What is this

S

Spartanwarrior

Joined
Oct 24, 2013
Messages
107
I found this a while ago in an antique store in Washington it looked old and it was cheap so I bought it. I just rediscovered and want to restore it but I wan to know Who the maker is and if it is really worth restoringimage.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpgi don't know if it shows in the pictures but it looks like it is stamped with "superior casp steel"
 
Cast steel puts it in a league that is inferior to forged steel but it does have the phantom bevels on the blade that seems to be unique to 'made in USA' axes. No obvious maker stamp reduces it's value/collectibility by a wide margin. But, you know, if the price was right and it appeals to you then it's as good a starter as any.
You can ultimately better appreciate top quality by experiencing lesser grades. Guaranteed though it'll cut trees and chop wood. You'll never get first hand experience otherwise.
Shine it up (sharpen the blade!) and learn to hang (re-haft) it properly. There is a learning curve to all this that requires rudimentary tools, lots of time and very little money.
Some of us would rather that folks learned and practiced on frugal items than run out and frivolously buy a $200 boutique axe which they'll never appreciate, know how to maintain nor ever really use.
Good luck to you man!
 
300Six said:
Cast steel puts it in a league that is inferior to forged steel...
Click to expand...

I don't know about this head, but usually when you see old items marked "cast steel" they aren't talking about the tool being cast to shape. They mean the steel itself was heated high enough in a crucible to turn molten and float out impurities & get mixed. This was the highest grade steel of that era, since lesser steel made from blooms could be worked to refine it into shear steel and double shear steel, but it still wasn't as consistent as the cast stuff. Essentially, all steel today is "cast" at the foundry by melting it in huge vats. In many cases, antique cast steel is superior to modern steel, since it didn't have recycled crap thrown in the mix. FWIW.
 
The term cast steel is misleading but it was a term used to describe essentially the sort of steel we are all familiar with today, when that process first came around. And, that it is high quality, and would have been "forged" by the axe manufacturer the same as any other axe. The first all steel heads made from steel that came from smelters who had the ability to get it hot enough to melt it and "cast" bars of it. Before that the heads would have been iron with a steel bit and that steel probably wouldn't have been as refined as cast steel. We call it crucible steel. It is not cast in the way we think of now.

ETA: simultaneous posts! Good post possum.
 
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Great info - that means that the head must be fairly old. Late 1800s? Early 1900s? A nice conversation piece.
 
Well! If in fact 'cast steel' implies the improved technology origin of bar stock that was then used to hammer or drop 'forge' heads (rather than the pre-1900 era technology of wrought iron heads with a steel blade insert) then this ought to be welcome news for Spartanwarrior.
Post a shot of the entire head (both sides and an end view) so that folks can have a look at the condition (ie wear) of the blade on this thing.
 
Many times it will say "warranted" after cast steel. This just means that the maker will stand behind it. Not that it would necessarily be superior to a non warranted axe, but probably is.
As others have stated cast steel is a good thing.
 
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