structural sense then maybe this one is best off exhibited as a wall hanger mated to a decorative or rare head that you also have no plans to use.
Trees haven't changed much over the past 100 years (second growth Hickory is still considered ideal), it is shape, slimness, finish and quality control that have suffered over the years. And all of those aspects can be controlled by the end user.
Trees haven't changed much over the past 100 years (second growth Hickory is still considered ideal), it is shape, slimness, finish and quality control that have suffered over the years. And all of those aspects can be controlled by the end user.
Last edited:
Square_peg
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Well said.
Here are some shots of the top, bottom and edge of the handle that might show if it will take a beating or not. I am a pretty good mechanic and I would think that if some of the layers of wood went all the way from top to bottom of the handle then it would be stronger than if they did not, also you would want the plane of the layers to take the forces on their edge and not their sides.
"Top drawer" for end grain orientation! Someone might quibble about tightness of the annular rings (first growth wood) but for sure I won't. Run out (when length grain is not continuous) is difficult to discern on a colour stained handle but if it is straight through you've got yourself a first class piece of wood.
I too have 3-4 vintage unused handles kicking about from having attended warehouse/store closings and Estate sales 25-35 ago years but increasingly so have been finding excuses not to do anything with them. This really isn't rational or practical thinking on my part!
I too have 3-4 vintage unused handles kicking about from having attended warehouse/store closings and Estate sales 25-35 ago years but increasingly so have been finding excuses not to do anything with them. This really isn't rational or practical thinking on my part!
That may be absolutely correct, but I don't know why they wouldn't. I don't have any data to know that most manufacturers do or do not include a ZIP code on their labels. However, O. P. LINK HANDLE CO, INC currently does.
I learned about looking for ZIP codes from a close relative who has earned his his livelihood for many years buying and selling antique and vintage items. I never intended to say no ZIP code means pre-1963. I apologize to anyone who got that impression. I merely put it out there as something to consider. As far as dating tools goes, if one finds a tool with a label that has a ZIP code on it, that label is NO OLDER than 1963.
Bob
OP Link doesnt exist as a company. Seymour is manufacturing handles under the "Link" name now, in Sequatchie, TN.
your OP Link is NOS... the old OP handles were much better than the newer Seymour made handles. they are using crap patterns, the ax handles are club like compared to OPs generally much slimmer stock patterns. OP had hundreds of patterns to choose from, seymour gives you the generic choices. sad OP sold off the company IMO
Well if it did not have a maker's mark or label on it then I would already have the head on it, but I believe that history is important to preserve and so I will just let this handle do it's duty as a historical document. I do not mind getting a new handle that has no historical value to fit into my user, no-name single-bit head. I am thinking of putting a bit of clear varnish or lacquer just over the label because it seems like it is a bit loose.