Welland vale army green?

T

Trevor51

Joined
Jun 24, 2015
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I got a small welland vale axe that's just under 2 pounds. It doesn't say any thing else like true temper or black prince. can someone estimate approximately when it was made. It also has been painted army green. I'm just wondering if possibly welland vale issued axes to the army? I would think that if they did it would be this size of axe. But it could also be very well possible that someone just painted it that Color. I hope to hear what you guys think, thanks.






 
Maybe it's a "branching axe" from around 1956, the year of the Welland Vale catalog pictured below. It mentions that their 2-pound "Our Best" had a green head.

wdmn said:
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11jsoep.jpg


Above: From the catalogue; this "joiner's axe" most closely resembled the shape of the one I am restoring, and the text reads that it is also available in a 2lb version. This was the only 2lb axe Welland Vale were making in this or any similar pattern.

In fact, this lighter version of the "joiner's axe" (2 rather than 2 1/2lbs) was listed on another page as the "Branching axe" (below):
xavx3d.jpg
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The catalogue listed only one handle option available for the 2 pound joiner's or "branching" axe, and that was a 26 inch no. 1 hickory:
rc3fc4.jpg


Both yesteryeartools and a book I found at the library state that the True Temper name began being used in 1950, and that they only used the Welland Vale stamp for 2 years after that, which would date this axe from 1952 or before; however, the 1956 catalogue still showed "Welland Vale" on the axe illustrations, which makes the dating less certain. ...
Click to expand...
 
Steve Tall said:
Maybe it's a "branching axe" from around 1956, the year of the Welland Vale catalog pictured below. It mentions that their 2-pound "Our Best" had a green head.
Click to expand...


Would you know if those where a paper logo on the head or if they where acually stamped in the metal.
 
I just started to clean up the hults bruk I bought from the same guy and under all the rust it's got the same green paint. So it was the person I got the axe from that painted it. But still would any one know approximately what year this would have been made in.
 
Trevor51 said:
Would you know if those where a paper logo on the head or if they where acually stamped in the metal.
Click to expand...

From looking at the 1956 catalog picture, what makes sense to me is that the WELLAND VALE near the poll is a stamp (like on your axe), while the "Our Best" (or Stag Head) insignia is a paper label. So I'd say there's a good chance it's from the 1950s. (I've been wrong before, though.)

wdmn said:
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11jsoep.jpg

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Wdmn
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Steve is rarely wrong, by the way! And I doubt he is in this case. 1950's seems to be the era that many folks are finding the most 'clean' axes from. Probably because portable and affordable chainsaws were coming into common use by the early 60s so these 'new purchase' axes never did get much use and the generation that owned them (parents of Boomers) have been packing it in in large numbers over the past decade or two, and their kids and most of their grandkids have no use for quaint old hand tools.
 
Oh yeah, Welland Vale is my favorite axe brand, i own three of these and they are all top notch steel! ;)
 
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