What do i have here?

Geoff

Geoff

Gold Member
Joined
Mar 21, 2001
Messages
777
Found this in my Grandfathers shed. I never met him he died when i was very young ~35 years ago.

This may not have been his axe or even that old I really have no idea. As you can see it is heavily rusted the shed was 30' from salt water. I suspected Plumb from the handle color. I can't see the wedge as it seems coated with epoxy which makes me think its not that old.

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Cleaned up with some vinegar soaking and wire wheel, I can see the hardening line but its difficult to see in photos and "PLUMB" is stamped

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Obviously the pitting is severe, any hope? sand it down? sharpen? re-handle? It clearly will never be a wall hanger but can it still be a usable axe?

What replacement handle do I need? I heard the ones from Lowes or Home Depot are not great.

Thanks guys
 
It looks like a great user jersey pattern axe. Sharpen it up, apply protective oil and use the heck out of it. I always order hafts through house handle co, but it may be cheaper to go to lowes for one due to shipping. They work well if you remove the laquer/ varnish and apply boiled linseed oil.
 
Plenty of life left in that beauty. I do believe it was M3mphis that had a similar pitted double bit, and he sanded it so the pits remained black, but the outer was shiny, and it looked awesome. Maybe a possible route.

Otherwise, it depends on what you want to do with it. Sharpen it up and use it, or a wall hanger. Either way you win in my book. Plus you keep it in the family, and will always have a story to tell.

Congrats!!
 
Thanks for the info,

Is there anyway to tell how old it is? Possibly from the pattern or stamped logo?

I'd like to determine if it even could have belonged to my Grandfather or it if just ended up in the shed at some point
 
The epoxy you see is what Plumb called their Perma Bond. It is basicly an epoxy to aid in holding the handle on. Add some marketing magic to it and there you go. I did see a post were the epoxy had to be drilled out to remove the handle. I do have a Plumb with the Perma Bond in my collection. I've never tried to remove the handle.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think you have a Rockaway pattern. The jersey and rockaway patterns can be close in appearance.

Tom
 
Plumb started using Permabond back '56 or '57 I think. So this easily could have been your grandpa's axe.

It shows very little wear. The heel and toe of the bit are hardly worn and the poll isn't mushroomed. Never mind the pitting. File it, hone it, use it, love it.

The existing handle looks fine. Is their an unseen problem with it? If not then just oil it up with some BLO. The old vintage handles like that tend to be slimmer and have a better feel than any of the new stuff. I always try to save a vintage handle.

Old Plumbs are very nice axes and you are fortunate to have found that - even without the family link.
 
Thanks for the info,

Should I sand off the red or just go with the BLO?

The handle seems fine i thought i might have to remove it to get the head up to snuff.
 
That is a jersey pattern from the earliest the late 50s, which the permabond dates it. The Red handle for Plumb is usually vintage 70s...... so if I had to guess, and its a guess, I would say it is from 1968.

Thats just me.
 
I like the way it looks now. If that was mine I would just sharpen it and oil the handle keeping the rest of that red paint and be satisfied that I had the coolest axe on the block.
 
Another evolution

Did a progressive sanding down to 400grit. Left plenty of pits for character. Also used some BLO on the handle

Going to sharpen it, continue to apply BLO to the handle, and use oxpho-blue to blacken the head leaving the hardened area in the white.


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Head now has the initial sharpening done, still needs to be honed.

Also cold blued the head for rust protection. This brought out the temper line a little more.

Haft is still soaking up BLO

I'm really happy with how this turned out, This was my first axe restoration and I feel it came out great considering the initial condition.

Now looking for another head so I can learn to hang. Hoping for one of those that just needs to soak in vinegar lol.
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Boy you sure did manage to shine up that old girl. So what if there was a major case of acne at one time; just put 'er back to work.
 
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