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What did you rehang today?
- Thread starter Irongun324
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Did this 4.5 lb Craftsman up as a user, on a nice old hickory handle. The grain is about as straight as you can hope for! An axe like this doesn't need a heavy swing to work well, seems like I'm more directing the axe than I am chopping with it.
Square_peg
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I dug up a Vine maple bow stave that had taken to much reflex after being cut. I was able to get enough of a straight section out of that. It has been seasoning in the shed for about twenty years.
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Vine Maple is not as hard and heavy as Sugar Maple or the Canyon Maple, but it does have a resiliency that I think will serve me well enough for a hatchet handle. I tried to make the center of the tree the center of the handle but I missed it. I don't think it will matter much.
I like that a lot! Stiletto claw hammer?!? Awesome!!!
And vine maple is pretty tough stuff - plenty good for a hatchet handle.
It doesn't surprise me that you have been in a vine maple thicket or two. I have read that the native Americans in the Pacific Northwest used Vine Maple for axe handles. I would have tried a few other woods first but it does indeed have a tenacity to it.
I will concur with that opinion! When they were introduced in the late 40s Plumb did advertise that the polls on Nationals were suitable for hammering with (they didn't say hammering of what though) so a straight haft is eminently practical. By the way garry3 you did a lovely job of making that hang. If the handle is 27 inch I'm presuming this is a 2 1/4 lb head. Yes, no? The National I have is 3 1/2 lb.
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Very nice job garry. That ax would fast become one of my favorite user axes. That is why we have axes right, to use them? I wish there were more posts showing axes being used and what the finished product looks like. I even enjoy looking at a pile of firewood.
Did this 4.5 lb Craftsman up as a user, on a nice old hickory handle. The grain is about as straight as you can hope for! An axe like this doesn't need a heavy swing to work well, seems like I'm more directing the axe than I am chopping with it.
I love that old haft, it is a real looker. Did you see a makers mark on it?
Them National patterns sure are popular here, just great little axes. I really like that pattern in a hatchet also.
I am not sure why but the stores around here have started to carry 28" straight handles with full size eyes(House Handle Co). Nothing in between the 36" and 28" though. I don't know of any one that makes a straight handle for a boys axe? Any way it is not to far off to hang them on the full size eyed 28" hafts.
I am not sure why but the stores around here have started to carry 28" straight handles with full size eyes(House Handle Co). Nothing in between the 36" and 28" though. I don't know of any one that makes a straight handle for a boys axe? Any way it is not to far off to hang them on the full size eyed 28" hafts.
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Is this considered the national pattern too? These are similar, but have a more narrow, tapering poll. BTW, good looking hangs guys!
Yes, those are Plumb Nationals. They are sometimes mistaken for Plumb cedar axes.
A couple photos found online, which illustrate some differences between Plumb's Cedar Axe and Plumb's National Pattern:
National Pattern:
Cedar Axe:
The Cedar Axe has a curve between the eye and the heel (similar to a Rockaway pattern), and a noticeably flared toe (not a straight line across the top of the head between poll and toe). The National pattern has fairly straight lines at these places.
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There is a mark on it, though it's pretty faded.
There is a mark on it, though it's pretty faded.
Can not make a thing out unfortunately. I have a couple that are remarkably similar. One with part of the kerf cut and another without. Back then they cut kerfs straight when they cut them. I wish I could put a date on them hafts. One thing they have in common is the lack of a shoulder. There might be a reason for that....
Square_peg
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Yeah, my home town used to be called 'Vine Maple Valley' until the Post Office shortened it 100 years ago. The stuff is every where around here.
And I was thinking about you the other day. You're a bowyer, right? Have you ever used Meadowsweet Oceanspray for arrows? It's in bloom right now and so very prominent. It's also been called 'Indian Ironwood' and in the native tongue was called 'the arrow bush'. Just a shrub but it grows long straight shafts of very hard wood. Too small even for a hatchet handle. Might be able to do a 'hawk.
I am not familiar with it. I don't think I have seen it in Idaho. I used to make a few arrows from scratch like that but I really think it takes as much if not more work to make a set of arrows as it does for some bows, so I have given it up.
When you watch old western movies where the 'Injuns' loose off volley after volley of arrows you really have to scratch your head. In real life they were likely a lot more careful about firing them off and probably a lot more diligent about trying to retrieve them. And they must have had quite a few tricks up their sleeve in making them so as to achieve consistent flight. A lot of (then very valuable) old skills have been lost to time!
That's the thing right there "consistent flight". From what I have seen with lithic scatters and the few surviving quivers is that stone age man probably never quit making arrows. He always had shafts in various states of being finished I suspect. They were certainly not wasted hap hazard fashion that is for sure.