What do all these stamps mean?

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garry3

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Sep 11, 2012
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This is a Pulaski I picked up last spring. Just wondering if you guys can fill me in on what these stamps mean. I understand BLM and USFC, but the 02 under one of the BLM stamps? And what appears to be CFC under the other BLM stamp?
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I have a pulaski with the same U.S.F.S stamp. I'd guess some BLM (I always thought it stood for the Bureau of Livestock and Mining :-)) guy found that on a fire and claimed it. FC could be fire cache or it stand for the name of some blm district. Or could be the guy's initials who claimed the tool. 02 could also be the district or unit identifier. You'll probably never know for sure unless you run into the guy who branded it. Good tool at any rate. It says true temper on the other side, right?
 
VintageAxe said:
I have a pulaski with the same U.S.F.S stamp. I'd guess some BLM (I always thought it stood for the Bureau of Livestock and Mining :-)) guy found that on a fire and claimed it. FC could be fire cache or it stand for the name of some blm district. Or could be the guy's initials who claimed the tool. 02 could also be the district or unit identifier. You'll probably never know for sure unless you run into the guy who branded it. Good tool at any rate. It says true temper on the other side, right?
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That's about right for BLM. I may know who used this come to think of it. In another state. I will look him up next time I am down that way.
Good guess on the True Temper. Thought for sure there would be some BLM guys here that would know.
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It seems that most of the federal stamped are True Tempers. I had a Woodings Verona though. The earlier ones had a FS stamp instead of the USFS stamp I think. But I may be wrong here.
 
This one has been around for a while. More recent Forest Service pulaskis were stamped FSS, for Federal Supply Schedule.
 
bbforstr said:
This one has been around for a while. More recent Forest Service pulaskis were stamped FSS, for Federal Supply Schedule.
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I have one or two around here some place with the FFS stamp on them. For sure newer.
This one is older and just has a FS stamp.
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It seems that the adze got bigger through the years or as the federal spec changed. This is the Flint Edge compared to the Kelly Works. The ones with a FSS stamp have an even bigger adze.
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That's quite a difference in the adze width. I'd rather have one of the old ones. Newer FS pulaskis are crap. I used to try rehanging pulaskis when I was waiting for a fire. The new ones aren't worth the effort.
 
bbforstr said:
That's quite a difference in the adze width. I'd rather have one of the old ones. Newer FS pulaskis are crap. I used to try rehanging pulaskis when I was waiting for a fire. The new ones aren't worth the effort.
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I have not done much with the ones with a FSS stamp on them other than rehang, sharpen make a mask for them and give them away but they all seemed to be good quality steel. They had plastic wedges. The finish on the heads not as nice as the older ones.
 
One thing I'm leery of buying Pulaskis with out looking up close at them. On a big fire they would put them on a high speed grinder to sharpen them while the hand crews were back in fire camp. Hundreds of Pulaskis sharpened both sides that way every day on a big fire.
 
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